Morning Update: What we know from the foreign-interference report

Good morning. I’m Moira Wyton, an audience editor with The Globe. Canada’s foreign-interference inquiry has found no evidence parliamentarians committed treason, but more needs to be done to keep malicious meddling at bay. We’ll explore more on what the long-awaited report revealed, plus a look at an Air India suspect’s hitman and the fight against buy, wear, return. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Dozens of people have died in a stampede at India’s Maha Kumbh festival
• Metro’s CEO says the weak loonie is putting pressure on food costs and could drive up prices
• Doug Ford formally triggers an early election in Ontario
• Two Palestinian women are asking themselves: Should I go home to Gaza?

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Foreign interference

Hogue says disinformation campaigns are ‘existential threat’ to democracy

Have current or past federal politicians worked for hostile powers? The Foreign Interference Commission answered the big question looming over its final report with a resounding “no,” refuting an all-party committee’s explosive allegations last spring that some elected officials had been knowing or semi-knowing pawns of hostile foreign states.

But the inquiry’s leader, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, said there is evidence of naivety, poor judgment and questionable ethics by some parliamentarians in their relationships with foreign officials.

The commission’s long-awaited report found 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.”

Hogue said the federal government has failed to treat the threat disinformation poses seriously and must take action quickly to protect Canada’s institutions. “It is an existential threat,” she wrote.

And with the Liberal Party leadership race that’s about to decide Canada’s next prime minister – and a federal election expected this spring – Hogue says government inaction isn’t an option.

Here are more highlights from the report.

Six instances of suspected foreign interference

That includes four major instances during the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, plus two other undated instances that only came to light after the inquiry asked CSIS to compile a list. Allegations are against the governments of India, Pakistan, China and unidentified foreign states. The examples range from trying to influence federal politics in their favour, to making “aggressive efforts” to torpedo a Liberal candidate’s campaign, to using proxies to contribute money to federal election campaigns for multiple candidates for three different parties.

Failures to share intelligence

Hogue says she found multiple examples of foreign interference intelligence not being shared with targeted parliamentarians or acted upon when it needed to be, despite warnings from watchdogs. Some planned briefings by CSIS were delayed for five years for “no good reason,” Hogue found, and then-public safety minister Bill Blair’s office took nearly two months to approve a CSIS surveillance warrant.

Former Liberal MP Han Dong did not suggest to delay release of two Michaels

Justice Hogue said that classified information she read during the inquiry “corroborates Mr. Dong’s denial” of allegations that he suggested China should delay releasing Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor that were reported by Global News. Dong left the Liberal caucus after the news story.

What Canada needs to do

Justice Hogue’s 51 recommendations for Canada to protect against foreign interference are wide-ranging, and she says she believes about half could be implemented before the next federal election.

Here are a few examples of recommendations.

• To protect democracy, Hogue says Canada should consider creating an agency to monitor disinformation and misinformation; create a “duty to warn” policy when there are “credible threats of serious harm”; and encourage all party leaders with a seat in the House to get their top-secret security clearances as soon as possible.
• To protect the next federal election, Hogue is echoing recommendations from the Chief Electoral Officer to: ban foreigners who aren’t permanent residents from voting in party nomination or leadership contests, a rule the Liberals adopted for its current leadership race; require political parties have their members confirm their status as citizens or permanent residents and keep records of the declarations; expand bans on bribery and intimidation; and ban foreign actors from contributing to third-party advertising and other activities.
• To protect diaspora communities, Hogue says Canada should increase its public education and communication about how to identify and report foreign interference. She lamented that many communities first learned they were being targeted by reports from The Globe and other media, and should not be dependent on investigative journalism or intelligence leaks. “Properly informed, I have no doubt that Canadians will be able to understand what foreign interference is and help defend Canadian democracy against this threat,” she said.

Questions that remain

No parliamentarians suspected to be involved in potentially troubling behaviour with foreign agents have been publicly named. Hogue said in her report that the NSICOP’s spring report did not name names, but it’s unknown whether her inquiry got the identities from CSIS itself.

The inquiry also didn’t shed further light on India’s alleged role in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar or any other violence in Canada, or on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that he received highly classified intelligence about alleged meddling in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest won by Pierre Poilievre.

Keep reading:

• Hogue inquiry finds some parliamentarians showed ‘problematic’ conduct, but did not commit treason
• Five takeaways from the foreign-interference inquiry
• Opinion: Foreign interference findings are not as simple as outing traitors in the House
• Decibel: Foreign interference inquiry finds ‘problematic’ conduct

The Shot

‘People will sleep on the ground. There is nothing left.’

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Displaced Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza City this week found a city in ruins after 15 months of fighting. Many are seeking shelter amongst the rubble and searching for relatives.

The Wrap

What else we’re following

At home: A B.C. man is sentenced to life in prison for murdering a former suspect in the Air India bombing, but he won’t say who paid for the hit.

Abroad: The family of a Mi’kmaq woman hopes the release of a U.S. activist will shed light on her murder by others in the American Indian Movement.

At the mall: The buy, wear, return days for shoppers could be over now that retailers and tech are catching on and fighting back.

Down the hall: Cameco is hoping to repeat its 2018 success in fending off Trump’s uranium tariffs as the threat looms once more.