Foreign interference ‘tainted’ elections, undermined candidates: report

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OTTAWA – Chinese international students may have received “veiled threats” from the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) consulate and been provided with falsified documents to allow them to vote for Liberal candidate Han Dong’s nomination ahead of the 2019 election, according to the first report by the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference published Friday.

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That’s one example of riding-level foreign interference that “tainted” the 2019 and 2021 federal elections but ultimately did not affect the overall results or the integrity of Canada’s electoral system, according to the first report by inquiry commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, who is expected to publish a second report later this year.

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The Liberals undoubtedly won the last two elections, Hogue said, and the country’s voting system has been strong and secure.

But the commissioner had “no difficulty” concluding that there was foreign interference in certain ridings that likely impacted at least one nomination race and potentially undermined certain candidates viewed unfavourably by the Chinese government.

“Although the election result at a national level was not impacted, and only a few races were potentially impacted at a riding level, I nevertheless conclude that foreign interference impacted the overall election ecosystem in 2019 and 2021,” Hogue wrote.

“The acts of interference that occurred are a stain on our electoral process and impacted the process leading up to the actual vote,” she said in a statement.

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Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he welcomed Hogue’s conclusions which he stressed “reaffirmed” the integrity of the past two elections, whereas Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said it was a “scathing set of conclusions and findings.”

“Commissioner Hogue’s first report comes to conclusions and findings that are starkly different from what the Trudeau government has told us over the last 18 months, and conclusions and findings that are different from the report of (special rapporteur David) Johnston from a year ago,” said Chong.

Hogue’s 200-page report covers the content of tens of thousands of documents — many classified for national security reasons — and weeks of public and confidential testimony by over 40 witnesses ranging from the heads of Canada’s spy agencies and federal departments to top PMO officials, a coterie of ministers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It concludes that the “greatest harm” of foreign interference in Canada to date has been to undermine public confidence in Canada’s democracy and electoral system.

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The report provides some detail into alleged interference in a handful of federal ridings in the last two federal elections that targeted Liberal, Conservative and NDP politicians. It focused mainly on the Chinese government’s attempts to influence the elections, but also noted efforts by India, Pakistan and to a lesser extent Russia and Iran.

Among the most shocking revelations in the report were the circumstances around Liberal candidate Han Dong’s hotly contested nomination contest.

Hogue’s report said some intelligence, which was not “firmly substantiated,” suggested Chinese students were provided with “falsified documents” and then bused in to the Liberal Don Valley North nomination election so they could vote for Dong despite not being residents of the riding.

Those documents were provided by individuals associated with a well-known Chinese proxy agent, the report read.

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Intelligence agencies reported after the fact that those students were in fact coerced into voting for Dong.

Dong, who resigned from the Liberal caucus to sit as independent last year because of media reports alleging he had close ties to the PRC consulate, denied any involvement in the matter.

“Some intelligence reported after the election indicated that veiled threats were issued by the PRC Consulate to the Chinese international students, implying their student visas would be in jeopardy and that there could be consequences for their families back in the PRC if they did not support Han Dong,” read the report.

At the time, the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force stated in its report on the 2019 federal election that “PRC officials likely manipulated one of the nomination contests in the Toronto riding of Don Valley North,” but said that some of the allegations remained “unconfirmed.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was briefed during the election about those allegations but decided not to overturn the results of the nomination contest because he felt at the time where was no “sufficient or sufficiently credible information” to justify removing his new MP.

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“Mr. Trudeau noted that un-endorsing Mr. Dong would have direct electoral consequences as the LPC (Liberal Party of Canada) expected to win DVN (Don Valley North). It would also have a devastating impact on Mr. Dong personally,” read the report.

Still in 2019, Hogue added that it was “likely” there were at least two transfers of funds for an approximate total of $250,000 originating from PRC officials in Canada, possibly for foreign-interference purposes.

But she could not conclude that this money went to up to 11 CPC and LPC candidates. Instead, it was transferred via “multiple individuals to obfuscate their origins, including an Ontario MPP, between late 2018 and early 2019.

The report also mentions intelligence indicating that PRC officials also coordinated the exclusion of some political candidates perceived as “anti-China” in the Greater Vancouver area from attending local community events related to the 2019 election.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan testified at the commission that she had observed a “seismic shift” in her relationship with Chinese community organizations starting in 2019, as she started to become critical of PRC policies with respect to Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Uyghur minority.

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The most significant case of potential foreign interference in the 2021 federal election was in the B.C. riding of Steveston–Richmond East targeting Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu.

She found that during the election, media outlets linked to the People’s Republic of China and Chinese state media helped push a “false narrative” that Chiu was “anti-China” because he had tabled a private member’s bill in Parliament that would establish a foreign agent registry.

For the first time, the report identifies two Markham, Ont.-based media organizations — 105.9 Yes My Radio and Global Chinese Convergence Media (CGCTV) — which intelligence indicates have “close links” to the Chinese government or state media.

The outlets’ stories were written to dissuade Chinese Canadians from voting for Chiu and Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives and circulated widely on Chinese social media platform WeChat, the report says.

But Hogue stopped short of saying those efforts directly impacted the riding election result, instead concluding that was only a “reasonable possibility.”

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“Although no definitive link between these false narratives and the PRC has been proven, there are strong indicators of PRC involvement,” she wrote. What makes China’s interference so “insidious” is how difficult it is to detect, she added.

She disagreed with the government’s view that the fact the disinformation about Chiu stopped spreading weeks before election day was a good sign.

“I am concerned by this reliance on the idea of a self-cleansing media ecosystem. By the time that disinformation fades away, it may be too late. I am also concerned by the absence of clear guidelines for when the government will act short of a public announcement,” she wrote.

Though the Conservatives and NDP MP Jenny Kwan suspected there was further Chinese interference in other ridings in 2021, Hogue said she could not conclude the same.

“Intelligence holdings also indicate that the practice of deliberately excluding certain politicians from Chinese-Canadian community events appears to have continued in 2020 and 2021,” Hogue said about Kwan.

Kwan said in an interview that the report proves that the current process to report and investigate alleged foreign interference is “incoherent and unaccountable.”

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Hogue’s report also revealed that CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, had managed to reduce a foreign interference threat originating from Pakistan ahead of the 2019 campaign.

Hogue highlighted communication issues between government intelligence agencies and departments as well as between election integrity watchdogs and political parties.

The commission heard evidence of poor communication between the intelligence agencies, the SITE Task Force, the senior public servants called the “Panel of Five” meant to determine if the threshold for a public announcement was met to inform the public of any interference, and political parties themselves.

“I have not found evidence of any actions taken in bad faith, but I have found that there were some communication problems and a certain lack of understanding of the role that everyone plays, or should play, in combatting foreign interference,” said Hogue.

She also noted that CSIS, although it “communicates a great deal of information and works hard to raise awareness of the importance of tackling foreign interference”, is often limited in what it can and cannot share and it has an impact of the decision-making by public officials.

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“In my view, revealing only general information with few specific risks obscuring the importance of what is being communicated, whereby reducing the likelihood that those receiving the information will internalize and act on it,” reads the report.

But the report stopped short of providing any recommendations. In most cases where the commissioner detected an issue in how foreign interference is investigated, analyzed or communicated to impacted parties or the public, she punted solutions to the second phase of her work due in the fall.

She also said that the threat foreign interference poses to Canada will only increase going forward.

“This impact has likely been slight to date but may become more severe in the future,” she wrote.

National Post
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