No, we're not.
Evidence of meeting #98 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pps.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #98 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pps.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:35 p.m.
Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP
So the government is participating, and just dropped 2,000 pages on the claimants, arguing for Bill C-23, Harper's bill. It's more than confusing to Canadians, who said they want truly fair elections. A government that promised to do that is fighting in court to maintain the status quo that was brought in by the former prime minister.
I have a question about Russian diplomats. The Foreign Affairs minister, also a couple of weeks ago, said they have expelled six Russian diplomats who are:
intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy.
Are you aware of any Russian interference in the 2015 election?
12:35 p.m.
Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP
Does a citation like that, from our Foreign Affairs Minister concern Elections Canada at all?
12:35 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
It's certainly a matter of interest to us. We are working with our security partners. I met recently with the head of CSIS, as well as the Communications Security Establishment, and security people in PCO, so we are working with security partners. This is not something that belongs uniquely to Elections Canada—
12:35 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
—and we rely on their support as we approach the election.
12:35 p.m.
Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP
You're working with our spy agency, and you're working with other intelligence agencies to determine if there was any interference in the 2015 election. Is that right?
12:35 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
No, we are working with them to prepare for the next election.
We've been getting a lot of support from the Communications Security Establishment to make sure that our new systems are secure.
A lot of the investments I'm talking about are based on the need to improve our cybersecurity in this new context.
12:35 p.m.
Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP
That's about hacking into your system. There's also the threat of the fake news cycle, what we saw in the recent U.S. presidential election.
Is it of concern to Elections Canada that repetition and amplification of outright mistruths, particularly by foreign aggressors, as our Foreign Affairs Minister seems to have implied, is the reason that Canada expelled Russian diplomats?
12:35 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
The issue of fake news is a very broad topic, well beyond the help of the electoral process. Certainly it's of great concern to us to make sure that Canadians have the right information about the voting process, about where, when, and how to register and to vote. That's our core area. We will be focusing on that at the next election.
We are, for example, going to have a repository of all our public communications, so if somebody receives a communication that they're not sure comes from Elections Canada, they can check against our source.
12:35 p.m.
Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP
This has happened in the past, hasn't it? There have been false robocalls sending people to the wrong polling stations.
12:40 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
It has, but sometimes it's been by mistake and sometimes not by mistake.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I had some similar questions top of mind as well.
Maybe you can elaborate a little bit. You specified on page 6 of the Elections Canada departmental plan, where it states that you are:
remaining well positioned to anticipate, detect and respond to emerging security concerns related to the administration of elections by strengthening the agency's cybersecurity posture and maintaining collaboration with Canada's lead security agencies, including the Communications Security Establishment.
Minister Gould is also very concerned about this subject matter, and therefore she released a report on cybersecurity last year.
Can you elaborate on what you meant when it comes to detecting and responding to these security concerns, and on how you're working with these agencies in order to make sure that our coming election is not in any way compromised?
12:40 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Absolutely.
There are many aspects to this, of course. One aspect is having a good understanding of the threat environment. We are working with security partners so that we stay abreast of the threat environment. Another important aspect, of course, as I mentioned, is our cybersecurity. We've made a lot of investments to restructure our systems. I spoke about the new data centre. We are migrating our systems to a new data centre, which is much more protected than the current one, in the lead-up to the next election, in part in order to enhance our security.
All of our IT improvements have been made in collaboration and with the support of the Communications Security Establishment. They will test for us, for example, the supply chain integrity of the products that we purchase, or they will look at our systems or provide advice on how we should protect.
As I believe I mentioned when I appeared last February, I'm in the process of commissioning a third party audit. We've made some improvements. We just want a third party to look at the improvements we've made and see whether anything is missing. That will be happening this spring so that we have some time to make adjustments as we go forward.
That's the main area. As I mentioned, we are also planning a campaign to make sure that Canadians have the right information about the electoral process and to react quickly if there is misinformation. We will be monitoring, for example, social media, making sure that the information that circulates is correct, and if it's not, we'll be ready to react quickly.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
12:40 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I'd have to get back to you on the number of languages. We do some monitoring, but I'd have to get back to you on it.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
I think that might be a good idea as well, because we may be missing certain threats, or certain communities may be spreading misinformation that's not hitting our radar.
12:40 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Absolutely. It's certainly my understanding that security partners are doing that. Beyond that, in terms of information on the voting process going beyond French and English, it's something I'll be looking into.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
You mentioned that you're doing an audit with a third party. What about reaching out to partners similar to Elections Canada in other countries to share best practices, meeting maybe once a year or connecting somehow to determine whether there have been these types of threats or different concerns in other countries, and determine how you can learn from best practices?
12:40 p.m.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Yes, some international engagements do take place. Meetings have happened in Europe. Every jurisdiction is dealing with that issue. We have contacts, and we do some exchanges. I've met personally with colleagues and counterparts in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. That is always one of the topics we talk about.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
Do you stick within just the parliamentary system, or do you discuss with the U.S. and others as well?
