A new report from a federal security task force says foreign interference activities during the last general election were “small scale” and often difficult to attribute to an actor from abroad.
The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force includes representatives of Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP and the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s cyberspy agency.
Under a federal protocol, a panel of senior bureaucrats had the power to warn the public during the election campaign if it decided one or more incidents threatened Canada’s ability to hold a free and fair vote.
No such announcement was made during the 2025 campaign, which ended with the election of a minority Liberal government led by Mark Carney.
The panel of bureaucrats includes the clerk of the Privy Council, the national security and intelligence adviser, the deputy attorney general and the deputy ministers of public safety and foreign affairs.
Known as the “panel of five,” it received regular updates from the security task force during the election campaign.
In an “after-action report” made public Thursday, the task force said it noticed transnational repression efforts, particularly by China.
It saw efforts by China-linked actors to amplify contrasting narratives about political candidates across a variety of social media platforms where Chinese-speaking users in Canada were active.
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In addition, the task force noted efforts by Russia to undertake foreign information manipulation and interference activities online.
Finally, the members saw incidents where politicians’ names and likeness were used to promote cryptocurrency and financial scams.
The report says the task force briefed the panel on these incidents and addressed them based on the panel’s direction.
The task force also informed Canadians about what it was seeing, including through weekly technical briefings to media that took place during the campaign.
The task force report was included in a broader summary document on the election issued Thursday by the government.
It said the panel of five’s reflections “point to the broader reality that electoral integrity must be tended to throughout the full life-cycle of democratic governance.”
As Canada looks to future elections, the lessons of the most recent one will serve as a benchmark “on how best to protect and promote democratic integrity in an increasingly challenging environment,” the document added.
A separate report released by the task force Wednesday on the Liberal leadership race early this year found no incidents that impacted the outcome, which saw Carney elected to succeed former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
However, it did highlight the Chinese-backed “information operation” that targeted candidate Chrystia Freeland, which was publicly reported in February.
The report also mentions “a security concern involving an individual identified by the RCMP” who was later successfully prevented from attending a Carney campaign event.
—With files from Global News
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