The latest Western foreign interference inquiry is turning over the wrong rocks

The latest Western foreign interference inquiry is turning over the wrong rocks

By: Rachel Marsden

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Canada is currently holding an inquiry into whether there was foreign interference in the two most recent federal elections, in 2019 and 2021. So far, it’s everyone’s fault – except those who have done the most actual damage.

The inquiry has heard allegations from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), that China tried to distribute $250,000 in an attempt to “covertly advance China’s interest through Canadian democratic institutions” during the 2019 election, “possibly for foreign interference.” Hardly a smoking gun. The Canadian government has also accused China of using WeChat — an app that Canadians don’t much care about — as a platform to badmouth parliamentarians from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to his current rival, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Why does this inquiry feel more like a parent-teacher meeting? You’d think that smack talk, lies, trolling, and general manipulative behavior has never been an issue in Canadian politics until now, and that it’s really important for this inquiry to restore Canadian politics to the honest, civilized exercise that it always was until foreigners came along.

Last month, CSIS also accused Iran of trying to "covertly influence decisions, events or election outcomes to better suit their strategic interests."

This came in response to whining from a losing candidate of a local Ontario Conservative Party nomination contest who figured that he lost because Tehran talked smack about him online.

Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole alleges that Chinese online foreign meddling may have contributed to him being drop-kicked to the curb as party leader.

Nothing to do with the fact that his party’s petition to oust him, which he tries to tie to China, came in the wake of him handing another term to Trudeau on a silver platter.

O’Toole also blamed China for the fact that he didn’t win in 2021, and also Russia, citing vote splitting with the populist People’s Party of Canada, exacerbated by “Russia-friendly accounts" promoting anti-Covid-mandate and anti-lockdown messages favored by grassroots conservatives. Guess Russian trolls were also responsible for the Freedom Convoy movement that took the country by storm for those same causes just four months later — which the CSIS director has explicitly said didn’t involve foreign funding.

A Global Affairs Canada report tabled at the inquiry also accused the Indian government of meddling in Canada’s “digital information ecosystem” by fiddling around on social media with bots and spam.

No mention of the fact that Canada has been harboring Indian separatists of the Khalistan movement on its soil who have been accused by India of working from their Canadian home as “terrorists” in “anti-India activities” and meddling in Indian politics. One such activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was murdered in Canada in June 2023.

“We know that certain countries, actors are engaged in trying to disrupt our electoral processes,” Trudeau said, seemingly determined to find the guys responsible.

Anyone have a mirror that he can borrow? Because nonstop foreign interference in Canadian political life seems more like a feature to Canadian politicians rather than a bug. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself has pandered to ethnic voting blocs. The practice has long been rampant. Securing the vote of an entire ethnic community inside Canada means an advantage over one’s rivals. Photos abound online of Trudeau dressed up in traditional ethnic costumes, including Chinese and Indian, and even wearing Muslim Eid Mubarak socks. It doesn’t look like he had to be held down and forced into those outfits like one of those little dogs made to wear sweaters and raincoats by their owners.

Canadian foreign policy, once much more neutral and pragmatic, now seems increasingly engineered to serve ethnic voting blocs to the benefit of Canadian politicians’ careers rather than the strategic long- term interests of Canada and its citizens. Canadian establishment politicians have sacrificed Canada’s role as an honest broker in global conflicts to voting bloc support, particularly when these groups consist of well-organized communities whose lobbying and deep pockets can be mobilized en masse at election time. An anti-Iranian policy stance, for example, serves both the Iranian expatriate and Israeli lobbies. An anti-Russian position caters to the powerful Ukraine lobby. Taxpayer cash is shoveled out the door by the government as assistance or aid, greatly increasing the chance that donations will later flow into party and candidate coffers.

And no one even questions the foreign interference that has led to Canada’s status as a vassal of Washington, as Ottawa now blindly rides shotgun with Uncle Sam every trip down the Western regime change highway. And the world is worse off for this lack of diversity in policy. We’re a long way from the days of the Vietnam or Iraq wars when Canada had an independent, dissenting voice and position.

If this commission is serious about unearthing foreign interference, then perhaps it would be wiser to start with the government’s big ticket foreign spending items and work backwards from there, rather than making a big fuss about silly online trolls.