Anti-authority narratives could tear 'fabric of society,' intelligence report warns

Threats against politicians have become «increasingly normalized» due to extremist narratives prompted by personal grievances and fuelled by misinformation or deliberate lies, warns a newly released intelligence report.

The report, prepared by a federal task force that aims to safeguard elections, says the Canadian violent extremist landscape has seen the proliferation of conspiracy theories, a growing lack of trust in the integrity of the state and more political polarization.

Baseless theories, disinformation and misinformation have spread to larger audiences, exposing online users to a vast network of narratives that undermine science, systems of government and traditional figures of authority, the report says.

«Violent rhetoric routinely fixates on elected officials — with particular hostility towards high-profile women.»

The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain the June 2023 report by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force. Some passages in the «Secret / Canadian Eyes Only» assessment were considered too sensitive to release.

The federal body, established in 2019 to protect the electoral process from foreign interference, includes representatives of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP, Global Affairs Canada and the Communications Security Establishment, Canada's cyberspy agency.

The report notes that while domestic terrorism threats are not strictly part of the task force's focus on foreign meddling, «we recognize the need to provide assessments on this issue.»

The task force weighed the possible threat from violent extremism driven by politics, religion and ideology. It concluded that of the three, a Canadian federal election would «most likely be impacted» by