ANALYSIS: Is the New Foreign Interference Act an Adequate Response to Beijing’s Meddling?

The federal government’s foreign interference bill has caught the most attention for creating a foreign agent registry and allowing the nation’s intelligence agency to share information with non-federal entities. But Bill C-70 proposes a host of other changes, which those who deal with foreign interference issues on a regular basis praise as valuable. There are, however, some key limitations to some of the provisions in the bill compared to what allied countries have, legal experts say. As well, security experts warn that the bill alone can’t be the government’s sole response to the serious threat of interference by the Chinese regime, as that requires a fundamental shift in government approach beyond mere new legislation and tweaks to the Criminal Code....