Researchers behind a brand new report on transnational repression are warning Canada must not be “naïve” because it seeks higher relations with China, which stays a top perpetrator in intimidating and harassing dissidents abroad.
The report by the Montreal Institute for Global Security (MIGS) called transnational repression “one of the vital serious yet least understood threats to security and democracy in Canada,” and said China stays a pacesetter in such efforts.
It cited several examples, including so-called “police stations” and online influence campaigns targeting Chinese Canadian diaspora communities. Families still living in China have been threatened, the report adds, and girls have been targeted with sexual AI deepfakes.
Speaking at a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday to mark the discharge of the report, its authors said they recognize the importance of diversifying Canada’s economic relationships in response to U.S. tariffs, but that it shouldn’t come on the expense of security.
They acknowledged India, with which Ottawa can be in search of to repair trade and diplomatic ties, as one other example.
“We must not put ourselves in agreements that might put our residents in peril,” said Kyle Matthews, executive director of MIGS.
“We’ve to maintain our eyes open, and we are able to’t close our eyes to the authoritarian threat that China represents, and still is. As most of the countries all over the world that cope with transnational repression will inform you, China is one among the largest players, if not the largest player.”
The report comes a month after Prime Minister Mark Carney travelled to China and struck agreements on trade, business and travel that he said would forge a “recalibrated” relationship after years of diplomatic strain.
On Sunday, China announced it was dropping its visa requirement for Canadian tourists and business visitors, a move that those behind the report said should be met with caution.
“We should always not for a moment think that Canadian residents travelling to China usually are not under threat of being monitored,” Matthews said.
Marie Lamensch, MIGS’ global affairs director and the report’s co-author, said it should be essential for Canada to take care of its own visa requirement for Chinese travellers with a purpose to ensure agents of the Chinese Communist Party aren’t coming to intimidate Canadians.
Co-author Phil Gurski, a former analyst for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), said the agency’s security screening branch should play a job as well.
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“If there are visitors coming from the People’s Republic of China, they must be vetted through CSIS, which has its own intelligence sources, has alliances with its counterparts all over the world,” he said. “And if CSIS comes up against information that indicates any person isn’t being truthful or forthcoming of their background or their intentions on coming to Canada, they must be denied entry.
“There’s no right to come back to Canada. It’s a privilege.”
What other threats does Canada face?
The report makes clear that China isn’t the one transnational repression threat that Canada faces.
It cites several examples of Russian, Indian and Iranian attempts to stifle dissent abroad, while also highlighting lesser-known threats by Algeria and Rwanda towards their diasporas in Canada.
Several Global News investigations into Indian and Iranian repression are cited within the report.
Those investigations highlighted violent threats faced by Iranian dissidents and Sikh nationalist activists in Canada — most notably the alleged involvement by India’s government within the 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
Earlier Tuesday, Global News revealed that tons of of foreign residents are being investigated by Canadian immigration authorities in B.C. alone for his or her alleged involvement in a wave of Indian gang-led extortion crimes, mainly against Canadians of Sikh background.
The MIGS report also cites Global News’ reporting on a 2024 warning from Canada and its Five Eyes intelligence partners that China and Russia are targeting civil society groups like journalists and non-profit activist organizations online.
It says countries like China and India also steadily task diplomatic staff with carrying out repression efforts abroad.
The report’s authors said transnational repression is “a widespread phenomenon” and “a threat that’s increasing” and “becoming more pronounced,” with several countries pursuing it at different degrees.
“I even have spoken to Iranian Canadians who often receive threats to not raise what’s happening in Iran here in Canada, to not protest against the regime,” Gurski said, citing the recent anti-government protests in that country that were met with a deadly crackdown.
“I even have a former colleague, a really senior Saudi intelligence official I met a few years ago, and a Saudi hit squad was sent to Canada within the late 2010s to assassinate him as well for things he was saying against the Saudi regime.”
Lamensch noted even the specter of transnational repression has a chilling effect on democracy, with diaspora members increasingly unwilling to talk up against abuses at home or enter politics in Canada. They might even feel compelled to not vote in elections, she added.
The report steadily cites the recent public inquiry into foreign interference, which issued a call for presidency motion on transnational repression after hearing from diaspora communities, while noting the difficulty extends far beyond elections.
Among the many MIGS report’s recommendations are to quickly rise up Canada’s federal foreign influence transparency registry to raised track individuals who could also be involved in repression efforts. The registry was created by the federal government’s 2024 laws to deal with foreign interference but has yet to launch.
The Liberal government said last month it had chosen Anton Boegman, a former chief electoral officer of B.C., to guide the registry but his appointment should be approved by Parliament.
Simon Lafortune, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, told Global News the 2024 law requires the commissioner to be approved inside 30 days of the appointment, which might mean the House of Commons procedure committee and each chambers of Parliament have until Feb. 28 to accomplish that.
Questions on the registry’s opening were forwarded to Public Safety Canada.
The MIGS report also calls on Ottawa to supply more resources and training to agencies just like the RCMP and municipalities to acknowledge and reply to transnational repression, enhance public education and communications about such efforts, and improve international cooperation.
Last 12 months, the Canada-led G7 issued its first-ever leaders’ statement on transnational repression that acknowledged the growing threat and committed to constructing a worldwide resilience and response framework with measures to combat it.
A so-called digital transnational repression detection academy was launched in Toronto last fall, which goals to coach participants from across the G7 to discover and counter digital and AI-led surveillance, manipulation and harassment attempts.
The U.S., which holds the G7 presidency this 12 months, cut funding last 12 months for U.S. State Department programs that partnered with organizations like Freedom House to watch transnational repression and develop tools to confront it.
“We’d like to have more funds coming to Canadian civil society groups to do the research that is not any longer being done in Washington,” Matthews said. “So that is a possibility for Canada, with France, Germany, Italy, its other G7 partners, to make this each a foreign policy priority and a domestic priority.”
Lafortune said Anandasangaree’s office would take the time to check the MIGS report and its recommendations before commenting further.