Foreign interference inquiry turns focus to ‘present and the future’ of threats

The next stage of the federal foreign interference inquiry will shift focus to what meddling hostile states are likely to try in Canada’s upcoming elections — and what can be done to thwart it.

Justice Marie-Josée Hogue said Monday that the latest round of hearings will focus more on “the present and the future” of foreign interference in Canadian elections rather than on what happened in the 2019 and 2021 general elections or on naming parliamentarians who allegedly colluded with countries such as China, India or Russia.

“Essentially, we will be examining the current capacity of government departments (and) agencies … to combat foreign interference, and how their ability to do so has evolved over time,” Hogue said as the inquiry resumed public hearings.

“However, some of the issues raised in the first round of hearings will be explored in greater depth in this next round.”

Anyone hoping Hogue would name names of those MPs and political players suspected of participating in foreign interference schemes, however, will be disappointed.

The Québec appeals court justice made clear, both in a press release last week and in her opening statement on Monday, that it is not her role to identify individual bad actors.

In June, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) revealed that an unknown number of Canadian politicians knowingly worked with foreign states to interfere in the country’s democratic process. That same month, the House of Commons voted to have Hogue investigate those allegations.

“I will not be publicly identifying Parliamentarians who NSICOP … suspects of having participated in foreign interference activities, or of having acted wittingly or unwittingly as agents of foreign states,”