OTTAWA 鈥� The federal government is mulling new ways to inform the public about possible foreign interference developments during an election campaign, a senior official told a commission of inquiry Thursday.
Under the current system, a panel of five top bureaucrats would issue a public warning if they believed an incident 鈥� or an accumulation of incidents 鈥� threatened Canada's ability to have a free and fair election.
There was no such announcement concerning the 2019 or 2021 general elections.
The threshold for triggering a public announcement has been set intentionally high, as "stepping into the election space" can be disruptive to a campaign, said Allen Sutherland, an assistant secretary to cabinet for machinery of government and democratic institutions.
Sutherland told the inquiry Thursday that one avenue would be to keep an appropriately high threshold but with a clearer approach to communication in the case of a low-threshold incident.
Officials are looking at how citizens might be told about developments that don't quite reach the current threshold, he said.
That would help inform people of things they ought to know more about, even if the incidents don't rise to the level of threatening the overall integrity of an election.
Sutherland indicated officials have spoken with Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc on the matter and would continue to do so.
Allegations of foreign interference in the last two general elections prompted calls for the public inquiry that is now underway.
During an April appearance at the inquiry, Sutherland said the panel considered warning the public about possible foreign interference in the last general election, but ultimately decided against it.
That decision was made in part because a potential misinformation campaign was likely only to reach the Chinese diaspora, he said.
The panel of five is composed of the clerk of the Privy Council, the national security adviser, the deputy attorney general and the deputy ministers of public safety and foreign affairs.
Sutherland said Thursday there has been consideration of expanding the panel to include non-government representatives, something cabinet would ultimately decide.
However, he praised the current makeup, saying "we really do have a unique group of senior civil servants who each bring to the table important competencies necessary to exercise the nuanced judgment expected of the panel."
The panel receives information from sources including the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force.
The task force includes representatives of Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP, Global Affairs Canada and the Communications Security Establishment, Canada's cyberspy agency.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.
Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
