The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warned on Monday that China and India could meddle in next month’s snap election to replace leftist former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
CSIS Deputy Director of Operations Vanessa Lloyd said the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is “highly likely to use A.I. enabled tools to attempt to interfere with Canada’s democratic process in this current election,” Reuters reported.
“We have also seen that the government of India has the intent and capability to interfere in Canadian communities and democratic processes,” Lloyd observed. She added that Russia and Pakistan were also potential sources of additional “foreign interference activities” in the coming vote.
Beijing has shown varying degrees of hostility toward Ottawa ever since Canadian authorities brought Chinese Communist Party (CCP) royalty and Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou into custody in December 2018 to face charges of sanctions evasion and wire fraud in the United States. China took several Canadians hostage in response and pressured Canada into releasing Meng from house arrest in 2021. Beijing released its Canadian hostages shortly afterward.
Chinese interference in Canadian elections – which, according to a CSIS investigation, often helped members of Trudeau’s Liberal Party win against opponents who were less friendly to China’s interests – was a major embarrassment for Trudeau. Among other tactics, Beijing allegedly coerced Chinese students in Canada to support Liberal candidates preferred by the CCP.
China-Canada tensions are running high at the moment. Last week, Ottawa condemned Beijing for executing four Canadians. And last month, a Canadian security task force detected “coordinated and malicious activity” from Chinese operatives targeting former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who was a top candidate to lead the Liberal Party at the time. The party ultimately chose central banker Mark Carney as its leader and candidate for prime minister.
New Delhi and Beijing have been engaged in a diplomatic feud since the murder of Sikh separatist activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June 2023. Trudeau publicly accused the Indian government of masterminding Nijjar’s assassination, although he later admitted he had no “hard evidence” to back up his accusations.
On Tuesday, a “source with top-secret clearance” told Canada’s Globe and Mail that CSIS believes Indian agents meddled in the 2022 election of Pierre Poilievre as leader of Canada’s Conservative Party. Poilievre was heavily favored to become the next prime minister until a Liberal polling surge after Trudeau’s resignation, driven in large part by President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, turned the race into a toss-up.
According to the Globe and Mail’s source, Indian agents were “involved in raising money and organizing within the South Asian community for Mr. Poilievre” but not in a “sweeping and highly organized way.” The source said CSIS has no evidence that Poilievre or members of his inner circle were aware of India’s actions. The Canadian intelligence service did not inform Poilievre of New Delhi’s activities because he chose not to obtain the necessary security clearance. Poilievre explained that he did not want a clearance because it could limit his ability to discuss and criticize the actions of Canada’s national government.
Canadian federal officials said on Monday that the standards for notifying the public about suspected election meddling attempts are very high because those reports could themselves influence voters.
“A public announcement could also inadvertently serve a foreign state’s goal to sow discord and discredit democracy,” observed Assistant Deputy Minister for Public Affairs Laurie-Anne Kempton.
Since 2019, Canada has invoked a “Critical Election Incident Public Protocol,” which establishes a panel of five senior officials to decide which election interference allegations should be made public. The panel also supervises federal efforts to combat “disinformation” during elections.
On Monday, Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault said he had asked social media companies to “support making this election a security election.”
“Hopefully they won’t have to intervene, but if there are issues, hopefully they will be true to their word,” he told reporters, per CBC News.
“I encourage Canadians to use Elections Canada as the authoritative source of information about the federal electoral process. I also encourage Canadians not to let their social media feed dictate what they read,” Perrault said.
One of the companies Perrault wrote to was Chinese-owned TikTok, a frequent subject of election meddling allegations. TikTok promised to step up its efforts to “safeguard” its platform during Canada’s snap election.
“We protect the integrity of elections by removing harmful misinformation about civic and electoral processes, partnering with fact-checkers to assess the accuracy of content, and labeling claims that can’t be verified,” TikTok said.
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