I want to highlight Mr. Waterhouse's point in saying that education is a key factor here. It's going to be extremely difficult to attack the attackers in this sense. Even if we do create policy, pass new bills or modernize the Elections Act in a way that prevents attackers from engaging in foreign interference, I think they're going to find other ways to do so. The best way we can counter foreign interference is through citizen preparedness and through educating Canadian citizens and showing them how to consume information appropriately.
As was said, I don't think this is going to be achievable by 21-page CSIS reports that probably only a handful of Canadian citizens have the time to read or the desire to read. I think there's a need to bring it to a level that is going to be of interest to Canadian citizens and that there is going to be a desire to learn about.
I'd also like to mention that we talk a lot about misinformation, but I think it can also come from factual information. It's pretty easy to twist facts and to frame information, even real information, in a way that is going to hinder trust and undermine trust in the Canadian democratic process.
A study I conducted recently uses the same sorts of information, which are basically factual news media reports and CSIS reports that have been published, but frames the information slightly differently, one in a more positive “we're combatting foreign interference” tone, and the other one in a more negative “foreign interference is happening” tone. We see drastically different levels of trust among citizens between the two treatments.