Five takeaways from the foreign-interference inquiry

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The final report from the foreign-interference inquiry finds a “very small number” of cases where foreign meddling may have influenced the outcome of nomination races or riding-level elections, but “no evidence to suggest that our institutions have been seriously affected.”

However, in her seven-volume report released Tuesday, Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Marie-Josée Hogue said the federal government has failed to take foreign interference seriously, and to act quickly or effectively respond to it.

“The government must step up its efforts in educating and informing the public about foreign interference,” she wrote. “So far, its efforts in this regard have been piecemeal and underwhelming.”

Her report raises the alarm on the insidious effect of disinformation campaigns on social media.

“It is no exaggeration to say that at this juncture, information manipulation (whether foreign or not) poses the single biggest risk to our democracy. It is an existential threat,” she wrote.

Here are five takeaways.

No treason among parliamentarians but concerning conduct

An explosive report released last spring by the all-party National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) said some current and former politicians were witting or unwitting pawns of hostile foreign states.

In the fallout of the report, the House of Commons asked Justice Hogue to deal with NSICOP’s findings. In her own report, she said she has not seen “any evidence of traitors in Parliament plotting with foreign states to act against Canada.”

There are a few instances of attempts to “curry favour with parliamentarians,” she said, but “the phenomenon remains marginal and largely ineffective.”

“While the states’ attempts are troubling and there is some concerning conduct by parliamentarians, there is no widespread alarm,” she concluded.

She also said the classified version of the NSICOP report did not name any parliamentarians, and that some of its findings contained inaccuracies and were more definitive than could be supported by the intelligence.

Six major instances of foreign interference in Canadian democracy

The federal government identified, for the inquiry, what it described as six “major instances of suspected foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic processes” since 2018.

Four of the six relate to foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. They include:

• The government of Pakistan tried to influence federal politics to further its own interests in Canada;
• An unidentified foreign government official was suspected of interference targeting a Liberal Party candidate;
• The People’s Republic of China “actively supported” a Liberal Party candidate in the 2019 Don Valley North nomination race that elected Han Dong. The interference included using a proxy agent — a third party who is not directly linked to a foreign embassy or government.
• The government of India is suspected of using proxy agents to “provide clandestine financial support to specific candidates from three political parties in a federal election.”

In her public report, Justice Hogue does not identify when the other two instances happened in the last six years, but she said they only came to light because the commission asked for the list to be compiled.

The first of those instances involves intelligence reports finding that an unidentified foreign government “undertook several actions, including interference” to reduce the election chances of a Liberal Party candidate.

“The activities of the foreign government likely extended beyond the election campaign and likely had a negative impact on the individual’s political career,” the report finds.

The foreign government is described as having made “aggressive efforts to thwart the candidate’s campaign.”

While information about the case was disseminated to public servants, it does not appear to have ever been shared at the political level, including with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. According to the report, the Prime Minister was astonished by the failure to share information and was concerned that he had not been briefed.

The inquiry’s public report includes much less information about the final major instance of foreign interference, only saying that it involved a former opposition parliamentarian “who is suspected of having worked to influence parliamentary business on behalf of a foreign government.”

‘No good reason’ for five-year delay in briefings to parliamentarians

Justice Hogue’s report details multiple failures to communicate information to parliamentarians affected by foreign interference or to act on intelligence as it was collected. The most public example of this involved Conservative MP Michael Chong. He and his family were targeted by a Chinese consular official in 2021, but the intelligence was not acted on and he was not informed for more than two years.

The change in the government’s approach to the case came after The Globe and Mail reported on the incident based on leaks of classified information in May, 2023. After the report, the official was expelled from Canada.

The failures came even as watchdogs were raising the alarm on the need to brief parliamentarians on foreign interference. Since 2018, NSICOP has been recommending that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and its partners create a plan to brief all parliamentarians on foreign interference.

In the wake of that recommendation, and a second one in 2019, Justice Hogue said CSIS began working on a plan to hold protective security briefings (PSBs). “But unfortunately, and for no good reason, these PSBs were not delivered until June 2024,” her report finds.

The report details four false starts in which memos asking Mr. Trudeau to approve the briefings never reached him. Still, she said CSIS began briefing MPs in high-priority ridings at risk of foreign interference in 2021. She said the Prime Minister and his officials agreed parliamentarians should receive briefings on the issue only after NSICOP’s 2024 spring report.

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Recommendations include changes to the Canada Elections Act

The report includes 51 recommendations for the federal government to better protect Canada from foreign interference. Justice Hogue said she believes about half of those could be implemented before the next federal election, but how remains unclear. Some of the recommendations would require legislative changes. The House of Commons is prorogued until March 24, however, and the opposition parties have promised to defeat the minority Liberals when the House returns.

The Liberal Party is also in the midst of a leadership race. Whoever wins the party’s leadership on March 9 will also become prime minister, and they could call a snap election rather than face defeat in Parliament.

Justice Hogue’s recommendations include creating a hotline for Canadians to report foreign interference, and a prohibition on allowing foreigners other than permanent residents to vote in nomination or leadership contests. The Liberal Party previously allowed non-permanent residents to vote in their contests, but the party created stricter rules for its current leadership race.

The report also recommends political parties be required to obtain declarations from their members that confirm their status as Canadian citizens or permanent residents, and that parties be obliged to maintain records of declarations and voting for a minimum of seven years.

The changes in who can participate in leadership and nomination races are part of a series of changes Justice Hogue recommends the government accept from the Chief Electoral Officer. Justice Hogue recommended the government should take up other Chief Electoral Officer recommendations, such as expanding bribery and intimidation prohibitions, and banning foreign entities from contributing to third parties for regulated activities.

Justice Hogue also said all political party leaders with a seat in the House of Commons should be encouraged to get their top secret security clearances as soon as possible once they become leaders. So far Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has refused to get his clearance.

Ottawa should also consider creating a national agency to monitor disinformation and misinformation that could affect the democratic process in Canada, Justice Hogue said in her report. She also proposed the federal government create a “duty to warn” policy, covering “credible threats of serious harm” that could potentially be attributable to a foreign entity. As well, she said MPs and senators should be warned when they are being targeted by cyber threats or disinformation potentially coming from foreign states.

Justice Hogue suggested that CSIS start flagging intelligence reports its officials feel senior decision-makers must read, and to also summarize the reports' findings in precise, non-technical language. At the same time, Justice Hogue recommended Ottawa create a declassification system to start releasing information on foreign interference “where it is in the public interest and where it would not unduly prejudice national security.”

Former Liberal MP Han Dong did not advocate for the delayed release of two Michaels

Justice Hogue also offered her assessment of allegations reported by Global News that former Liberal MP Han Dong suggested PRC should hold off releasing Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Mr. Dong, who left the Liberal caucus after this news story, has forcefully denied he said this.

Justice Hogue said the classified information she has read “corroborates Mr. Dong’s denial.” The MP “did not suggest that the PRC should extend their detention.”

With reports from Robert Fife and Steve Chase