The federal government will convene a conference of foreign ambassadors next month to warn them against interfering in the upcoming elections.
Testifying before the inquiry into foreign interference in Canada, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison said his department is preparing for the next federal election and is concerned about Canadian attempts to influence and He said he wants to make sure that diplomats from other countries know exactly what boundaries have been drawn. try to interfere.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the inquiry: “I think we need to be clear with foreign missions here in town and with foreign consulates across the country about what diplomatic activity is acceptable and where exactly we draw the line. That’s what I intend to do.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was a diplomat’s job to influence the public, but if that influence was coercive, covert or covert, it crossed the line and amounted to interference.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison also told the inquiry that foreign interference through artificial intelligence was a “key threat vector” that he expected to emerge in the next election.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said MPs needed more information about how diplomats behave and how they could judge when diplomatic actions crossed the line.
When he was appointed acting national security adviser, he asked ministers to brief them after the 2021 elections and warn that there could be an increase in foreign attempts to target ministers through diplomatic missions abroad. He said he was asked to do so.
The foreign interference investigation, headed by Judge Marie-Josée Hogue, was established in response to media reports accusing China of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
In his first report, released in May, Hogue concluded that while there may have been foreign interference in a small number of ridings, it did not affect the overall election outcome.
Monday’s inquiry is scheduled to hear from officials from the Canadian Heritage Board and security and intelligence officials from the Privy Council.
More details later…