Canada’s new foreign agents database has received just 30 registrations

Canada’s new foreign influence commissioner says only 30 people have disclosed working for foreign governments or foreign principals with his office as of Tuesday.

That’s a far cry from the roughly 2,422 foreign agents Public Safety Canada has estimated are active in Canada, raising questions from opposition MPs about how effective the Liberals’ registration scheme will be.

The registry of foreign influence activities was created by the Liberal government in response to concerns about foreign governments and entities covertly meddling in domestic politics. It allows people or organizations in Canada doing legitimate work with foreign countries to publicly disclose those activities.

But as of the Oct. 3 deadline, there were only two names on the public registry, and roughly 30 more being vetted by Foreign Influence Commissioner Anton Boegman’s office.

Conservative MP Michael Cooper noted that, if Public Safety Canada’s estimates were accurate, that would mean just one per cent of foreign agents complied with the law.

“This is a complete and utter failure,” Cooper told reporters after the meeting.

“And it’s deeply concerning, because the very point of the registry is to provide sunlight and transparency. And what we have is Canadians who are being left in the dark about persons who are engaging with public officials, engaging in political and governmental processes on behalf of foreign actors.”

Under opposition questioning, Boegman noted that the requirement to register with his office is new. Now that the deadline to register has passed, Boegman said he was focused on raising awareness and encouraging voluntary compliance with the registration scheme.

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“We’re really working to communicate to people so that they have a good understanding of what the requirements are. We’re working with many different sectors across Canada. So we’re going to look at what we have,” Boegman told Global News.

“We’re going to look at where, if we need to do more on the outreach side, and we’re going to try to make sure that the register is capturing the activities that it needs to capture.”

Failing that, Boegman noted that his office does have “teeth” — including imposing monetary penalties of up to $1 million — to ensure foreign agents register with his office.

In January, Public Safety Canada published an analysis about the new foreign registration requirements, noting that it would apply to individuals and entities that “enter into arrangements with a foreign principal … for the purpose of conducting influence activities targeting Canada’s political or governmental processes.”

Those “influence activities” can be perfectly legal and above-board, such as traditional lobbying. Foreign “principals” is broadly defined, and can mean states or economic entities.

Based on a similar scheme already in place in Australia, the federal government estimated that 2,422 entities (872 individuals and 1,550 businesses) would register with Boegman’s office.

Patrick Lennox, a former RCMP intelligence analyst, told Global News that the number of registrants so far seemed “surprisingly low.”

“I thought that the thresholds for signing up were actually themselves pretty low. So most people would have had to if they had ongoing relationships with foreign states, including allied states,” Lennox said in an interview.

“I think maybe it’s just off to a slow start and people are not clear on the reporting requirements and need to kind of get their paperwork in order.”

Lennox noted that the foreign influence registry may take time to be integrated into the wider Canadian security and intelligence community, but there are opportunities —through working with agencies like the RCMP and CSIS — to help fill the gaps.

“(The office) has to find its way in terms of information sharing with CSIS and with the RCMP and with other agencies in Canada to figure out, okay, are we missing anybody here?,” said Lennox, who has been writing on foreign interference and Alberta separatist movements.

“What do we know from the intelligence side of things that doesn’t align with what’s been proactively reported?”

Boegman is Canada’s first foreign influence commissioner, a position ultimately created after a flurry of media reporting in 2023 and 2024 about foreign countries allegedly attempting to covertly meddle in Canadian political affairs.

The articles detailed how adversarial foreign countries — particularly China and India — have allegedly engaged in the transnational repression of diaspora communities in Canada, including assassination plots, as well as allegations of funneling money or influence into Canadian politics behind the scenes.

Foreign interference is not new. But in the wake of those stories, it was thrust to the forefront of Canadian national security discourse. The then-Trudeau government launched a public inquiry, led by Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue, former attorney general of Canada.

The Hogue inquiry found that while foreign interference did not change the outcomes of federal elections in 2019 and 2021, it nevertheless undermined some voters’ rights and presents a significant threat to Canadian democratic institutions.