By Ismail Shakil
OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Canadian government was slow in responding to efforts by China and India to interfere in the country’s elections but their outcome was unaffected by the meddling, an official probe said in a final report released on Tuesday.
The report was the culmination of a probe set up in September 2023 in response to media reports about possible Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections, both of which were won by the ruling Liberals.
The conclusion confirmed the findings of an interim report released last May that said foreign interference had not changed the results of the elections but eroded public trust in the electoral system.
China condemned the findings, saying they were “groundless accusations and smears.”
“China has always been upholding the non-interference principle in internal affairs and has never interfered in the internal affairs of Canada, nor is it interested in doing so,” its embassy in Ottawa said in a statement, and accused Canada of interference in China’s internal affairs.
India too rejected the allegations in the report and accused Canada of “consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs.”
The Foreign Interference Commission in a statement said it found that foreign meddling in Canada’s elections was not a new phenomenon but that it was on the rise and the methods used were changing.
The probe found the Liberal government responded to attempted foreign interference by putting in place measures and mechanisms to detect, prevent and counter them, but it “sometimes took too long to act, and coordination was less than optimal.”
“The Commission also found that the government has been a poor communicator both about the extent of foreign interference that it detected and the means in place to counter it, and that it must find ways to be more transparent,” the commission said in a statement.
The Canadian government said in a statement it will carefully review the report’s findings and use them to push back against any foreign interference.
The probe found that China views Canada as a high-priority target and is the most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting all levels of government. India was identified as the second-most active country engaging in electoral foreign interference in Canada.
“Canada’s democratic institutions have held up well and remained robust in the face of attempted foreign interference,” said commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue, who led the independent public inquiry.
Last year, the inquiry heard evidence showing Canada’s domestic spy agency concluded that China had indeed meddled in both votes. Beijing has repeatedly denied this.
The report comes about six weeks before the Liberal Party chooses a new leader to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation this month.
Polls show the Conservatives, who accuse Trudeau of not taking interference seriously, are set to win an election that must be held by Oct. 20 this year, but could take place as soon as the spring.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and David Ljunggren; editing by Deepa Babington and Rod Nickel)
