The last Canadian elections, which once again brought Justin Trudeau’s liberal government to power, were targeted by foreign interference, a public inquiry concluded on Friday, ensuring however that this had not changed the result ballots.
“Foreign countries use a range of tactics to interfere with Canadian democracy”
“Acts of foreign interference were committed during the last two federal general elections, but they did not undermine the integrity of our electoral system, the strength of which has not been shaken,” said Marie- Josée Hogue, head of this commission on foreign interference. “The Liberal Party would have taken power with or without foreign interference in 2019 and 2021,” concludes this first progress report, published after 21 days of hearings with heads of intelligence agencies, senior officials and officials. Canadian political leaders.
For months, suspicions of Chinese interference in Canadian elections have put the government under pressure, and led to the launch in September of a public inquiry into the subject. The report released Friday documents these foreign maneuvers: “foreign countries use a range of tactics to interfere with Canadian democracy”, such as “paying bribes”, “blackmailing”, “uttering threats”, “offering financial support” in particular to political candidates, “launching cyberattacks” or even “carrying out disinformation campaigns”, it is thus written.
The commission indicates that Canadian intelligence considers that China is “by far the greatest threat to the Canadian electoral space.” These conclusions are “preliminary” and a final report is expected at the end of the year, in December. “We are not going to wait for the final report to continue to strengthen our measures,” reacted Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Security and Democratic Institutions, specifying that the government welcomed these initial conclusions.
Last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified before this commission, believing that the efforts his government had made to thwart attempts at interference had been crowned with success. China has always denied accusations of interference, against a backdrop of diplomatic tensions between the two countries.