All elections are considered completed with a vote and a simple majority. Whether it is for a municipal, provincial or federal election, we expect that elections will be fair without outside interference. It holds true in a vote for a president of a service club, or a volunteer organization or for a chair of a board.
As Canadians we never would have expected outside governments to meddle in our federal elections. We never would have expected the governments of China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran to interfere in our 2019 and 2021 federal elections. With the release of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference by Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue in her first report released last Friday, we have learned that those governments did interfere in our election.
Perhaps the good news is that the interference may not have caused a change in the overall outcome of the elections, but it did have some consequences in individual ridings. China used methods to undermine candidates who were seen to be sympathetic to dissenting groups in China. They used agents living in Canada to intimidate voters in those ridings away from those sympathetic candidates.
India helped candidates financially who supported the Indian Government’s political agenda. India opposed candidates who supported politically the idea of a separate Sikh state. They funneled support through proxies in Canada. We have also learned that the Indian Government allegedly participated in the assassination of a Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian who was sympathetic to establishing Khalistani (Sikh nation).
Russia has opposed the growth of NATO and used social media and other methods to undermine NATO and discredit other bodies.
Interfering in foreign country elections has been ongoing for centuries. Both the French and English interfered in each other’s elections in the nineteenth century. Perhaps the most recent event undermining unity in Canada was caused by French President Charles De Gaulle who declared “Vivre Quebec Libre” that began a cycle of Quebecois seeking to separate from Canada.
The three opposition parties have already began calling on the Government of Canada to put forth legislation requiring foreign agents to register with the Canadian Government. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc on Monday introduced legislation titled The Countering Foreign Interference Act. It requires all agents, whether Canadian or foreign, to register as agents of foreign states. It has jail penalties for failing to register. The legislation gives CSIS the power to give information to parties being harmed, and to other agencies of the government.
The Act is hoped to counter the interference in Canadian Elections by foreign governments.
The final report by Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue is expected by the end of September. We will then learn more details about the efforts to undermine our federal election.
