When Henry Chan, an activist for democracy in Hong Kong, decided to apply for the nomination of the Saskatchewan party in his hometown of Saskaton, he did not expect him to come out of experience, wondering if he was the purpose of interfering foreign.
Chan says that he turned to him at his meeting and Strej, someone he later discovered on social media may have connections with the Chinese communist party. In a private conversation, a person asked him: “What was prepared for the Chinese,” he said. In return, they offered support for his nomination.
Chan didn't take him. He did not win the nomination, and the Saskatchewan party did not even win this mandate in the legislator last year in a provincial vote.
World report51:33World Report shows: How safe is your voice?
When Canadians are preparing to choose from, the integrity of this voice is more important than ever. From foreign agents to false influential … How serious is the risk for Canada's democracy? Can Elon Musk be considered a hostile state actor? And what do officials do about these threats? Parliamentary reporter Jana McGregor will tell you where we are the most sensitive, why interfering is happening and what you need to know this season of the spin. It consists in: Gloria Fung, Canadian coalition for a foreign registry of transparency of Khan's influence, former co -director Saskatchewan stands in Hong Kong BalPreet Singh, World Sikh Organization Wayne, Director of Research and Politics, Samara Center for Democactéphane Perrault, Chief Elertoral OfficeerVivek elections Krishnamurthy, associate professor at the University of Colorado Law School … and more!
After watching his campaign fighting for party officials to break down what they think irregularities vote at the nomination meeting, Chan remained with traditional questions about the honesty and security of the whole process.
“There are no rules in many of these nominations. It's basically a Gong program,” said CBC CBC News. I was worried Not only local policy could have been in the gameHe contacted public security authorities.
Attempts to interfere with foreign
Once a week, during this federal election campaign, reporters in Ottawa are informed by the highest security and interview officials on an unusual topic: whether voting they cover remains safe before foreign interference.
Officials say that they detect efforts to sway the political opinions of Canadians, including Organized push In the Chinese language of social media to “pollute” the digital environment with a positive and negative adoption of the liberal leader Marek Carney.
Weekly briefings are the first in the federal election campaign. And this race is coming only a few weeks after the judge Marie-Josée Hogue 51 Recommendations for securing Canada elections against interference.
Her investigation into the elections in 2019 and 2021 did not conclude that attempts to interfere were sufficient to convince their results – but she wrote that interfering, disinformation and disinformation would increase only in future competitions.
All this tells the Canadians, they wondered how safe their voting was.
“Attempts to disrupt are simply: tests,” said Bridget Walshe from Communications Security Establishment Canada, the Canadian IT Safety Agency, during check -in at the beginning of this month.
The purpose of these updates is not to cause unjustified fears that this voice is manipulated by enemy foreign actors, this is the opposite. If more voters understand threats, officials hope that they will be smart enough to see false messages before they shape their political views.
This awareness can be particularly important in these elections, and Hogue's recommendations largely out of place, and the changes proposed by the electoral director in order to strengthen the integrity of Canada's democracy, which has not yet completed in parliament.
Canadian security and interview threats for the election. Task group claims that the liberal leader Mark Carney was the subject of articles distributed by Youo-Youmian, the most popular information account on Wechat, which is associated with the Central Political and Legal Commission of the Communist Party.
False news in swings?
Gloria Fung is worried about the slow pace of these corrections. She is a supporter of democracy in Hong Kong and a supporter of the Coalition of Human Rights Groups, who has been lobbying for years to establish a register of transparency of foreign influence in Canada.
Fungy worries that Canadian political parties remain naive, how easy consular officials and other proxies of creating networks capable of penetrating their campaigns and manipulation of opinions are.
“I have already seen signs … false messages distributed in some swing competitions, which are the target rides of the Chinese communist party,” she said. “I warned the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this matter, but I don't think they treat it seriously enough.”
She says that its network was the first to notice a coordinated disinformation campaign to Wechat during the last election Targeted, and then MP Kenny Chiu and other conservative candidates who criticized human rights abuse in China.
Hogue investigation examined this disinformation and agreed that it could have influenced some voters – although it is not clear if it actually cost conservatives in 2021.
No suspicion of transparency
Hogue investigation also meant the party leadership races as easier to penetrate than widespread elections. Intelligence disclosures warned of interfering attempts in the party Races that chose both conservative leader Pierre Pailievre in 2022 and Carney at the beginning of this year.
Two Indian Canadian candidates were disqualified from the liberal leadership race for indefinite violations of the rules: Chandra Arya AND Ruby Ruby. In the case of Dhalla, the party claimed that the activities of its campaign could be a foreign interference if they took place during the federal campaign. Dhalla denies all offenses.
BalPreet Singh, a lawyer who represented the Sikh coalition during a public investigation, is afraid that the liberal party has not learned from the Hogue committee. He represents Canadians who definitely disagree with the views of these two candidates for Indian policy and have never supported their candidates.
Despite this, Singh regrets that the liberals were more transparent about why they were disqualified.
“What does this say about racist candidates generally?” He said. The mystery of “plays against these … racist clues that we see that they are not real Canadians.”
“It would really be better if the reasons were explained.”
Education, not censorship
After voting in Great Britain and the US elections in 2016, the election director of Stéphane Perrault said that the election in Canada realized that it was necessary to start working with security partners to make sure that the integrity of elections is not threatened.
Perrault told CBC News that these events taught him, that not all Canadians understand concepts such as the principle of secret voting.
As a pilot project, the election of Canada hired Pendjab, Kantonian and Mandarin teachers to conduct civic educational programs, with new materials in more languages ​​to help voters understand security to protect the integrity of voting.
Fighting disinformation is not something that according to Perrault is suitable for his role. Instead of increasing public trust in the neutrality of your agency, attempts to regulate political speech can arouse suspicions of prejudices.
“The validity of the accuracy of information about the candidate, party or platform would undermine my credibility very, very seriously,” he said.
“I think it's something that I can't take without violating my office's legitimacy.”