No foreign interference report more than one year after Liberal government re-elected
Canadians still do not have access to an assessment of the work done by a panel tasked with flagging incidents of foreign interference during the last election in 2021.
The Critical Election Incident Public Protocol was created to monitor and report on threats to the 2019 election with a mandate to continue its work during future elections.
The protocol spells out the process of informing Canadians if there is a threat to an election. It is controlled by a panel of top public servants who must determine whether incidents of interference meet the threshold for telling the public.
A postelection assessment of how well that protocol functioned is also supposed to be made public.
An assessment was made public about 13 months after the 2019 election, but a similar report for the 2021 campaign is still not available.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he looks forward to seeing the report when it is complete, but he told reporters the public service is best placed to answer questions about why the report hasn't been released.
"We have heard from the panel that the election integrity held," he said in Halifax.
The Privy Council Office said the report "will be publicly available in due course."
Anna McGrath, the national director for the NDP, said in a written statement Thursday the report should have been prepared and that it should be released.
"It's very important to Canadians that there be transparency and accountability on any issues of election interference. The more openness and transparency about this the better," she said.
An August 2021 Justice Department briefing document, obtained by The Canadian Press through access-to-information legislation, said the assessment report will be presented to the prime minister and members of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians.
"A public version will also be developed," read the document, which was labelled as "secret."
The panel members, who were to work with national security agencies under their departments' mandates, did not make any announcements about foreign interference during the 2019 or 2021 elections.
The 2019 assessment report found the protocol used was successful and ready to alert Canadians of foreign interference if a situation warranted it.
It said the panel's determination about whether incidents of interference met the threshold for informing the public "required judgment, knowledge and context," as well as consensus. The report recommended the "high threshold" for doing so remain the same to "avoid the panel becoming a frequent intervener in any election."
However, media reports in recent weeks have alleged there was possible interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. That has drawn criticism from the Opposition Conservatives, who accused the government of leaving the public in the dark.
Reporting by the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper cited classified documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that said China worked to ensure a Liberal minority government during the last election.
Trudeau told reporters in Halifax "there are so many inaccuracies in those leaks," but did not elaborate.
He also said the election protocol panel did not have to weigh in on the 2019 or 2021 votes and it did not highlight instances that suggested either election was compromised.
"That does not mean, nor have we ever contended, that there isn't ongoing efforts by countries like China to interfere in our democracies," Trudeau said
"That is something that we've been talking (about) -- we talked about it when we set up these panels back in 2019."
The Conservative party said it is clear Trudeau's government was given detailed briefings on election interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
"Elections Canada should seek to obtain the information from those briefings so that they can conduct the appropriate investigations," said Sarah Fischer, the party's director of communications, in a written statement.
The party won't say if it was informed of any interference, or if it reported any alleged interference with the Conservatives or any of their candidates.
But former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu has previously expressed fears Canadian elections were being swayed by foreign governments. He lost his Vancouver-area seat in the 2021 election and claims he was the target of a pre-election misinformation campaign on Chinese-language social media.
His former seat was one of several the party lost in ridings that are home to many people of Chinese descent.
Walied Soliman, a lawyer who worked on the 2021 Conservative election campaign, recently said on social media that the party was never notified about any threats to the electoral process. Despite this, he said the party saw "clear signs of tampering in ridings with substantial Chinese diasporas" that were "never taken seriously."
Soliman said he was appointed by former party leader Erin O'Toole to serve as its representative on the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force. He also said the party continued working with the task force after the election, "providing everything we had."
According to the August 2021 briefing document, the task force was tapped to provide threat updates to the election protocol panel.
A report by the Canadian Election Misinformation Project, run out of McGill University, said it found that false or misleading claims about Conservatives began emerging on Chinese-language platforms following a September 2021 leaders' debate.
The report suggested that Chiu and a federal NDP candidate were both targeted by "Beijing-friendly individuals and organizations" in Vancouver.
The NDP said it did not report any election interference and was not informed of any election interference during the 2021 election.
A statement from Liberal party communications director Parker Lund did not say whether it informed the panel about any interference allegations or vice versa, saying the party "does not comment on specific security precautions."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 23, 2023.
Correction
A previous version of this story also stated that the evaluation of the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol's work on the 2019 election was made public seven months after that election. rather than 13 months
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Air Canada union head says she'll resign if pilots reject deal
The head of the Air Canada pilots union says she'll step down if members opt not to approve a tentative deal with the airline, raising the stakes as aviators mull whether to accept hefty salary gains or drive an even harder bargain.
2 suspended from U.S. college swim team after report of slur scratched onto student's body
At least two students at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania have been suspended from the swim team after a report that a racial slur was scratched onto a student's body, officials said.
How does your health measure up? Criticism of long-time tool used to track progress
Body mass index, a long-time tool used to measure a person's health, may soon be out the door as some health professionals push for a system they say is more accurate.
Sunken superyacht believed to contain watertight safes with sensitive intelligence data
Specialist divers surveying the wreckage of the US$40 million superyacht that sank off Sicily in August, killing seven people including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, have asked for heightened security to guard the vessel, over concerns that sensitive data locked in its safes may interest foreign governments, multiple sources told CNN.
Kate, the Princess of Wales, makes first public appearance after cancer treatment
Kate, the Princess of Wales, made her first public appearance Sunday since she announced she had completed chemotherapy and would return to some public duties.
North Carolina's Robinson, omitted from Trump rally, avoids comment on report about online posts
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson avoided directly weighing in during a gubernatorial campaign event Saturday on a CNN report outlining evidence that he made disturbing posts on a pornography website's message board more than a decade ago.
'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' scares off 'Transformers' for third week as box office No. 1
Tim Burton's legacy sequel to the 1988 horror comedy topped the North American box office charts for a third
Netanyahu considering plan to force all Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza to besiege Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to force all Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, in order to lay siege to Hamas and force the release of hostages.
Mass shooting kills 4 and wounds 17 in nightlife district in Birmingham, Alabama
A mass shooting killed four people and wounded 17 others in a popular nightlife area in Birmingham, Alabama, with many of the victims caught in the crossfire, police said Sunday.
Local Spotlight
Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.
Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.
An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.