Traitors, Treason and the Truth

Canada's Foreign Interference Wake Up Call

The Arrest of Sir Roger Mortimer, England’s ‘Greatest Traitor’ 1330

One of the most dangerous misconceptions about foreign interference in our democracy is the idea that it can be simplified into a discussion of traitors and treason. That is not how foreign political influence in this modern era works. The real danger facing our democracy is not spies infiltrating parliament like out of the pages of a John le Carré novel. Today, the risks can come in the form of diaspora community powerbrokers, all expense paid trips, astro turf community group support, side business sweetheart deals and social media manipulation. Foreign influence is exerting its presence through the slow erosion of integrity in far too many people who seek and wield power.

It is unlikely that a compromised politician will have taken a bribe or be subject to blackmail. There is no ‘Manchurian candidate’ sitting in the third row of the House of Commons. What we need to look for today is someone who repeatedly exercises poor judgment, allows personal relationships to cloud their decision-making, or becomes dependent on foreign support for political or financial gain. There are many shades of grey before one reaches the darkness of treason.

The most important finding from the release of the final report of the Foreign Interference Commission (the Hogue Inquiry) this week was that operating in the grey is becoming far too common in Canadian political culture. A public inquiry into foreign interference in our politics was never about finding traitors or uncovering acts of treason, which is why most media headlines this week did a disservice to the issue. The Hogue Inquiry was about examining the conduct of political leaders and their senior advisors over the last number of years to see if we were rising to meet this threat to our democracy. The simple answer is that we are not.

Far too many politicians and senior political staff have shown that they have poor judgment. The culture of complacency surrounding intelligence sharing has been just as concerning. This inattention to what is happening on an intelligence level combined with the reality of social media and modern diaspora politics in Canada means foreign interference activities have been accelerating in Canada in the last decade and we are sending a signal that we do not care.

Unlike our allies in the U.S., Australia, and the U.K., Canada has no meaningful enforcement against foreign influence operations, and no systematic way of tracking the financial ties of politicians to foreign entities. FI is increasing in Canada at a time we have had very few mechanisms to promote and enforce accountability and transparency. All of this must change if we are to secure our parliamentary democracy and send the signal that such interference is unacceptable. If we do not begin to act now, we are surrendering our political sovereignty as a nation.

The 2021 General Election

On election night, I knew foreign interference (FI) had impacted the results in a small number of ridings. Our modeling projections were falling remarkably out of the range expected in the same ridings where our campaign had witnessed online and in person FI activities taking place. Amid the tears of my family that night and the need to finalize my concession speech, I had a terrible feeling of guilt for not having done more to help some great Members of Parliament withstand the relentless attacks against them during that campaign. Kenny, Bob, Leona, Alice and several candidates were on my mind that night. These were my friends and I felt like I had failed to adequately defend them.

Despite these feelings, I did not mention FI on election night, nor did I raise it in the days or weeks that followed. My team worked with CSIS and government officials until the new government was sworn in and we urged them to publicly address the issues that had occurred in a few regions of the country. I never once questioned the integrity of any aspect of the election despite the FI we had encountered because I knew it would diminish the process and likely lead to defensive Liberal attacks. I had hoped that our political system - from the Prime Minister and senior ranks of the government down to their top political advisors and civil servants - would be interesting in getting to the bottom of what happened, so that they could learn, self-correct and defend our system from such attacks. Sadly, they were not interested. Absolutely nothing happened.

Therefore, I felt it was my duty to properly raise the issue in a non-partisan, but serious way. So, in the final miles of my political journey, I decided to carefully raise the issue. Nine months after the election, I shared my initial thoughts about the impact of FI on the podcast of a Liberal MP. As I expected, it did not go over well.

Government MPs, the media and even a respected university-based think tank criticized or politely dismissed my claim that FI may have impacted the election result in a few ridings. The establishment balked because the government had never said anything about FI and because it is difficult to detect. However, small groups of Canadians impacted by the issue began to speak up. Diaspora groups thanked me for raising the issue. New examples of FI were also being brought forward to MPs and leading commentators. Journalists began to ask me some questions about the campaign that made it clear to me that some investigations of Chinese interference were underway. The slow drip of concerns in the weeks after my podcast discussion was turning into a steady stream of attention and concern about the silence of the government on the issue.

The FI dam burst wide open in February and March 2023 with a series of bombshell reports on Chinese interference in Canadian politics. Intelligence leaks revealed serious allegations regarding FI in the 2019 and 2021 elections, as well concerns about nomination races, public intimidation and a range of other FI activities. Journalists Sam Cooper, Steven Chase and Bob Fife deserve a lot of credit for blowing the lid off a subject that the Trudeau government had been very carefully controlling. The flurry of coverage culminated in a historic and quite poignant essay from one of the intelligence sources who was breaking the law to get the story of government inaction on FI out.

“Months passed, and then years. The threat grew in urgency; serious action remained unforthcoming. I endeavored, alone and with others, to raise concerns about this threat directly to those in a position to hold our top officials to account. Regrettably, those individuals were unable to do so.

In the time that passed, another federal election had come and gone, the threat of interference had grown, and it had become increasingly clear that no serious action was being considered. Worse still, evidence of senior public officials ignoring interference was beginning to mount.”

- CSIS Whistleblower, March 17, 2023

I was struck by the power of the words of the CSIS source and his/her desire to hold people to account. While I did not agree with their decision to break national security laws related to intelligence, I understood the motivation. The conduct of the government in the months that followed these news stories only reinforced the reason why the intelligence official had felt compelled to act.

The Prime Minister and his government have resisted examination of their decisions and a wider discussion of FI risks at every step of this national debate, including after the Hogue Inquiry got underway. First, they used the goodwill of a remarkable Canadian to hold a curated review of the issue of FI under the guise of using a ‘Special Rapporteur’. Later they resisted the efforts of parliamentary committees to properly examine the issue, with one Liberal MP¹ even launching hyper-partisan attacks claiming the Conservatives were engaged in election denialism [just as I had predicted]. Even the Prime Minister denigrated the process when he suggested that my testimony about FI to the Hogue Inquiry amounted to nothing more than me being a ‘sore loser’ years after the election. The Trudeau government was dragged kicking and screaming into a public examination of their conduct in relation to foreign inteference.

What to do now that we are awake?

Justice Hogue’s findings revealed a discomforting pattern of neglect and dysfunction at the highest levels of government and suggested that this was the result of confusion and inaction by the government with respect to intelligence sharing. I would agree, but I will go one step further. I believe that the evidence also indicates that there has been a dangerous culture of indifference on the issue of FI created by the inaction and nonchalance of Prime Minister Trudeau and senior members of his team.

The inquiry made it clear that the Chinese Communist Party and several other foreign governments have exploited diaspora communities to exert influence, and that they use intimidation, disinformation, and economic leverage as FI tools to shape political outcomes in Canada. Unfortunately, these FI initiatives have also too often found willing participants in our political system. Whether these participants have been the result of ignorance or self-interest does not matter. What matters is that we restore ethical conduct, sound judgment and pursuit of the national interest as the core values of political involvement in Canada once again.

Justice Hogue also made it crystal clear that Canada’s intelligence-sharing system is broken and in need of a complete overhaul. This was a major reason for my quest to have a public inquiry in the first place. Critical information was never shared with political parties. Elected officials were left in the dark about threats against them and their families. Intelligence reports that should have triggered immediate action were either ignored or lost in the bureaucratic ether. To our allies in the Five Eyes, all of this must make it seem like Canada is not worthy of their trust for intelligence sharing. It is also dangerous for our country to have such a careless and cavalier approach to handling intelligence related to the public safety or public good of our country. We need to get serious fast.

The Hogue Inquiry report made several key recommendations that will do this provided they are acted upon. We need better intelligence sharing and monitoring across government. We need stronger protections for political parties through the careful use of intelligence. Hogue recommended establishing a duty for the government to warn elected officials when intelligence suggests they are being targeted by foreign actors. All of these recommendations were central elements of the representations that I made to the inquiry with the excellence assistance of my cracker jack legal team. If these recommendations are adopted, I will feel that my pushing for the inquiry was worthwhile and a sign that we are getting serious. In our view, all of the recommendations of the Hogue Inquiry must be viewed as the beginning of our work to combat FI, not the end.

We must also establish a culture of accountability when it comes to handling intelligence and ensuring the national interest always comes ahead of political interest. It is on this level that I believe that Justice Hogue fell a little short. Her report highlighted the unacceptable delay in issuing a warrant related to Bill Blair’s office, a serious national security failure, but she decided to blame ‘the system’ and not the person responsible. This was a mistake given the fact that the senior political aide who made the decision to delay action on the warrant was in a perceived conflict of interest and should have recused herself. She had a long-standing working history with the person named in the warrant, so it should have been handled expeditiously, or the aide should have recused herself. Considering this was all happening in the run up to an election, where Minister Blair’s department and CSIS were already worried about the impact of FI, makes this situation all the more concerning.

‘The system’ is run by people we trust to lead the country through challenging times. And when people in positions of power fail in their duties, whether through negligence, incompetence, or willful blindness, they must be held accountable. Otherwise, nothing will change and the next time foreign interference is detected, Canadians will have even less confidence that their government is capable of dealing with it.

We also now know that disinformation campaigns were actively coordinated on a major social media platform controlled by the Chinese government. Canada must treat this as a national security issue. Foreign-controlled platforms must be subject to stricter oversight. Disinformation campaigns must be countered in real time both before and during an election. And Canadians must be made aware of the risks these platforms pose. In my view, the public education aspect to the Hogue Inquiry has been the most important element of the commission’s work, which is why I truly appreciate the work done by Justice Hogue and her team.

The Foreign Interference Commission offers a roadmap for what Canada must do next. We need real reform. Our intelligence agencies must be respected and empowered to act. We must also hold people to the highest standard possible when they present themselves to run for public office. And we need to ensure that our political system will hold people accountable when they fail to do their jobs or allow themselves to be compromised.

What we do next will speak to our integrity as one of the world’s great democracies. In Canada, the franchise of our citizens must be the cornerstone of our politics and we must act swiftly to ensure that every vote in every riding matters.

1. I am sad to report that this unserious MP had actually served on the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians and should have known the realities of FI.