The Liberal government has said measures to monitor and assess the threat of foreign interference will be part of all future federal by-elections, not just the general election.
Public Security Minister Dominic Leblanc said Monday that the security and intelligence agencies’ Election Threats Task Force (SITE) will be monitoring for signs of interference in two by-elections in Quebec and Manitoba in September.
The federal agency, established in 2019 to protect the electoral process, includes representatives from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Communications Security, and Canada’s cyber spy agency, the Communications Security Bureau.
The SITE task force already has some experience monitoring federal by-elections this year and in 2023.
During the by-elections, the task force will provide intelligence assessments to the deputy ministerial committee, which in turn will report and advise ministers responsible for combating foreign interference and protecting democratic institutions from harm, Leblanc said in a statement.
The statement added that channels of communication with representatives of political parties “will remain open” to ensure engagement where necessary during the by-election period.
The SITE Task Force will also produce both classified and unclassified reports on a comprehensive assessment of attempted foreign interference during the by-elections.
The confidential report will be made available to the prime minister, relevant ministers, the National Assembly’s National Security and Intelligence Committee, which comprises MPs and senators, and representatives of political parties that have received security clearance, according to the statement.
The next by-elections are scheduled for Sept. 16 in Elmwood-Transcona in Winnipeg and LaSalle-Emard-Verdun in Montreal.
In the event of a general election, the process is slightly different, with the federal cabinet taking on a “caretaker” role limited to day-to-day, non-controversial functions.
Protocol put in place for the 2019 federal election states that if a civil service committee determines an incident, or a series of incidents, threatens Canada’s ability to conduct a free and fair vote, it will be made public.
The Panel receives information from sources such as the SITE Task Force.
No such announcements were made for either the 2019 or 2021 general elections. In both polls, the Liberal Party returned to power with minority support and the Conservative Party came into opposition.
In a recent report, the national espionage watchdog concluded that the SITE Task Force and the Committee were “not adequately designed to address conventional human-based foreign interference.”
The National Security Intelligence Review Agency report noted that while the task force is focused on threat activity during election periods, “traditional foreign interference also occurs between elections.”
Unlike broad patterns or campaigns such as widespread online disinformation, traditional intelligence about foreign interference in elections is granular and specific, usually relating to the activities of individuals in specific constituencies, the report said.
“Assessing the impact of these activities at the constituency level requires the ongoing collection and analysis of all relevant information,” the report said, “which is doubly challenging given the short time frame over which elections are held.”
Chief political reporter Rosemary Barton spoke to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duhem about why he thinks releasing the confidential information in the NSICOP report could jeopardize international cooperation, and he also discussed the future of policing in Canada.
Similarly, a central feature of traditional foreign interference is that it takes place over a long period of time and is not limited solely to election time, watchdog groups said.
The SITE Task Force operates continuously, but its capacity and pace of activity is reduced outside of election periods.
The intelligence agency’s findings come following an interim report by a federal commission of inquiry that found foreign interference by China did not affect the overall outcome of the 2019 and 2021 general elections.
Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue said in her report that it was possible that interference had affected the results in a small number of precincts, but that it was not possible to say for sure.
