Is Canada vulnerable to foreign interference?
Many of us think so, and fear that this has been the case for some time.
Mere weeks after the end of the Second World War, Igor Gouzenko (a Soviet intelligence officer) defected to Canada. He brought proof that the USSR had been spying on its allies, and that there was a large network of spies in Canada. This was the beginning of the Cold War.
The spying, of course, continued. And one wonders what sort of malign influence was exerted on our country. Certain developments make me wonder, such as when Canada reduced its NATO budget in the early 1970s and halved the number of troops stationed in Europe; or when it was rumoured that the Canadian cabinet had very nearly voted to withdraw from NATO. Then there was Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s expressions of approval for the Soviet imposition of martial law on Poland in 1981.
Were any of those occurrences influenced by Soviet agents or other malign actors? Maybe it was just a craze of the same era that saw the peace movements and anti-Vietnam War protests—many of which the Soviets helped to fund and promote. Canada was also looking for allies apart from the USA, and may have been looking in the wrong places. But we will never know how closely the USSR was involved in our own politics because the matter wasn’t investigated at the time, and it’s too late now.
In the present moment, suspicions of foreign interference have been circulating for some time. In 2010, CSIS, our domestic intelligence service, began warning that China had co-opted some Canadian politicians and bureaucrats, and that academic partnerships between Canadian universities and China were a potential source of interference also. Since 2010, suspicions have expanded to include apparent meddling by Russia, Iran, and India. And in 2023, MP Michael Chong revealed that a Chinese diplomat had been trying to gather information on him and his family in order to intimidate him in response to his support for Uyghur minority rights in China.
Such concerns were ignored for a long time, and sometimes absurdly dismissed as mere manifestations of racism. But, late last year, the federal government finally agreed to hold an inquiry, along with public hearings, into foreign interference in our elections and democratic institutions. They did so reluctantly in September of last year, after months of outrage and partisan bickering. The Hon. Marie-Josée Hogue, puisne judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal, was appointed to lead the process, and she has promised not to allow it to become a platform for partisan debate.
Better late than never, though we may have to wait some time before any conclusions are drawn.
Whatever the outcome of the inquiry and hearings, there can be no question that we are vulnerable to malign foreign influence. Every country has social and political troubles which could be exploited. And constitutions and democratic institutions are fragile. They depend above all on public confidence and respect, which our enemies may try to undermine. Fault-lines unique to Canada may include our regionalism, the English-French divide, western alienation from the federal government, and indigenous reconciliation. Trust in our institutions is not as bad is in some other countries, but it leaves much to be desired. A recent Statistics Canada survey found that only about 30 percent of Canadians felt that they trusted the federal Parliament.
But in Canada as in other Western countries, we also suffer from a widening gulf between a disconnected governing class and a much larger group of ordinary people. Our governing elite appears increasingly uncomfortable with mass politics, and seems to want tighter control over political processes. They also seem to want stringent control over the sharing of information over the internet. In contrast, many others are growing more and more suspicious of elite priorities. Such is the origin of populism, since it is the only force promising to challenge elite consensus. This is a domestic political challenge, but it is also a conflict that malign influence might exaggerate into something far more serious.
So by all means let’s see where the inquiry goes, and if possible follow its recommendations. But let’s also work on solving those domestic political problems that our adversaries might be tempted to exploit.
We can start now with a renewed emphasis on national unity and confidence. Let’s retire the idea that Canada has no national identity, nor any history to be proud of. And let’s work on ensuring that political elites respond to needs of ordinary people. Without such changes, no matter how secure our elections may be, apathy and insecurity will leave us vulnerable to our adversaries.
