Commissioner Justice Marie-Josee Hogue listens to a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Commissioner Justice Marie-Josee Hogue listens to a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
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:
— 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 …â€
— 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.â€
— All electoral communications distributed during an election period which have been generated or manipulated by AI should be watermarked.
This report by ¹ú²úÓÕ»ó¸£Àû was first published Jan. 28, 2025.