Canada’s byelections will be monitored for foreign interference: minister

The Liberal government says measures to monitor and assess foreign interference threats will be part of all future federal byelections, not just general elections.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Monday the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force will be watching for signs of meddling in two September byelections, one in Quebec, the other in Manitoba.

The federal body, established in 2019 to protect the electoral process, includes representatives of CSIS, the RCMP, Global Affairs Canada and the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s cyberspy agency.

The SITE task force already has some experience monitoring federal byelections this year and in 2023.

During byelections, the task force will provide intelligence assessments to a committee of deputy ministers. In turn, the committee will brief and advise ministers responsible for fighting foreign interference and shielding democratic institutions from harm, LeBlanc said in a statement.

Lines of communications “continue to be opened” with representatives of political parties to ensure engagement as necessary over the course of a byelection period, the statement added.

The SITE task force will also produce both a classified and an unclassified report on its overall assessment of any attempts at foreign meddling during a byelection.

The classified report will be made available to the prime minister, relevant ministers, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians — made up of MPs and senators — and security-cleared representatives of political parties, the statement said.

The next scheduled byelections, in Elmwood-Transcona in Winnipeg and LaSalle—Émard—Verdun in Montreal, will be held on Sept. 16.

The process is somewhat