Federal Election Monitors Were More Focused on Interference From Russia Than China, Says Minister

Liberal Member of Parliament Karina Gould appears as a witness at the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions in Ottawa on April 10, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

A cabinet minister says that federal election monitors were more focused on Russian election interference than meddling by Beijing.

Government House Leader Karina Gould told the ongoing foreign interference inquiry that during the 2019 federal election, the focus of election monitors was on Russia.

“Certainly Russia was something we were concerned about which is why we created this whole infrastructure to protect our elections,” Ms. Gould said, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Ms. Gould had served as Minister of Democratic Institutions before the 2019 election and had pledged $7 million as part of a program to assess editorials and online news reporting deemed suspicious.

Earlier this week the inquiry learned from Allen Sutherland, assistant secretary to the cabinet, that the Chinese social media platform WeChat and Chinese-language media were not monitored because none of the election monitor appointees could speak or read Chinese. He said they did not spend a significant amount of time looking at Chinese-language media as it only impacted the Chinese diaspora.

When asked whether Russia made attempts to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, Ms. Gould told the foreign interference inquiry that she was unable to answer saying, “I don’t think I can comment on that.”

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When pressed on the topic of Russian interference, Ms. Gould said that she believed Russia has the intent to interfere “in most democratic nations” but was unable to give a clear answer regarding any specific interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

“Canada is a democratic nation,” Ms. Gould said, adding, “It is a member of NATO and so therefore we need to be alert and aware. It doesn’t mean Canada is necessarily the main focus but certainly what we in democratic countries around the world, one of the objectives Russia has is creating chaos.”

Ms. Gould’s testimony before the inquiry comes after a country summary document compiled by Canada’s security and intelligence agencies revealed that while Russia continues to pose a foreign interference threat to Canada, it is “likely not currently a significant foreign interference (FI) actor in relation to Canadian federal elections.”

“Russia has the capability to escalate its disinformation and interference operations to target Canada and its allies through social media and other platforms,” said the document, which was released at the inquiry on April 4.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has said that China has been more active in election interference operations in Canada than any other regime, according an unclassified report presented to the foreign interference inquiry.

CSIS noted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) asserts control over Chinese-language media and social media platforms like WeChat to push pro-CCP narratives and uses a wide variety of methods to carry out interference activities within Canada.

The inquiry heard in the last two weeks that CSIS had repeatedly warned the government about interference activities by Beijing.