It can be a little difficult to keep track of the various investigations and inquiries into foreign interference in Canadian elections, particularly by China.
Ottawa’s latest growth industry was created largely by a series of confidential leaks published in the Globe and Mail and then Global News that described attempts by the Chinese government to interfere in the last two elections and put the Liberal party back in power, albeit as a minority government.
First, a report by a group of senior civil servants concluded that China, Russia and Iran attempted to interfere with the 2019 and 2021 federal elections but failed.
Former Governor General David Johnston then reviewed the body of evidence that led to the leak. Johnston resigned before completing his investigation after the opposition argued that his assessment was not independent because of his close ties to the Trudeau family. But the preliminary report concluded that foreign powers “are undoubtedly attempting to influence Canadian candidates and voters.” But Johnston added that after reviewing it all, “we find that some of the leaked material, which raised legitimate questions, was misinterpreted in some media reports, perhaps because of this lack of context.”
In late March, a parliamentary committee authorized to investigate classified information submitted a report on election interference to the government. A censored, public version of its findings has yet to be released.
And a month ago, a public inquiry into interference, reluctantly set up by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after repeated urging from the opposition, said in its first report that there was no evidence that the last two elections were interfered with. But it also noted that “some Canadians have now lost faith in our democratic process,” adding that “this is perhaps the greatest damage suffered by Canada as a result of foreign interference.”
A redacted report released this week by an independent watchdog looked at the issue from a different perspective: the National Security Intelligence Review Agency, which examined how Canada’s intelligence agencies and government used information about Chinese election interference.
One perhaps surprising finding is that much of the material never reached Trudeau or his cabinet ministers.
The committee found several obstacles. Inside the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), it found the intelligence agency faced a dilemma.
“On the one hand, information about foreign election interference was a priority for the government, and CSIS focused its collection efforts on investigating foreign political interference,” the report said. “On the other hand, CSIS was sensitive to the possibility that the collection and dissemination of election information could itself be interpreted as a form of election interference.”
But even when it tried to present the materials to the government, the reports were not always well received. When CSIS prepared two briefs on Chinese election interference in 2021, the investigative body concluded that the national security intelligence adviser (a civil servant, not a political figure, who changed several times that year) decided that the reports’ contents were little more than “standard diplomatic activity summaries.” The reports were not given to the prime minister or cabinet.
“What’s really surprising is that the kinds of reports that didn’t get to the prime minister are exactly the ones that should have got to him,” Wesley Walke, who studies Canada’s intelligence system at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, told me. “I think this points to something seriously wrong with the Canadian system.”
Work said this situation has arisen in part because intelligence agencies have traditionally tried to pass on almost every bit of information they have, rather than placing an emphasis on analytical reporting. He said these little “tips” shouldn’t be passed on to politicians, but their prevalence seems to be hindering analytical and strategic reporting as well.
“These types of strategic assessments are exactly what the UK, Australia and the US do in their intelligence activities,” he said, “but we don’t seem to be very good at it. This is a problem that needs to be solved.”
He added that responsibility for the corrections rests with senior levels of the civil service, not with the intelligence agencies.
The report, released this week, did not say what specifically China did or attempted to do in the past two elections, but warned that the intelligence “does not constitute evidence that the activities described took place or were conducted in the manner suggested by the sources.”
Work noted that Judge Marie-Josée Hogue, presiding over the hearing, had been careful to avoid commenting on the veracity of the leaked information, and said he did not expect that to change in the coming months.
“So we don’t know any more than that and we probably never will,” he said.
Trans Canada
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A proposal to build a private spa on government land on Toronto’s waterfront is sparking a debate over the role of public space.
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To protect Banff National Park’s forests, Parks Canada is currently logging much of it.
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Sarah McLachlan retired from music in 2008 to become a single father raising two young children, but now she’s touring with a full band for the first time in a decade. Her voice hasn’t always cooperated with her return to the stage.
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In Quebec’s Magdalen Islands, Richard Rubin writes in Travel, “even though there are a lot of people around, it never seems very crowded.”
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Film critic Lisa Kennedy said Toronto director D.W. Waterson’s queer high school film “Backspot” starts off “nervously and wobbly” but ultimately “lands the spot.”
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austin was educated in Toronto and now lives in Ottawa, where he has reported on Canada for The New York Times for more than 20 years. Follow him on Bluesky. @ianausten.bsky.social
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