Former Privy Council clerk says foreign interference law can be drafted and passed this year

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OTTAWA — A former clerk of the Privy Council told MPs that a model for legislation to fight foreign interference and to create a foreign agents registry is readily available already, and can be put in place relatively quickly. They just need to look overseas.

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Michael Wernick testified Tuesday before the House of Commons committee on procedure and House affairs about foreign interference in Canada’s elections in 2021 and 2019. His suggestion for dealing with foreign interference, responding to espionage in the digital age and creating a registry for foreign agents was to copy a British law.

Wernick suggested looking at the U.K.’s National Security Bill to help address many of the issues Canada is facing.

“What I would recommend to you is go to Google, get the U.K. National Security Bill, which is before the U.K. Parliament right now, and copy and paste it and bring it to Canada,” he said.

Wernick, who left the job as the country’s top bureaucrat four years ago, said he couldn’t recall many of the details around discussions on foreign interference when he was in his position. But, he generally encouraged MPs to look forward at ways to protect the next election, rather than worry about past ones.

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What I would recommend to you is go to Google, get the U.K. national security bill … and copy and paste it and bring it to Canada.

Former Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick

“One of the things that would probably reassure Canadians about the health of their democracy is to see the political parties working together to bring in foreign interference legislation,” he said.

“There’s no reason in a minority Parliament that legislation couldn’t be tabled, studied, debated, amended and passed before Christmas.”

The U.K. government introduced the National Security Bill last June and it has since worked its way through almost every stage of the legislative process. The British House of Lords recommended changes, which the government is now considering, but it could soon become law.

The new bill creates legal definitions for foreign interference, including that the person charged must set out to have a certain impact, like influencing an election. It also states that the person must do this through illegitimate means, such as coercion or manipulation, and must have done so at the behest of a foreign power. If an accused meets all three of those tests, he could face up to 14 years in prison.

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Wernick said creating a legal definition for foreign interference is an important first step, because it is not otherwise defined in law.

“It’s different than espionage, treason, sabotage, deception, disinformation.” He said. “British law and Australian law actually create definitions of foreign interference.”

The U.K. bill would make it an offence to work for the benefit of a foreign intelligence agency and creates offences for giving trade secrets to foreign powers. It would also create a foreign agent registry requiring anyone working to exert influence on behalf of a foreign power to register.

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Daniel Jean, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, told MPs that things have changed and protecting trade secrets and research at universities can be just as important to a country like Canada.

“The crown jewels used to be in the government, so our security agencies were all trying to protect that. Nowadays the targets are outside government, so the national agency needs to adapt to that,” he said.

Jean also strongly encouraged MPs to rewrite the CSIS act, the legislation governing Canada’s spy service, which hasn’t been changed since 1984.

The crown jewels used to be in the government … Nowadays the targets are outside government, so the national agency needs to adapt to that.

Daniel Jean, former national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

The U.K. bill has stirred objections from news publishers who initially feared it might prevent government whistleblowers from coming forward. It also created concerns that legitimate activities by foreign diplomats could be caught up in the law.

The bill has been revised several times to address those issues.

Wernick told MPs they could use the bill as a draft and work toward a Canadian example.

“If you work together, you could use the British law as a first draft. You would be able to resolve these issues with a made-in-Canada model in a matter of months,” he said. “There are 39 million Canadians. There are only 338 of you who get to write laws.”

Twitter: RyanTumilty
Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com