Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar says the Liberal government needs to take “meaningful action” to combat transnational repression in Canada, through establishing the foreign interference registry and czar.

“They should actually start taking meaningful action about how transnational repression occurs in Canada,” Majumdar told The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet, NTD, on Dec. 1.

Majumdar made the remarks while attending a book launch event at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa on Dec. 1 for China scholar Charles Burton’s latest book, “The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security, and Sovereignty.”

China scholar Charles Burton’s new book, “The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security, and Sovereignty,” is seen at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa on Dec. 1, 2025. NTD/Annie Wu

Earlier this year, the leaders of the G7 countries signed a joint statement condemning transnational repression and pledging to support those who may be targets of this “aggressive form of foreign interference.”

Majumdar told NTD that the federal government needs to do more than sign statements like these, by also taking concrete action toward combatting transnational repression.

“There’s a lot of measures, actual meaningful things, that they should be doing rather than just signing fancy statements in some other country,” Majumdar said. He noted that there’s “a lot” of transnational repression happening in Canada and “we have to fight it tooth and nail.”

He said Canada needs a foreign interference czar to “go after the threat in our country, particularly by fake police stations, cultural groups that pretend to stand up for Chinese culture, but actually are using it to control Chinese people.”

Parliament passed Bill C-70, “An Act respecting countering foreign interference,” in June 2024. The legislation provided for the creation of a foreign interference registry of those working in Canada as agents on behalf of foreign governments, as well as the appointment of a foreign interference commissioner, or czar, following consultation with opposition parties.

Burton told MPs of the House of Commons procedure and house affairs committee on Nov. 27 that Public Safety Canada had indicated the registry would be operational by June this year. When that didn’t materialize, the public safety minister said in August that the commissioner would be appointed in September.

However, the registry still has yet to be set up and a commissioner has yet to be appointed. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told MPs of the foreign affairs committee on Nov. 27 that, as also stated by the public safety minister, the registry would be implemented by the end of the year.

Anand added that all diplomats must respect the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which states that diplomats can’t interfere in the internal affairs of host countries.

“We will never tolerate any form of foreign interference or meddling in our democracy,” Anand told MPs, adding that Canada was “showing leadership at a crucial time” by signing the joint statement with its G7 partners.

“There is no tolerance for foreign interference, including transnational repression targeting Canadians or individuals on Canadian soil.”

Garry Clement speaks to reporters at the book launch event for China scholar Charles Burton’s new book, “The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security, and Sovereignty,” at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa on Dec. 1, 2025. NTD/Annie Wu

‘Consequences’

Garry Clement, former national director of the RCMP’s proceeds-of-crime program, who also attended the book launch event, told NTD that Canada needs to apply the “necessary consequences” to transnational repression.

“You can’t just use words—there has to be some actions and there has to be some consequences, and that’s where, I think, Canada has fallen down,” Clement said. “We’ve never, ever applied the necessary consequences. Transnational repression is a horrid statement in the world today, and China is probably a leader in it, and we really have to hold them to account.”

Canada’s current legislation is not sufficient at combatting transnational repression, Clement added, noting he believes the federal government’s delay in implementing the foreign interference registry is due to pressure from China. “They don’t want to see us have this registry, but we need it,” he said.

Burton’s new book is published by Optimum Publishing International. Optimum’s CEO and publisher Dean Baxendale, who is also the CEO of the China Democracy Fund, told NTD at the Ottawa book launch that Canada signing the G7 statement is “symbolic in nature.”

He noted that he hopes the nations that signed onto it, including Canada, “put some legislation behind it and push back against China’s egregious human rights record.”

Baxendale also said that before Canada engages with the Chinese regime, the regime needs to “make serious commitments to human rights” and “stop oppressing and repressing the Chinese diaspora community around the world.”

China scholar Charles Burton speaks at a book launch event for his new book, “The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security, and Sovereignty,” at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa on Dec. 1, 2025. NTD/Annie Wu

‘Betrayal of Canada’

Human rights lawyer and advocate Alex Neve, who attended the Dec. 1 book launch, praised Burton’s new book for “conveying a strong message that we’ve really got it wrong.”

“Charles was always a clarion voice about the downside and the dangers of failing to put human rights at the heart of our relationship,” Neve told NTD. “I think he’s been proven to have been very accurate in that assessment, and his book captures that message. I hope it is one that policymakers across government will read and deliberate on very carefully.”

He said consecutive governments have failed to take the issue of Chinese transnational repression in Canada seriously, and failed to “consistently ensure that human rights were coming first” in Canada’s relationship with China.

“We’re finally on the cusp, perhaps, of starting to do so. We have legislation that has been passed, promising a foreign interference registry will be established here in Canada, but the government has been dragging its feet on that,” Neve added. “I think Charles’s book is an important reminder of how necessary that is, and that it needs to move forward without any further delay.”

Burton said at the Ottawa book launch that the work he does, analyzing what’s going on with China under the Chinese regime’s dictatorship, is “emotionally draining.”

“I do feel very saddened and disappointed by the greed and naivety of the co-opted elements of Canada’s Laurentian elite in their tacit consent for Xi Jinping’s infiltration of Canada, their callous acceptance of the Chinese Communist Party’s corrosive undermining of humanitarian law. It really effectively amounts to a betrayal of Canada,” Burton said.