Panel considered public warning about interference in 2021 election, inquiry hears

By The Canadian Press on April 5, 2024.

OTTAWA – A senior federal official says a panel of top bureaucrats considered warning the public about possible foreign interference in the last general election, but ultimately decided against it.

Allen Sutherland, who sat in on the panel’s discussion, testified at an inquiry today about what he saw and heard during the 2021 election campaign.

The panel of bureaucrats learned about concerns of misinformation circulating on the social-media platform WeChat in Mandarin during the 2021 campaign.

Sutherland says the bureaucrats discussed whether a public warning was warranted in that case, and he compared it to an earlier situation involving a false news article that spread inflammatory misinformation about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2019.

He says the fact the WeChat messages were in Mandarin meant it would likely only reach the Chinese diaspora, in contrast to the fake news article that was in English and had the potential to go viral nationally.

He says it was just one of the factors that led the panel to opt against a public warning in what was ultimately a nuanced judgement call.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2024.

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