Federal political parties must work together to quickly adopt the recommendations made by the investigation of Judge Marie-Josée Hogue on the foreign interference before the next elections, says the leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May.
In her report it was made public on Tuesday, Hogue made 51 recommendations, 24 of which she said they should adopt before the next federal elections.
However, the decision of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of El Parliament of the extension, while his party has a leadership career to succeed it, means that Parliament cannot promulgate any of the highly of Canada’s elections. It is widely expected that opposition parties fulfill their promise to defeat the minority liberal government when Parliament resumes on March 24, immersing Canada in a federal election.
The former directors of CSIS Ward Elcock and Richard Fadden break down the final report of foreign interference research that does not find evidence of “traitors” in Parliament, but points out serious threats for erroneous information, misinformation and transnational repression.
Speaking to journalists after the report was made public on Tuesday, May described a plan for Parliament to adopt at least some of Hogue’s recommendations before that.
“For the sake of Canada, we meet them, we establish them, we ask the prime minister, whoever, so that the throne discourse identifies areas of unanimous consent motions that we could approve,” he said.
She said that Parliament could boost changes in just 30 minutes if you take that route.
Meanwhile, May said that political parties must act on the recommendations that touch them, such as ensuring that party members are Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
But it might not be so simple.
Public Security Minister David McGuinty, and the Minister of Democratic Institutions, Ruby Sahota, announced more money to combat foreign interference on Tuesday, but Sahota’s office said it is too early to know if the government will try to implement some of the HOGUE recommendations before the next elections.
“We are going to need time to review the report and the real recommendations in its entirety before being able to answer any of that,” said Myah Tomasi, Sahota Communications Director.
The leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh, said that his party will adopt the recommendations of the report regarding political parties, but changing the electoral law depends on the liberal government.
“They could not have extended to Parliament and we could have made things happen in Parliament. They could remember the Parliament,” said Singh. “Then, it really depends on them if they want to implement the recommendations of Judge Hogue.”
However, Bloc Québécois leader, Yves-François Blanchet, said that if the liberals want to adopt the research recommendations more quickly, they should call an choice now. Blanchet also did not promise to proactively implement the recommendations regarding political parties, noting that parties are private entities.
The conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that the report confirms many of the concerns that the conservative party has raised in the last two years regarding foreign interference. He said the party “will carefully study” HOGUE’s recommendations, but he didn’t say if he would work to establish his recommendations before the next elections.
In his report, Hogue discovered that foreign states have been trying to interfere with the democratic institutions of Canada. She said that to date there have been a small number of isolated cases that may have had an impact on the result of a nomination or choice, but said the impact to date has been minimal.
“There is no evidence to suggest that our institutions have been seriously affected by such interference or that parliamentarians owe their successful choice to foreign entities,” he wrote.
However, Hogue said there is a threat to future Canadian elections.
“I have learned that the threat of foreign interference is real,” Hogue wrote. “There are several foreign states that are actively working to endure in secret and, often illegally, in our democratic institutions. They use a wide range of strategies and tactics, some of which are incredibly sophisticated.”
Hogue said that misinformation campaigns on social media platforms now constitute an important foreign interference source.
“This emerging trend is quite worrying because misinformation is especially difficult to combat, and efforts to regulate social media platforms to stop it so far have not been successful,” Hogue wrote. “Canada needs to reflect on this threat and find ways to treat it.”
To frustrate the attempts of other countries to end up the next vote, Hogue recommended the law of Canada “quickly.”
Among your recommendations:
- Allow only Canadian citizens and permanent residents to vote in the nomination of the party and leadership competitions and demand that the parties make the members declare their status.
- Update the election law to prohibit trying to influence the way someone votes at all times, not only during electoral periods and including nomination and leadership competitions.
- Prohibit foreign entities from contributing to a third party to carry out regulated activities under the law and prohibit that third parties use properties or services provided by a foreign entity for those activities.
- Require a clear brand for all paid and unpaid communications during an election, nomination or leadership contest that have been generated or manipulated by artificial intelligence.
- Amend the law of elections to “prohibit the spread of false information to undermine the legitimacy of an election or its results.”
- Expand sections of the Law of Elections that prohibit lying or committing fraud in an election to the nomination and leadership competitions.
The Security and Intelligence Expert Wesley Wark, the main member of the International Governance Innovation Center, said that Hogue’s report includes important recommendations to improve intelligence, adopt a foreign interference strategy, better protect parliament and make parliamentarians Be more knowledgeable about threats.
However, Wark said that recommendations to change legislation can take time to implement.
“These recommendations are for the future. A future government of any strip will inherit them and will have to act on those who believe they are implementable and important,” Wark said.
