Don't equate foreign meddling efforts with success: national security adviser

Don’t equate foreign meddling efforts with success: national security adviser

OTTAWA — While foreign meddling takes place during Canadian elections, that doesn’t mean it works — a distinction the prime minister’s national security adviser tried to make clear  Tuesday at a federal inquiry into election interference.

A 2023 Canadian Security Intelligence Service memo tabled at the inquiry this week says state actors can interfere successfully in Canada because there are few legal or political consequences.

Foreign interference “is therefore low-risk and high-reward,” the service concludes in the heavily redacted document.

National security and intelligence adviser Nathalie Drouin took issue with the service’s characterization of the interference as successful, saying Canadians might mistakenly think foreign actors had an impact on Canada’s election results.

“We should not confuse the two,” she testified before the commission Tuesday. Drouin is also deputy clerk of the Privy Council, a position she held during the last general election.

“I think we have said, and we repeat, that (foreign interference) exists in Canada, and we have said also that we haven’t seen that those attempts and activities … had an impact in the two elections.”

The CSIS document was prepared as part of a briefing for the prime minister in response to media reports containing leaked intelligence about possible foreign meddling. Those media reports set off a groundswell of support for an inquiry into the integrity of Canadian elections.

The document asserted that China “clandestinely and deceptively” interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections.

It said Chinese activities in the two contests were focused largely on supporting those seen as pro-China or neutral on issues of interest to Beijing.

Senior bureaucrats did not find the activities in either election were serious enough to warrant notifying the public under a special protocol.

In private testimony last month to the commission, former Privy Council clerk Janice Charette spoke of a foreign interference concern that occurred during the 2021 election.

A public summary of the testimony, made public Tuesday, does not identify the concern.

The panel of five bureaucrats responsible for monitoring the election found it did not meet the threshold for a public announcement, but believed “that some mitigation was necessary,” the summary states.

In her capacity as clerk, Charette asked CSIS director David Vigneault “to come back to her with options and advice about what, if anything, could be done,” the summary adds.

“Ms. Charette and the CSIS director agreed upon a way forward to address the concern,” which was not raised directly with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the time.

Trudeau is expected to appear at the commission of inquiry Wednesday.

The hearings are part of the inquiry’s examination of possible foreign interference by China, India, Russia and others in the last two general elections.

An initial report of findings from the commission is due May 3.

The inquiry will then shift to broader policy issues, looking at the government’s ability to detect, deter and counter foreign interference. A final report is expected by the end of the year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2024.

Jim Bronskill and Laura Osman, The Canadian Press