Canadians should "assume" the threat of foreign interference likely will be higher in the next general election than it was in 2019, said President of the Queen's Privy Council Dominic LeBlanc. 1:53The spy agency's assessment said China, Russia, and other foreign states continued to gather political, economic and military information in Canada last year. The "critical election incident public protocol panel," made up of five senior bureaucrats, was created to alert the public to acts of election interference during the campaign period. "In 2019 we saw that foreign interference — the idea that foreign states were actively trying to interfere in Canadian politics, including electoral processes — was a certainty. LeBlanc was joined by Microsoft president Brad Smith and Karen Donfried of the Alliance for Securing Democracy to promote a paper titled "Multi-Stakeholder Insights: A Compendium on Countering Election Interference".

Source: CBC News April 14, 2021 18:22 UTC