OTTAWA — Canada’s deputy prime minister says the finding that some Canadian members of Parliament were “wittingly” helping foreign state actors is “concerning,” but she trusts that law enforcement will do its job.
Chrystia Freeland’s comments come after a committee of MPs and senators released a report Monday that said intelligence shows foreign actors worked to foster relationships with parliamentarians.
Witting. That’s the word in the latest report on foreign interference that changes things.
In the latest review, we don’t just see cases of messing with political messages in a local election or allegations of interference in a nomination race, such as that of then-Liberal, now-independent MP Han Dong.
Now, a committee of MPs has reported that some of their colleagues in politics have known they were helping a foreign state or being helped by one. It suggests that foreign interference sometimes takes two to tango, through a co-opting of Canadian parliamentarians who might get a political benefit from it.
The Liberal government has known since 2018 that it needed to take foreign interference more seriously but failed to recognize the gravity of the threat, says a damning new report from one of the country’s intelligence oversight bodies.
“The slow response to a known threat was a serious failure and one from which Canada may feel the consequences for years to come,” says a report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), tabled Monday in the House of Commons.
“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.”
OTTAWA—Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are offering to fast track Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s legislation to shore up Canada’s defences against foreign interference during elections in a rare show of cross-partisan spirit, placing renewed pressure on the Liberals to convince Canadians they are serious about the problem.
The bill was unveiled to much fanfare earlier this month, but with its provisions not set to come into force until a year after the bill became law, and given the standard length of the legislative process, criticisms surfaced quickly that it would be too late to have new safeguards in place for the next federal election, scheduled for 2025.
The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have forced a meeting of a House of Commons committee to investigate the Liberal government’s refusal to turn over cabinet documents on foreign interference to a public inquiry into foreign meddling in Canadian democracy.
The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that the federal government is facing pushback from Justice Marie-Josée Hogue for citing cabinet confidentiality in redacting records provided to the public inquiry investigating interference by China and other hostile states in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
My Theory: People have tuned out the Foreign Interference inquiry knowing that those who perpetrated these traitorous acts will suffer exactly ZERO consequences.
Two B.C. businesses have been ordered to cease operations by the Canadian government on national security grounds.
Ottawa has ordered the dissolution of Bluevec Technologies Inc. and Pegauni Technology Inc. following a national security review, said Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on Friday.
Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s report into foreign interference last week contained a warning: party nominations can be a “gateway” for foreign interference.
That’s because parties are largely left to set the rules or enforce them — or not — free of the kind of independent oversight given to general elections.
There was also the concern that emerged over the course of Hogue’s inquiry that security agencies like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) may not be as familiar with the, let’s say questionable tactics employed by domestic political actors in hard-fought nomination campaigns.
It’s 2024, and Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has tabled the foreign-interference bill that would have been so useful in 2019.
A new offence for foreign interference, with serious jail time as the penalty, would have been in effect before the last election. A foreign registry would not just be on the drawing board, but in place and working years before the 2025 election. Now it will almost certainly come after the vote.
OTTAWA — The federal government tabled a bill on Monday to implement a package of reforms to better combat foreign interference, including the much-awaited foreign agent registry and changes to legislation surrounding Canada’s spy agency.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc introduced An Act Respecting Countering Foreign Interference. The bill was put on the House of Commons’ notice paper in the hours following Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s interim report on foreign interference.
OTTAWA – Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue concluded in her first report released Friday that the 2019 and 2021 federal elections were “tainted” by the “stain” of foreign interference, though it ultimately did not affect the overall result.
Her report also points to five countries — China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran — who are key threat actors against Canada and details some of their methods used to influence foreign countries.
Foreign interference in 2019 and 2021 undermined the right of Canadian voters to have an electoral system “free from coercion or covert influence” and may have affected results in a small number of ridings, a public inquiry has concluded in the first of two reports.
While foreign meddling did not alter the overall outcome of those elections, Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, a justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal, issued a call to action Friday for the government to vigorously enact measures to tackle this “malign” threat to Canadian democracy.
The federal government says that it will be providing Canada’s spy agency with hundreds of millions of dollars over the next eight years, including money to enhance its presence in Toronto in the face of mounting global threats.
In the budget announced by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Tuesday, the government said that the country “continues to be targeted by hostile actors, which threaten our democratic institutions, diaspora communities, and economic prosperity.”
We suffer so much diversity we’re foreigners in our own land.
A document presented to the Foreign Interference Commission says Canadian intelligence suggests Chinese officials may have transferred around $250,000 to “threat actors” in Canada in late 2018 or early 2019.
On Thursday, the commission discussed an unclassified summary of intelligence held by security and intelligence departments and agencies – primarily the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
More than 100 Iranian-Canadians sent a letter to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday calling for an investigation of the party’s handling of allegations of Iranian regime interference in an Ontario riding nomination race.
Those who signed the letter include academics, physicians and people who lost loved ones on Flight PS752 when it was shot down by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2020.
Kaveh Shahrooz, an outspoken critic of Iran’s regime, announced on social media last month that he was withdrawing from the Conservative nomination contest in the federal riding of Richmond Hill. He said he faced “unprecedented” foreign interference and intimidation during his campaign.
BRAMPTON, Ont.—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference had gotten off to “a very bad start” as a human rights group withdrew its participation and the Tories were denied full standing.
The inquiry, focused on probing alleged election meddling, concluded its first set of public hearings last week.
