The committee set up by Ottawa to inform Canadians in the event of threats to the 2021 federal election concludes that the protocol has worked well overall, but that the public should be informed more about what these senior officials would consider to be a source of concern.
Former senior civil servant Morris Rosenberg, responsible for writing the report evaluating the work of this “Public Protocol in the event of a major electoral incident”, published on Tuesday, also makes several recommendations for the future of this special committee.
The committee, made up of five very senior federal officials, was created in 2019 to monitor federal election threats — after Russian maneuvers in the 2016 U.S. election. Under the Protocol, if a threat were to reach a certain threshold , the committee could warn Canadians.
Rosenberg writes in the most recent report that the committee did not find there was interference on the scale of Russian maneuvers in Canada, either in 2019 or 2021.
But the committee also found that there were attempts at foreign interference that fell short of the threshold required to inform Canadians. Mr. Rosenberg writes that such an announcement would have been made if the members had determined that there was a threat “to Canada’s ability to hold free and fair elections”. He specifies that such an announcement would constitute a “measure of last resort”, to be invoked “only in the most serious cases”.
He also recommends clearer communication with Canadians on the task of this committee. The report also recommends “further consideration of whether the Protocol should be amended to provide for the possibility of an announcement being made even if the established criteria” are not met.
“Domestic interference”
Committee members also found that there had been “internal interference” during the 2021 campaign, including threats of violence and misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. The September 2021 snap elections took place during the pandemic.
The report also recommends that in view of the upcoming federal election, there should be an assessment of whether the security details surrounding party leaders and various police forces are capable of handling the “level and persistence of threats.”
It is also recommended that national security agencies develop a program of “unclassified briefings” to educate MPs and Senators about foreign interference and election interference. Some parliamentarians have called for it in recent months.
Security agencies should tell lawmakers about election interference and what steps they can take to protect themselves and their information online, Rosenberg writes.
The report is tabled more than 17 months after the September 2021 election.
News reports over the past few weeks have alleged foreign interference by China in the 2019 and 2021 elections, leading to increased interest in the work of this Public Protocol in the event of a major election incident and calling for greater transparency on threats.
This committee is made up of the National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Ministers of Justice, Public Safety and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Clerk of the Privy Council — the big boss of the whole office. Federal Public Service, who is also the Prime Minister’s Deputy Minister.