Editor's note: This article originally appeared on Parliament Today, a Village Media newsletter devoted exclusively to covering federal politics.
Security officials are warning that this week’s national debates in Montreal present an "opportunity for malign actors” to take advantage of the election and spread online disinformation.
Officials with the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) task force walked reporters through possible threats that could arise following the French and English debates on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
“We anticipate, based on past years, that there could be significant online activity during this time,” Privy Council Office (PCO) assistant secretary to cabinet communications and consultations Laurie-Anne Kempton told Ottawa reporters Monday.
She noted that during the 2021 leaders’ debate, there was an "exceptionally concentrated discussion of Canadian politics” on Twitter, now known as X, a trend officials expect to hold this time around.
Bridget Walshe, the associate head of the Canadian Security Establishment’s Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, said the task force examined 151 elections to take stock of the global cyber threat landscape, confirming that some state actors have an “intent” to disrupt overseas elections. China and Russia made up the “bulk” of those threats, she said, using tactics like deepfakes, AI and disinformation.
Officials added that hostile states will look to exploit existing "cleavages and conflicts within society" on which there is already debate, such as the rate of immigration in Canada, by possibly "throwing extreme opinions into the mix on comment pages."
Button-planting incident not a job for SITE
While there could be a spike in malicious online activity, SITE cautioned its focus is on monitoring “foreign-backed” operations — appearing to acknowledge its reach is limited.
CSIS deputy director Vanessa Lloyd was asked about a decision made by some Liberal operatives to spread “stop the steal” buttons at a conservative conference last week in an effort to link conservative supporters to U.S. President Donald Trump’s consistent questioning of the 2021 U.S. election results. CBC reported on the dirty trick after one of the Liberals bragged about it in an Ottawa bar while sitting next to a CBC journalist.
According to Lloyd, SITE wants to shed as much light on suspicious election threats as possible, but this case falls outside of its bailiwick.
“Not all cases of disinformation are foreign-backed, and not all cases where disinformation is foreign-backed will be able to be attributed," Lloyd said.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney called the button incident “totally unacceptable” on Monday.
Carney apologized “unreservedly” and said he’s made it “clear” to his campaign that “this behaviour or anything approximating it or in that spirit” cannot happen again. He said he was “unaware” of the incident and added that those responsible have been “reassigned within the campaign," but stopped short of offering specifics.