OTTAWA - After 18 months of hearings and testimony from more than 100 witnesses, the Commission on Foreign Interference released its final report Tuesday. Here are some of the highlights:
— Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue found no evidence there are “’traitors’ in Parliament plotting with foreign states to act against Canada.”
— She did find the federal government has done a “far from perfect” job of sharing information on foreign interference within government itself.
— Efforts by foreign states to control diaspora communities, known as transnational repression, can take the form of “threats of physical and sexual violence, and even threats to life …”
— The government should consider setting up a new agency to monitor open-source information, including social media platforms, for misinformation or disinformation that could undermine elections.
— Canada needs a hotline to allow citizens to report suspected foreign interference.
— The federal government should adopt a ‘duty to warn’ policy to alert individual Canadians of “credible threats of serious harm” coming directly or indirectly from a foreign entity.
— All political party leaders “should be encouraged” to obtain Top Secret security clearances.
— Riding nomination and party leadership contests should be brought under the Canada Elections Act, and only Canadian citizens and permanent residents should be allowed to vote in them.
— The government should consider whether it would be appropriate to create “a system of public funding for political parties.”
— All electoral communications distributed during an election period which have been generated or manipulated by AI should be watermarked.
This report by was first published Jan. 28, 2025.