Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I've been asked to focus my presentation on the implementation of the foreign influence transparency registry. This is a subject I've covered extensively—from my June 2015 Globe and Mail piece, “The murky world of Chinese influence”, to five commissioned reports for global think tanks since 2017. More recently, I've detailed these issues in my book, released last month, entitled The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada's Diplomacy, Security, and Sovereignty.
Civil society groups, particularly the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada Tibet Committee, have long lobbied for this registry. They viewed Australia's Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act 2018 as the model for what Canada could do, but the stakes are personal. Last December, Beijing sanctioned 20 Canadians associated with these groups, including me.
When Bill C-70 passed in June 2024, our reaction was enthusiastic. The Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China, chaired by Alex Neve and Cheuk Kwan, and the Canadian coalition for a foreign influence transparency registry, led by Gloria Fung, engaged constructively with Public Safety Canada.