Documents from Canada’s spy agency, made public at the inquiry looking into foreign interference in Canadian elections, named India and Pakistan as two governments involved in attempts to influence the 2019 and 2021 votes.
It comes as the government of India has already denied allegations that it interfered in the last two Canadian elections.
“We strongly reject all such baseless allegations of Indian interference in Canadian elections,” said India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in a statement from a Feb. 8 press briefing.
“It is not Government of India’s policy to interfere in democratic processes of other countries. In fact, quite on the reverse, it is Canada which has been interfering in our internal affairs. We have been raising this issue regularly with them. We continue to call on Canada to take effective measures to address our core concerns.”
The documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) accused India of interference in 2021, when it had “intent to interfere and likely conducted clandestine activities,” including the use of an Indian government proxy agent in Canada.
WATCH | CSIS says India, Pakistan meddled in past elections:
Foreign interference inquiry focuses on India, Pakistan
1 day ago
Duration 1:59
The ongoing public inquiry on foreign election interference has shifted focus to what is considered the second biggest threat: India. Intelligence officials testified that India targets a number of ‘high-priority individual races’ rather than the election as a whole.
CSIS alleges that in 2021, the Indian government’s foreign interference activities “were centred on a small number of electoral districts.” The government of India targeted those ridings, CSIS wrote, because there was a perception by India that “a portion of Indo-Canadian voters were sympathetic to the Khalistani movement or pro-Pakistan political stances.”
The reports all bear notes of caution about the summaries being possibly uncorroborated, single-sourced or incomplete. CSIS director David Vigneault told the public inquiry that intelligence is not necessarily fact and it may require further investigation.
CBC reached out to the High Commission of Pakistan on Friday morning, but has not received a response.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday the government has continued to take steps to protect Canada from foreign influence in elections.
WATCH | Trudeau responds to allegations of Indian, Pakistani interference:
Trudeau is asked if meddling by Pakistan, India poses a threat to Canada’s electoral system
2 days ago
Duration 1:20
Responding to documents made public at the inquiry looking into interference in Canadian elections, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that both security and government mechanisms have known for ‘many years that many different countries’ attempt to interfere with Canadian institutions.
“We have known for many, many years that many different countries take an interest in engaging in Canadian institutions and sometimes influencing, sometimes interfering, in the work of Canadian institutions,” he said.
“I can assure people that we will continue to do everything necessary to prevent interference from whatever country it comes from.”
Alleged interference could have multiple goals
Wesley Wark, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said the intelligence summaries made public by the inquiry suggest the alleged Indian interference would have had two main goals.
“One is that India is interested in trying to find ways to kind of support its own message within the Canadian political space,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
“But the other, and perhaps more worrying, is that the indications are that India has tried to intimidate or suppress voters in diaspora communities — particularly Sikh Canadians — to kind of take them out of the political game if they can, and sort of suppress their voice.”
CSIS director David Vigneault, appearing at the election interference inquiry on Thursday, said intelligence materials, such as the CSIS documents presented at the inquiry, may require further investigation. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Wark also said it was a big surprise that CSIS was seemingly so concerned about Pakistan that it executed a “threat-reduction measure” in 2019. He said that could encompass a range of actions.
“That could be something as simple as as posting a marked police car outside a known threat actor’s residence or place of work. It could be something like providing information to a foreign diplomat to say, ‘Look, we know what you’re up to, please stop.'”
Wark said the public knows very little about the threat-reduction measures CSIS has taken since it received the powers to execute them in 2015.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
