Foreign Interference in Canadian Politics

"The slow response to a known threat was a serious failure and one from which Canada may feel the consequences for years to come."

"The implications of this inaction include the undermining of the democratic rights and fundamental freedoms of Canadians, the integrity and credibility of Canada's parliamentary process, and public trust in the policy decisions made by the government."

"India seeks to cultivate relationships with a variety of witting and unwitting individuals across Canadian society with the intent of inappropriately exerting India's influence across all orders of government, particularly to stifle or discredit criticism of the Government of India." 

"The committee has also seen troubling intelligence that some parliamentarians are, in the words of the intelligence services, 'semi-witting or witting' participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in our politics."

National Security Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) report

"A number of the things in the NSICOP report are already being enacted in Bill C-70, the legislation before the House to counter foreign interference."

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc

"Some of these [actions] may be illegal ... but they're unlikely to lead to criminal charges, because we're still not able to deal with this long-standing issue of protecting classified information sources and methods in judicial processes."

"The members were unanimously struck by these example. And all agreed unanimously, that the behaviours as described here are deeply unethical."

"And they're in breach of the oaths and affirmations that parliamentarians take."

Liberal MP David McGuinty, chair, NSICOP

A person enters the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, in Ottawa, Monday, April 8, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

 

It would appear, from a deep investigation into foreign interference in Canada's internal political affairs, that there are some Members of Parliament who  were identified as"wittingly assisting" foreign stat actors, post-election. The Liberal government has been notoriously slow to take remedial action, the conclusion of which is that Canada could become starkly aware of consequences in years to come, posits a new report by a panel of Members of Parliament tasked to focus on intelligence.

The National Security Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians revealed as well that both China and India sought an opportunity to interfere in Canada's internal affairs. Foreign interference tracked in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections saw that interference in play, but not limited to just those events, focusing as well on efforts to interfere in the country's democratic institutions to suit their purposes. It was the parliamentary panel's conclusion that the government's response to the issue has been laggardly.

Documents, some 33,000 pages of documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP and other departments focused on foreign interference to the tune of 33,000 pages that were scrutinized. Top-secret information minus redactions available for scrutiny by members of the committee. Their report affirmed that Canadians are broadly already aware through Canadian intelligence insiders having earlier learned that a former MP met with an intelligence official from another country, affirmed through media links. 

Previous reports viewed by the committee confirmed that China had interfered in individual ridings in the 2021 election, appearing to have spread misinformation about former Conservative MP Kenny Chin (within the Chinese voting community), successfully impeding his bid for re-election. Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole was also deleteriously affected by foreign interference that sought to target him in particular for his politics.

There was a example cited of a Member of Parliament who sought a meeting with a foreign intelligence officer. The head of NSICOP, a Liberal MP, claimed that irrespective of whether the issues involved can be dealt with criminally, all parties' MPs agreed that the actions of some members of Parliament in their cooperation with foreign powers was clearly unsupportable. Significant changes were called on by the committee to party nominations, a weak link in political process operations. 

A notable example cited was that the Liberal party permits non-citizens to vote in party nominations. No party, it seems, is more careless than that of the ruling Liberals, among which no party has outside oversight of their nominations through Elections Canada.

Unnamed Parliamentarians:

• Communicated frequently with foreign missions before or during a political campaign to obtain support from community groups or businesses to be mobilized by diplomatic missions;
• Accepted knowingly, or through willful blindness, funds or benefits from foreign missions or their proxies which have been layered or otherwise disguised to conceal their source; 
• Provided foreign diplomatic officials with privileged information on the work or opinions of fellow parliamentarians, knowing that such information would be used by those officials to inappropriately pressure parliamentarians to change their positions;
• Responded to the requests or direction of foreign officials to improperly influence parliamentary colleagues or parliamentary business to the advantage of a foreign state
  

A new parliamentary report paints a stark picture of foreign interference in Canadian politics, characterizing the government's response as a 'serious failure' that could impact the country for years to come.  CBC