Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada's Democratic Processes and Institutions

Submitted to the Prime Minister on March 22, 2024 pursuant to subsection 21(1) of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act
(Revised version pursuant to subsection 21(5) of the NSICOP Act)

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, 2024.
All rights reserved.
Ottawa, ON.

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians

Special Report on the Federal Policing Mandate of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Revised version pursuant to subsection 21(5) of the NSICOP Act)

CP104-6/2024E-PDF
978-0-660-71872-9

CP104-6/2024E
978-0-660-71874-3

The Honourable David McGuinty, P.C., M.P.
Chair

Submitted to the Prime Minister on March 22, 2024

Revised version tabled in Parliament in June 2024

Note

This report is composed of an introduction, four chapters, a conclusion, the Committee’s findings and recommendations, and four annexes. The four chapters are almost exclusively based upon classified documentation, mostly summary assessments intended for senior officials or ministers and classified briefings, but also specific reporting from various security and intelligence organizations. This is especially true of Chapter 2 and parts of Chapter 3, where the Committee summarizes trends or specific instances and issues of foreign interference. Readers should note that the Committee has fully or partly redacted references to much of this source material to avoid injury to Canada’s national security, national defence or international relations.

Moreover, readers should consider that examples given in the text may refer to any order of government unless otherwise noted in this document.

Revisions

Consistent with subsection 21(2) of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act (NSICOP Act), the Committee may submit a special report to the Prime Minister and the ministers concerned on any matter related to its mandate. Consistent with subsection 21(5) of the NSICOP Act, the Prime Minister may, after consulting the Chair of the Committee, direct the Committee to submit to him or her a revised version of the report that does not contain information the Prime Minister believes the disclosure of which would be injurious to national security, national defence or international relations or is information that is protected by solicitor-client privilege.

This document is a revised version of the Special Report provided to the Prime Minister on March 22, 2024. At the time, the document was classified as “Top Secret//Special Intelligence//[Codewords and handling caveats]//Cabinet Confidence//Solicitor-Client Privilege//Canadian Eyes Only.” Revisions were made to remove information the disclosure of which the Prime Minister believed would be injurious to national security, national defence or international relations or which constitutes solicitor-client privilege. Where information could simply be removed without affecting the readability of the document, the Committee noted the removal with three asterisks (***) in the text of this document. Where information could not simply be removed without affecting the readability of the document, the Committee revised the document to summarize the information that was removed. Those sections are marked with three asterisks at the beginning and the end of the summary, and the summary is enclosed by square brackets (see example below).

Example: [*** Revised sections are marked with three asterisks at the beginning and the end of the sentence, and the summary is enclosed by square brackets. ***]

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians
(Membership from the 43^rd and 44^th Parliament)

• The Hon. David McGuinty, P.C., M.P. (Chair)
• Mr. Stéphane Bergeron, M.P.
• Mr. Don Davies, M.P.
• The Honourable Patricia Duncan, Senator
• Ms. Iqra Khalid, M.P. (ceased being a member on September 17, 2023)
• The Honourable Marty Klyne, Senator
• The Honourable Frances Lankin, P.C., C.M., Senator
• Ms. Patricia Lattanzio, M.P.
• Mr. James Maloney, M.P. (ceased being a member on September 17, 2023)
• Mr. Rob Morrison, M.P.
• Mr. Alex Ruff, M.S.C., C.D., M.P.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Scope
  • Methodology
• Chapter 1: Understanding foreign interference and its challenges
• Chapter 2: The threat of foreign interference in Canada’s democratic processes and institutions
  • Key threat actors
  • Key tactics
    • Covertly influencing the opinions and positions of voters, ethnocultural communities and parliamentarians
    • Leveraging relationships with influential Canadians
    • Exploiting vulnerabilities in political party governance and administration
    • Use of cyber tools to attain specific objectives
• Chapter 3: The government’s response
  • Policy initiatives
    • The Plan to Protect Democracy (*** 2018)
    • Strategy to Counter Hostile Activities by State Actors (HASA)
    • Intelligence priorities
    • Legislative changes
    • Operational responses
    • Briefing parliamentarians
    • Interdepartmental governance
  • Parliamentary ethics officers
• Chapter 4: The Committee’s assessment of the response to foreign interference in democratic processes and institutions
  • The threat of foreign interference in democratic processes and institutions
  • A permissive environment: How systemic challenges in responding to foreign interference provide opportunities for foreign actors
    • Absence of a common threshold for action
    • Absence of robust tools
    • The distribution, assessment and use of intelligence
    • Engagement with Parliamentarians
  • The role of Parliamentarians in addressing foreign interference
  • Committee comments
    • The Committee’s comment on unauthorized disclosure of intelligence (the leaks)
    • The Committee’s comment on the Critical Elections Incident Public Protocol and the integrity of the 43^rd and 44^th federal elections
• Conclusion
• Findings
• Recommendations
• Annexes
  • Annex A: List of witnesses
  • Annex B: Terms of Reference
  • Annex C: Timeline of the government’s response to foreign interference in democratic processes and institutions, 2018 to 2024
  • Annex D: Foreign interference-related findings and recommendations from NSICOP's 2019 annual report