Canada: “China and India may seek to meddle in election”… CSIS highlights AI use in election meddling and that Russia & Pakistan also potential threats

Canadian Security Intelligence Service Headquarters and Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre sign in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Wild Allegation à la Politicks Canada: Russian Bot, Chinese Spy, Indian Voodoo, and more will sneak into Canada via backdoor (likely using the notorious Israelis Pegasus Spyware) to steal the election from Canada?

Canada has expressed concerns that China and India may attempt to interfere in its upcoming federal elections. Canadian officials have warned about potential foreign interference, particularly from these two countries, based on intelligence reports and past incidents.

Canada claims China and India may seek to meddle in election

• Canada’s spy service warns of election interference by China and India
• CSIS highlights AI use in election meddling by hostile state actors
• Russia and Pakistan also potential threats to Canadian elections, says CSIS

China and India are likely to try to interfere in the Canadian general election on April 28, while Russia and Pakistan have the potential to do so, the country’s spy service said on Monday.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service made its comments at a time when Ottawa’s relations with both India and China are chilly. Beijing and New Delhi have denied previous allegations of interference.

China’s Alleged Interference:

• Canada has previously accused China of meddling in its elections, including the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
• A public inquiry (the Foreign Interference Commission) is investigating these claims, with reports of Chinese officials targeting Canadian politicians and diaspora communities.
• China has denied these allegations, calling them “baseless.”
• Canada was slow in responding to efforts by China and India to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 elections but their outcomes were unaffected by the meddling, an official probe said in a final report released in January.

Canadian Response:

• The Canadian government has increased monitoring of foreign influence operations.
• Measures include stricter cybersecurity protocols, public awareness campaigns, and legal actions against foreign interference.
• Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government faces pressure to address these threats effectivel

Vanessa Lloyd, deputy director of operations at CSIS, told a press conference that hostile state actors were increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to meddle in elections.

“The PRC (People’s Republic of China) is highly likely to use AI enabled tools to attempt to interfere with Canada’s democratic process in this current election,” she said.

Earlier this month Beijing announced tariffs on more than $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products, retaliating against levies Ottawa slapped on Chinese electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products last year.

Canada said last week that China had executed four Canadian citizens on drug smuggling charges, and strongly condemned Beijing’s use of the death penalty.

At the same time,

India’s Growing Scrutiny:

Latest: Pierre Poilievre took heat today over an allegation that India helped organize support for him when he was running for his job in 2022.

• Recent intelligence suggests India may also engage in election interference, though details are less publicized compared to China.
• Tensions between Canada and India have risen, particularly after Canada accused India of involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist (Hardeep Singh Nijjar) in British Columbia in 2023.
• India has dismissed interference claims, calling them “unfounded.”

Canada last year expelled six Indian diplomats – including the head of mission – over allegations they were involved in a plot against Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.

“We have also seen that the government of India has the intent and capability to interfere in Canadian communities and democratic processes,” said Lloyd.

The Chinese and Indian diplomatic missions in Ottawa were not immediately available for comment.

Russia and Pakistan could potentially conduct foreign interference activities against Canada, Lloyd added.

“It’s often very difficult to establish a direct link between foreign interference activities and election results … Nevertheless, threat activities can erode public trust in the integrity of Canada’s democratic processes and institutions,” she said.

Broader Context:

Foreign election interference has become a major issue in Western democracies, with the U.S., UK, and Australia also raising alarms about China and Russia. Canada’s warnings reflect growing geopolitical tensions, particularly with China over espionage and with India over Sikh separatist activism.

Meanwhile,

China, Russia, and Pakistan have no time for Canada’s political shenanigans

Beside India, none of the alleged “bad actors” ie. China, Russia, Pakistan even bother to respond to Canada’s written  diarrhea, however, Indian media as usual are more than enthusiastic to start pumping out headlines of the wild allegations by trying to blame it all on China as below:-

India has intent, capability to interfere in Canada elections: Ottawa’s claim

“We have also seen that the government of India has the intent and capability to interfere in Canadian democratic processes,” the task force said.

While China is perceived as the principal threat of potential interference in the federal election in Canada, Ottawa is also monitoring potential influence operations by other countries, including India.

As the campaign for the federal election on April 28 got underway on Sunday, the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force is actively monitoring possible interference activity.

During a briefing on Monday, the task force’s chair, Vanessa Lloyd, also Deputy Director of Operations at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), said, “The PRC (People’s Republic of China) is highly likely to use AI-enabled tools to attempt to interfere with Canada’s democratic process in this current election,” according to media reports.

She also cited India as a potential threat, saying, “We have also seen that the government of India has the intent and capability to interfere in Canadian communities and democratic processes.”

The other countries named in the context of clandestine foreign interference were Russia and Pakistan.
The task force coordinates the government’s intelligence collection and analysis efforts concerning threats to Canada’s federal election processes, and it includes Global Affairs Canada’s Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) Canada, which monitors the digital information environment for foreign state-sponsored disinformation.

RRM Canada issued a warning during the race for the leadership of the Liberal Party, which concluded on March 9 with current Prime Minister Mark Carney winning with nearly 86 percent of the ballots cast by registered members of the party.

Earlier this month, it also warned of a “spamouflage” campaign targeting several individuals based in Canada, linked to China. It described spamouflage as a combination of “spam” and “camouflage,” intended to portray the hidden attempts to spread spam-like content and propaganda among more everyday, human-interest-style content.
In January, the final report of a foreign interference inquiry alleged that India was the “second most active country engaging in electoral foreign interference in Canada.” Only China, the report stated, has a greater impact on the country’s democratic processes.

The final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, which is headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, was released on January 28 in Ottawa. Other nations accused of interference included Russia, Pakistan, and Iran.

The voluminous report stated, “India is the second most active country engaging in electoral foreign interference in Canada. Like the PRC (People’s Republic of China), India is a critical actor on the world stage.”

It stated that Canada and India have worked together for decades, but there were “challenges in the relationship.” Many of these, it said, were longstanding and inform India’s foreign interference activities. “India perceives Canada as not taking India’s national security concerns about Khalistani separatism (the goal of an independent Sikh homeland in northern India called ‘Khalistan’) sufficiently seriously.”

It said that India “focuses its foreign interference activities on the Indo-Canadian community and on prominent non-Indo-Canadians to achieve its objectives,” adding that New Delhi “has targeted all levels of government.”

It also alleged that India conducts such interference through “diplomatic officials in Canada and through proxies.”

Rumor has it India’s PM Narendra Modi is conspiring with New Democratic Party (NDP) headed by a Khalistani separatist rebel Jagmeet Singh to win the election, so that the Sikhs can take over Canada as their Republic of Khalistan, instead of trying  to carve a separate state out of India as commented by Stephen Harper, former prime minister of Canada: –

“Stephen Harper suggests infiltration of Khalistani Sikh activists in Liberal Party turns Canada into a “Third World Kiddie Battleground”… and ruined Canada-India relationship”

Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s NDP aka “Woke Khalistani”  seen playing “Voodoo Cosplay” in Toronto, Ontario