(Ottawa) A federal official said a group of senior officials considered warning the public about possible foreign interference during the last general election, but after analysis decided against it.
Allen Sutherland, who participated in the senior officials’ committee discussion at the time, testified Friday to the Hogue commission about what he saw and heard during the 2021 election campaign.
The committee of senior federal officials noted concerns about misinformation circulating on the Mandarin-language social media platform WeChat during the 2021 election campaign.
Mr Sutherland said senior officials then questioned whether a public warning was warranted in this particular case. He compared this case to a previous case involving a false press article that conveyed false, inflammatory information about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2019.
The senior official explained that because the WeChat posts were in Mandarin, they would likely only reach the Chinese diaspora, unlike the fake articles about Mr. Trudeau, which were in English and had the potential to go viral nationally. .
Sutherland said this was just one factor that led the committee to choose not to issue a public warning, a decision he said was ultimately based on nuanced judgment.
The federal investigation, chaired by Judge Marie-Josée Hogue of the Quebec Court of Appeal, aims in particular to identify possible foreign interference from China, India, Russia or other countries during the last two federal general elections.