Translating Awareness into Action: Responses to Transnational Repression in Canada and the United Kingdom

Transnational repression was a central topic in Canada’s recent federal elections. Just days before the voting on April 28, a government task force revealed that the Chinese government was carrying out a smear campaign against a candidate who was critical of Beijing, portraying him as an international fugitive. This bombshell official warning came after several other candidates withdrew from the elections amid allegations that they had endorsed extraterritorial interference and intimidation of Canadian residents by the governments of China and India. The government of the United Kingdom (UK), a close ally of Canada, is also being forced to reckon with transnational repression. Reports of “unofficial police service stations” set up by the Chinese government, combined with lingering shock over high-profile assassination plots orchestrated by the Kremlin, have motivated British authorities to devote increasing attention to extraterritorial violence and threats against diaspora communities.

Today, Freedom House released two reports that examine how the Canadian and UK governments are responding to transnational repression through their domestic and foreign policies. Our analysis shows that both countries have raised awareness of the issue through public inquiries and introduced accountability measures against perpetrator states. They could strengthen their responses by investing in community engagement initiatives, improving training programs for frontline law enforcement officers, and designating a government point person or office to coordinate efforts across different agencies. As authoritarian states continue to reach beyond their own borders to stifle dissent, democratic governments should do more to ensure that everyone living on their territory can exercise their fundamental freedoms.

Responding in real time

Since Freedom House published its original case studies on these two countries in 2022, both the British and Canadian governments have made strides in recognizing the danger that transnational repression poses to diaspora groups.

In 2022, British officials established the Defending Democracy Taskforce. It includes transnational repression as part of its mandate and is supposed to foster interagency collaboration and engage the public. More recently, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights began an inquiry on transnational repression in January 2025, allowing Iranian and Hong Kong activists, among others, to offer insights on the UK government’s approaches to countering violence against exiled dissidents.

The Canadian government similarly initiated a public inquiry into foreign interference in 2024, and it devoted significant attention to the problem of transnational repression. Individuals from China, India, Iran, and Russia were invited to testify about the harassment they and their relatives have experienced. This participation by victims put a human face on the problem and underscored the everyday effects of such authoritarian tactics.

Ottawa and London have also pursued accountability for transnational repression through criminal charges and foreign policy measures. Following the June 2023 murder of a Sikh activist in British Columbia, then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canadian security agencies had evidence linking the Indian government to the crime. Later, Ottawa expelled a top Indian intelligence agent and six other Indian diplomats for not cooperating with the investigation. Police arrested four individuals in connection with the crime. In 2018, London had banished 23 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal by Russian operatives in England. Beyond diplomatic expulsions, the UK has sanctioned several members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who were purportedly involved in plots targeting UK-based Iranian journalists and dissidents. Such sanctions and expulsions reaffirm democratic governments’ commitment to defending diaspora communities and upholding their own national sovereignty.

Room for improvement

The tactics of transnational repression vary, and communities and activists may experience them in unique ways. Public inquiries, arrests, diplomatic expulsions, and sanctions are all appropriate responses by democratic governments. But greater attention should be given to the specific needs of vulnerable communities, with the aim of ensuring their resilience in the face of sustained threats.

In recent months, Canadian authorities have begun arranging by-invitation workshops with diaspora groups across the country to inform them about available resources and ways to report incidents of transnational repression. These meetings play an important role in developing trusted networks, as they bring community members together with representatives from different government agencies and police forces. As a next step, the Canadian government should empower diasporas by making funding available to them and to human rights organizations, so that they can develop customized toolkits for addressing the kinds of transnational repression they encounter regularly, which may include digital harassment or coercion by proxy—the application of pressure via family members still living in the country of origin.

British and Canadian lawmakers have addressed some requests made by affected communities, recently passing legislation that criminalized certain acts performed on behalf or for the benefit of a foreign entity. Criminalization not only expands avenues for prosecution but also brings public attention to the issue, offering another opportunity to engage with communities. But governments should do more to prepare local law enforcement agencies to respond to incidents of transnational repression, given that police are often the first point of contact for victims.

In the UK, people are advised to call the police in case of emergency, but some individuals experiencing transnational repression have said officers are unfamiliar with the phenomenon and may even suggest that activists and journalists censor themselves to avoid targeting. In a positive step, Security Minister Dan Jarvis told Parliament in March 2025 that all 45 territorial police forces in the UK would receive training on how to deal with “state threats,” including transnational repression. The government also recently launched a website with directions to the public on how and where incidents of transnational repression should be reported. While Canada’s foreign interference inquiry called for training for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police—a federal police force—on recognizing transnational repression, this recommendation did not extend to local law enforcement agencies that are often first to the scene of an emergency. Training and awareness are important in mitigating the threat posed by transnational repression.

More broadly, democratic governments that aim to implement comprehensive policy responses to transnational repression should consider creating a dedicated point person or office that can act as a trusted contact for communities, liaise with various government agencies, and take responsibility for progress on this issue. In the UK, the person or office in question could be appointed under the auspices of the existing Defending Democracy Taskforce. In Canada, work on transnational repression has been taken up by the National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator, a position created in 2023 and housed in the Department of Public Safety. In the coming months, Canadian authorities should raise public awareness about the coordinator’s work and systematize that office’s engagement with the public.

Democracies are making important advances in recognizing the threat posed by transnational repression. It is now time to pivot from raising awareness to building resilience among targeted communities and empowering all people living in democratic countries to freely exercise their rights.