Russia's information war against Canada increasingly successful, top security official says

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s national security advisor said Russia’s information war against Canada is increasingly successful as more and more Canadians believe Ukraine began the war caused by Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Nathalie Drouin, Carney’s outgoing national security and intelligence advisor (NSIA), told MPs Tuesday she was concerned by Russia’s growing success in influencing Canadians with misinformation and disinformation campaigns since 2021.

“The presence of Russia has changed” since 2021, Drouin told MPs on the Procedure and House Affairs committee. “Russia wants to influence their own narrative. And I must say that, unfortunately, we are seeing more Canadians believing that the conflict was started at the initiative of Ukraine in 2022.”

“So what Russia is doing is, unfortunately, sometime getting traction,” she added. “So that is something that we see that we were not seeing… in 2019.”

The war in Ukraine began when Russia invaded its western neighbour in early 2022, sparking the longest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. The Canadian government has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian officials, business people and companies who support the “unjustified” invasion of Ukraine.

Drouin was testifying to the committee about foreign interference in Canadian federal elections following last spring’s campaign. She was flanked by David Morrison and Tricia Geddes, respectively the top bureaucrats at Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety.

During the hearing, she and Morrison re-affirmed previous government statements that the last election was free and fair and largely safe of foreign interference.

Drouin said she was completely confident that the last election was “a true reflection of the will of the Canadian people without interference.”

To that, Conservative MP Blaine Calkins replied: “Well, I’m not sure that you can say that with confidence, but I appreciate that.”

The exchange came after Drouin reaffirmed that there had been attempts by the Chinese government to undermine the candidacy of Toronto-area

Conservative candidate Joe Tay, a longtime Hong Kong democracy activist on whom Hong Kong police put a large bounty for his activism.

Morrison added that the government addressed the interference with China’s embassy in Ottawa but did not have any evidence of involvement by Chinese diplomats in Canada.

Drouin and Morrison said there will always be a “baseline” of attempted foreign interference by other countries. What’s important, they noted, is that the government detects and moves to neuter it going forward.

Many MPs also questioned the outgoing NSIA — who was appointed Monday as Canada’s next ambassador to France — on the risk of foreign interference by a longtime Canadian ally: the United States.

Notably, Drouin did not shut the door on the possibility the U.S. might attempt to interfere in the next Canadian federal election.

“Canada has expectations vis-à-vis every country, the United States included, that there not be any attacks on our sovereignty, that there not be any attacks on our domestic affairs, including our elections,” Drouin responded to Liberal MP Elisabeth Brière.

“We will monitor the situation agnostically, meaning regardless of which country that could commit foreign interference in our domestic affairs,” she added.

Drouin also revealed that there had been an attempt to add a “distinguished,” non-government member to the panel of five leading up to the 2025 election.

The panel is composed of five senior bureaucrats whose role is to determine if foreign interference activities meet the threshold of informing Canadians because they impact their ability to have a free and fair election.

But, Drouin said, that effort fell through when the government circulated a name to opposition parties but failed to get unanimous consensus on the unnamed individual.

“Having an external member sitting at the panel can be very good,” said Drouin, who sits on the panel. “We gave our best effort trying to find a good individual, but we were not able… to get consensus for the suggested representative.”

Drouin added that she still thinks a non-government member should be added to the panel and that an effort to find a candidate that is satisfactory to all federal parties remains underway.

National Post

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