How Canada responds to foreign interference

How to report Foreign Interference

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What Canada is doing to fight foreign interference

There are many legal and diplomatic tools available to fight foreign interference, like:

The Government of Canada takes the threat posed by foreign interference seriously and has various tools and mechanisms in place to protect individuals and Canada's interests:

Critical Election Incident Public Protocol

The Critical Election Incident Public Protocol establishes a process by which Canadians would be informed of an incident or series of incidents that threaten Canada's ability to have a free and fair election. Such an incident could be in the form of foreign interference.

Critical Election Incident Public Protocol

Security Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force

The Security Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force is a group of Canadian experts working to protect Canada's elections and democracy. They collect and analyze intelligence on foreign interference threats that could harm our democratic institutions.

Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force

Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference

In 2023, the Government of Canada launched a public inquiry to investigate allegations of interference from the People's Republic of China (PRC), Russia and other countries in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

While the inquiry reaffirmed that the 2019 and 2021 federal elections were free and fair, the final report stressed that foreign interference is a growing threat that society as a whole must help defend our institutions against.

Final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions

Office of the National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator

The Office of the National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator works closely with security and intelligence partners to lead efforts to improve Canada's ability to resist foreign interference. These efforts include new and modernized legislative tools, such as the Foreign Influence Transparency Registry.

Office of the National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator

Legislative measures

Canada has introduced legislation to respond to evolving threats and to counter foreign interference. These laws enhance Canada's ability to detect, prevent, and respond to covert activities by foreign governments.

Laws to counter foreign interference

International responses

Coordinating an international response

Canada is working to lead and support global efforts to combat state-sponsored disinformation.

Canada recently led, as part of its G7 presidency, the development of a G7 statement against transnational repression. Canada is also leading the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism Secretariat, to make it easier to coordinate between G7 countries to spot and respond to foreign threats to democracy, like fake news and foreign propaganda.

Global Declaration

Canada launched the Global Declaration on Information Integrity Online with the Netherlands. This Declaration is a guide for governments to keep information online honest and factual. It also calls on industry to respect the rule of law and not abuse human rights, make their platforms more open and transparent, make it easier for users to report misinformation and support independent researchers and fact-checkers.

Global Declaration on Information Integrity Online

Call to action: Ukraine

Canada issued a call to action on state-sponsored disinformation in Ukraine as the 2022 chair of the Freedom Online Coalition. This helped industry partners take action against the rise in disinformation, even when other governments pressure them to act differently.

Call to action on state-sponsored disinformation in Ukraine

Sanctioning disinformation agents

Canada has placed sanctions on people and organizations responsible for spreading disinformation and propaganda. These sanctions are a response to Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.

Sanctions – Russian invasion of Ukraine

Related links

The following reports help contribute to broader public understanding of the issue and inform our ongoing response.

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