Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians should pay attention after the director of Canada’s spy agency called TikTok a threat, but that he is waiting to see how the company responds to American efforts to make the app safer. “When the director of CSIS is pointing out that TikTok poses a real threat to the … Read more
One of the suspects accused of gunning down B.C. Sikh temple leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar entered Canada using a study permit that he said took only days to obtain. In a video posted online in 2019, Karan Brar said he applied for a student visa through EthicWorks Immigration Services in Bathinda, in India’s Punjab state. … Read more
Descrease article font size Increase article font size The United Kingdom will expel a Russian diplomat it accuses of being a spy, and revoke and restrict Russian diplomatic privileges after a British minister accused the country of “malign activity.” U.K. Interior Minister James Cleverly said the British government will expel the Russian defence attaché, who … Read more
New legislation aims to create a foreign influence registry and broaden warrant powers and investigative tools for Canada’s intelligence service to combat foreign interference, Ottawa said Monday. The proposed legislation also includes new and updated criminal offences for sabotage, political interference and other crimes committed on behalf of foreign entities, including increased prison sentences that … Read more
Canada’s public safety minister says legislation will be introduced “very soon” that will strengthen measures used to combat foreign interference, but adds he’s confident in the safeguards already in place and the agencies overseeing them. Friday saw the issue of foreign interference revived into public view on multiple fronts. The commissioner overseeing an inquiry into … Read more
Russian state-backed accounts on TikTok are posting far more, and reaching many more people, in the lead-up to the U.S. election, a new report finds. And it says the exposure may impact voters’ willingness to “mobilize or take actions” that could help the target of false or hyperpartisan content, the report states. “(The accounts) were focusing … Read more
A handful of candidates in Canada’s 2019 federal election “appeared willing” to go along with foreign interference schemes, a federal public inquiry has found. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue’s preliminary report, released Friday, concluded that while hostile states attempted to covertly influence the 2019 and 2021 general elections, those efforts did not change which party took power. … Read more
More than a year after the first call went out for a public inquiry into foreign election interference, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue is set to deliver her preliminary report into how hostile actors have tried to meddle in Canada’s democratic institutions. Hogue, a Quebec Court of Appeals judge and the commissioner of the inquiry, is examining … Read more
Three central voices in the ongoing debate around foreign interference say the federal inquiry has not produced any evidence of specific operations, and are urging the inquiry to confirm that recent federal elections were free and fair. In submissions to the Foreign Interference Commission, MP Han Dong, Senator Yuen Pau Woo and Markham Deputy Mayor … Read more
If one thing from the public inquiry into foreign interference is clear, it’s that China attempted to meddle in the 2019 and 2021 elections. But the evidence is hazy on whether or not it succeeded. Here’s what we learned over the past 10 days of fact-finding hearings, which ended Friday and included testimony from politicians, … Read more
