Canadian officials counter intel agency, say no info ‘suggesting’ disinformation by India in 2021 polls

Canadian officials counter intel agency, say no info ‘suggesting’ disinformation by India in 2021 polls

New Delhi: A panel of Canadian officials, testifying before a public inquiry on foreign interference in Canada, denied any investigation or information regarding Indian interference in the 2021 Canadian general elections.

On 8 April, during the cross examination of a panel, which included Nathalie Drouin, the national security and intelligence adviser (NSIA) to the prime minister of Canada; Marta Morgan, former deputy foreign minister; and Janice Charette, former cabinet secretary appeared before the public inquiry and made it clear that no information existed of Indian interference.

“I do not recall [a] RRM [Rapid Response Mechanism] briefing on specific issues related to India in the online environment during the writ period in 2021,” said Morgan to a question posed by Prabjot Singh, the Counsel appearing on behalf of the Sikh Coalition, a community-based organisation.

Morgan added: “Because there was no information suggesting that there was disinformation originating from that source [India] in the Canadian information ecosphere during that period.”

Charette said, “I do not believe that during the 2021 election we saw evidence of the Government of India using those tools [used by foreign actors to interfere in the elections] in the campaign.”

The public inquiry into foreign interference in federal elections of Canada was set up to study Chinese and Russian interference in the 2019 and 2021 general elections. The inquiry is headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue of the Quebec Court of Appeal. It began its public hearings during the last week of March 2024.

Last week, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) submitted declassified documents to the inquiry, alleging that India is one of the “two main state actors most involved” in election interference. The other country being China.

CSIS, however, emphasised certain constraints on the intelligence shared with the public inquiry. The constraints include incomplete summaries, which may contain information that is single-sourced and may contain information of unknown and varying degrees of reliability.

The Indian ministry of external affairs (MEA) on 8 February rejected any suggestion of interference by the government of India in the Canadian general elections.

“We strongly reject all such baseless allegations of Indian interference in Canadian elections…In fact, quite the reverse, it is Canada which has been interfering in our internal affairs. We have been raising this issue regularly with them. We continue to call on Canada to take effective measures to address our core concerns,” said Randhir Jaiswal, MEA spokesperson.

‘No information’ on interference in specific constituencies 

The CSIS in its declassified documents alleged that Indian activities were likely “centred” around specific constituencies to secure “pro-GoI [government of India] candidates”. A declassified document from the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE-TF) suggested India’s interests were not focused on “undermining” Canada, but rather “promoting” Indian interests.

On 8 April, Rob Stewart, the former deputy minister of public safety Canada, denied that there was any such information on particular constituencies being influenced by Indian authorities.

“We were not informed of any particular activity in ridings [electoral constituencies] that are in the subject to which you refer to, during our panel process during the writ period,” said Stewart, adding that no instances of funding to candidates coming from Indian sources “were brought to our attention”.

Later during the public hearings, Vincent Rigby, who served as NSIA between 2020 and 2021, told the public inquiry that India “needs to be seen as a potential partner”.

“What I have said publicly is that India needs to be seen as a potential partner, but Canada also has to balance India as a potential partner with certain activities it has been accused of perpetrating,” said Rigby.

(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)