Evidence of meeting #16 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was registry.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
I just thank you very much for your courage, Mr. Tay, both for your actions during the election and for appearing before this committee today. Thank you very much.
Liberal
Liberal
Tim Louis Liberal Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you, Chair. I appreciate it.
Mr. Kolga, we'll try for the third time to finish the line. You mentioned that the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that Tenet Media, a company founded by Canadians, accepted nearly $10 million from Russian state-linked sources to amplify Kremlin narratives through far right influencers. Research also shows that far right media ecosystems in Canada are often spreading divisive narratives that align with foreign objectives. This opens up a different line of conversation.
How does this case illustrate the vulnerabilities in Canada's information ecosystem? In your view, how do these domestic networks amplify foreign disinformation that can threaten our democratic cohesion? What can we do about it if they are actually Canadian companies?
Founder and Director, DisinfoWatch
The Tenet Media case is a clear smoking gun showing that, in contrast to Madam Hogue's conclusion, Russia is very much interested in manipulating Canada's information space and our democracy. These sorts of operations are not limited just to the far right; they are also happening on the far left, and there is a great example.
Back in August 2022, an article published by a far left journal based in Canada basically targeted Ukrainian and other central and eastern European Canadians with incitement of hate, with hate-based narratives suggesting that any of them who identified as victims of Communism are enemies of Canada. I would argue that the vast majority of central and eastern Europeans who now live in Canada, and their families—I am of Estonian heritage as well—came here because they were fleeing Soviet Russian terror, repression and colonialization. Because we identify as such, the far left suggested that we are enemies of Canada, suggesting that nearly three million Canadians of central and eastern European heritage are enemies of Canada. That is an incitement of hate. This is just one example.
These are the sorts of narratives moving around on the far left. It's not just a problem of the far right and far left: Russia successfully exploits both sides in order to polarize our society and divide us. That's the key, to sow chaos. That is Russia's primary objective in its influence and information operations targeting the western democratic world.
Liberal
Tim Louis Liberal Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
To that end, younger generations are turning more to social media for their news than to traditional media. As people are digesting more of this information, what role would public education have? What role do different levels of government have? What role do journalists have? How do we find the balance of explaining how to detect misinformation and disinformation?
Founder and Director, DisinfoWatch
Arguably, it's not just youth who are turning to social media: I think all generations are getting most of their information nowadays from social media. I'm one of the rare Canadians who still pays for a newspaper to come to my door, but most Canadians don't do that. I think that we don't value news, facts or journalism the way we did a few generations ago.
Will more public education fix the problem? I'm not sure. It requires a complete shift in culture, not just in Canada but in much of the western world. How we do that is going to take a whole-of-society approach, a non-partisan approach to dealing with these threats, and I'm not sure we're prepared to do that yet.
Our allies in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have figured out ways to do this, to bring their nations together, to build that resilience. They're smaller and they're homogeneous, so they're not like Canada. I think we have a lot of challenges in this country. Some of the things that make us stronger will also make it a bit more of a challenge to do that.
It's government taking leadership and bringing all of society together, including journalists, elected officials and civil society. Civil society is important. I include myself in that. We are on the front lines of this battle, along with journalists and academics. Bringing them all together to figure out a solution is what it is going to take, and we are not there yet.
Liberal
Tim Louis Liberal Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
In the less than a minute I have, I'm joined by my colleague Ms. Chagger, from Waterloo region.
To Mr. Wark from the Centre for International Governance Innovation in our riding and in our region, do you have any closing statements to share?
Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation, As an Individual
I will be very brief.
There is an important message that we all need to hear as Canadians, and it is that societal resilience in the face of foreign interference and a wide variety of other national security threats is vital. Education is part of the tool kit of ensuring societal resilience, but we must not start from a point of view that there is no societal resilience in Canada. To do this is, I think, an extreme point that is in fact undermining Canadian democracy itself.
We should have a very balanced approach to this. I think there is a lot of societal resilience in Canada to foreign influence and foreign interference, and I take some comfort in that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
Thank you so much.
Mr. Louis, thank you.
As a reminder, on Thursday we will begin our study on the Leaders' Debates Commission mandate and its experience during the 2025 election.
As a continuation of this study, we received a date from the Minister of Public Safety. He will appear in the first week when we return, on the 29th.
We thank our witnesses.
This committee has no further business, so we are adjourned.