Former Canadian Canadian Security Intelligence Service boss Richard Fadden in a file photo. (Mathew Little/The Epoch Times)
The federal government needs to develop a confidential system for reporting transnational repression to help curb Beijing’s intimidation of people in Canada, a former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) says.
Former CSIS director Richard Fadden said people targeted by foreign governments, including Beijing, may be afraid to make formal complaints, leaving authorities without the information they need to respond.
Fadden said that, during his time in government, some people were willing to discuss their experiences privately with him but were reluctant to make a formal complaint.
“People were happy to talk to me about it, but they were not prepared to do it formally, because they were worried,” Fadden said in an interview with Epoch Times sister media NTD at the Vancouver International Security Summit on Oct. 28.
Fadden previously served as national security adviser to the prime minister, deputy minister of national defence, deputy minister of citizenship and immigration, and deputy minister of natural resources, among other roles within the federal government.
He said Ottawa needs to develop a “relationship of trust” with individuals who are potentially targeted by transnational repression and “find a way to let them tell … the government quietly about what’s going on.” He said people may fear that their contact with police will eventually become known.
“Finding a system, finding procedures that are of a nature to protect the individual from the interference being seen is the best way to do it,” Fadden said.
The federal government currently advises the public to contact their local police department, the RCMP, or CSIS to report transnational repression.
Police officers stand guard outside the Canadian Embassy in Beijing on Jan. 27, 2019. Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
Concerns about transnational repression and foreign interference by China have intensified in Canada in recent years, with a public inquiry established in September 2023 to look into the topic extensively. The final report of the Foreign Interference Commission found China to be “the most active perpetrator” targeting Canada, and identified transnational repression as “a genuine scourge.”
“They target Canadian diaspora communities and attempt to influence voting, silence dissent, amplify preferred state narratives, control public opinion and sow discord,” the report said, adding that transnational repression is a “serious” problem with “harmful” impacts that the government needs to “meaningfully respond to.”
Bill C-219
Fadden said public discussion of transnational repression is important and noted that Bill C-219, which passed in the House of Commons in October, has “given the subject publicity.”
Bill C-219, titled the Sergei Magnitsky International Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Act, was introduced in September 2025 by Conservative MP James Bezan. It passed third reading in the House on Oct. 8 and must pass third reading in the Senate and receive royal assent before it becomes law.
The bill aims to expand Canada’s ability to sanction foreign officials and other individuals found to be involved in transnational repression, human rights abuses, and corruption.
Fadden said that while the bill is important, it won’t solve the problem of transnational repression entirely. “It’s one amongst any number of tools,” he said.
When authorities identify someone engaging in transnational repression, Fadden said, they should pursue prosecution if a law has been broken, and if the individual is not Canadian, “we should find a way of getting them to leave the country.”
MPs from across the House of Commons have urged the government to take greater action to curb transnational repression after a man wearing a jacket bearing a patch of a Chinese flag attacked Falun Gong practitioners while they were standing on a public sidewalk outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on Sept. 22.
Canada and other G7 countries said in a joint statement last June that transnational repression is “an aggressive form of foreign interference whereby states or their proxies attempt to intimidate, harass, harm or coerce individuals or communities outside their borders.”
CSIS defined transnational repression in its 2024 public report as “Any efforts undertaken by a foreign state, whether directly or indirectly, to intimidate, influence and/or exact reprisal against individuals or groups living outside their borders.”
The intelligence service said this includes, but is not limited to, “acts such as extrajudicial killing, physical assault, unlawful abduction, physical and online surveillance, and obstruction,” and could also include “pressuring or leveraging a targeted individual’s relatives in a foreign state as a means to influence/coerce them.”
Referring to the arrest in July of a Canadian NATO intern charged with espionage who had been vetted by the Canadian government, Fadden said it is “absolutely impossible” to be entirely effective in doing security clearances.
“One of the challenges of doing security clearances is that you have to be in somebody’s database in order to trigger a red flag,” he said.
Fadden noted that if someone has no criminal record, no issues with their financial history, and hasn’t been on CSIS’s radar, “it’s very difficult to deny them a security clearance.”
The only other way to find out about an individual’s espionage activities, he said, is if someone reports on them.
“You have to be in a database if you’re going to get caught,” he added.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said in early October that several agencies were conducting internal investigations in response to the case of the NATO intern. The case involves a Canadian woman of Chinese origin who was serving at NATO’s military headquarters in Belgium when she was arrested on espionage charges on July 24.
Belgium’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office said the woman was “suspected of spying on behalf of a third country and of being a member of a criminal organisation.” The woman had worked in various Canadian government departments and organizations before going to Belgium to work for NATO.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said in early August that Canada had been involved in the investigation “from the start.”
Matthew Horwood and Paul Rowan Brian contributed to this report.