Canadian media reported in December that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada’s domestic intelligence agency, was warning that China’s efforts to distort the news and influence media outlets in Canada “have become normalized” and “more sophisticated, frequent, and insidious.” According to a CBC report:
December 7, 2021 As Canada’s spy agency warns that China’s efforts to distort the news and influence media outlets in Canada “have become normalized,” critics are renewing calls for Ottawa to take a far tougher approach to foreign media interference. The warning is contained in briefing documents drafted for Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director David Vigneault in preparation for a meeting he had with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this year. That meeting focused on the rise of foreign interference in Canada — something CSIS says has become “more sophisticated, frequent, and insidious.” One way foreign states — including the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — try to exert pressure on other countries is through media outlets, say the documents, obtained through an access to information request. “In particular, PRC media influence activities in Canada have become normalized,” it reads. “Chinese-language media outlets operating in Canada and members of the Chinese-Canadian community are primary targets of PRC-directed foreign influenced activities.”
Read the rest here.
Earlier this year, we reported about a Canadian study alleging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) runs a sophisticated network that inserts Beijing-friendly narratives into various media outlets and outlining the various tactics the CCP uses to influence Canadian politics. According to the study:
The tactics deployed by the CCP and its affiliates fall under seven broad categories covered in this report: (1) political influence, (2) elite capture, (3) surveillance and intimidation, (4) information and narrative discursion, (5) academic influence and intellectual property vulnerabilities, (6) national security, and (7) the United Front Work Department (UFWD).
Read the full study here.
In October, we reported that the CCP targeted Canada’s fall 2021 federal elections. In 2019, the Canadian government established the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol to monitor foreign challenges to the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.