Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2026

[David Morrison]

I personally had no information, and it is not something that I recall ever being brought to the panel.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Okay.

I just find it curious that you've indicated that there's no information about the consulate in Toronto, no information about the embassy being involved, but then when I pull up the backgrounder that was sent out regarding the transnational repression operation by Beijing, that then goes on to detail what information the panel had with respect to Mr. Tay. It specifically states that the PRC uses its diplomatic missions.

Why would that be specifically referenced in the backgrounder and here you are saying, actually, no, that's not the case?

[David Morrison]

If I had that piece of paper in front of me, I could imagine a circumstance in which a piece of paper describes transnational repression as it has existed in Canada and other countries, without specifically linking that to what was happening with Mr. Tay.

I will say that it was Public Safety and the RCMP and others who were speaking directly to Mr. Tay. I do not recall any suggestion, as we deliberated over this as a panel of five, of Mr. Tay suggesting that the Chinese consulate was involved.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Mr. Tay said as much. It's in the backgrounder in general terms.

Mr. Morrison, with the greatest respect, forgive me for thinking that the involvement of accredited Beijing diplomats is being downplayed here today because the Prime Minister is making a new world order with a Beijing-based communist regime.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Do you have a response?

[David Morrison]

I'm not certain what the question is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Mr. Cooper, you have 30 seconds left.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

It's a conclusion and I think one that is pretty evident.

Now, the backgrounder issued by the Privy Council that I've referenced states that the SITE task force has observed a transnational repression operation targeting the 45th general election. It then goes on to cite the specific case of Mr. Tay.

I just want to be clear, was the campaign broader than Mr. Tay?

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

You can give a very brief response.

[David Morrison]

The three instances that I know of are Mr. Tay, which was a digital operation, and the two instances that we have already discussed with respect to Prime Minister Carney.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Thank you so much.

We'll move to Madame Kayabaga for five minutes, please.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Could I get, from either Mr. Morrison or Madame Drouin, some comments on some of the recommendations that you can make to improve the critical election incident public protocol, security intelligence threats and the RRM?

If you have any recommendations on how we can improve those three systems that you can put out to the committee, it would be great.

[Nathalie Drouin]

I can give a couple of suggestions.

I think we need to continue to implement all the recommendations of the public inquiry. For example, we made some improvements in the last election, but we based those improvements on a clerk's guidance. I think it would be good to enshrine those new best practices into the protocol, so that may be something we can look at.

RRM is a fantastic unit. It can be even better equipped to operate all year-round. I know this is something we are looking at right now, especially to be able to detect foreign unauthentic or amplification tactics in Canada. When I say foreign, it can be state or non-state, but at least seeing some activities coming from abroad.

In order to raise the awareness that we all talked about this morning, we need public engagement with Canadians on a regular basis from the social society, from other media, from the different branches of government. That is something we need to continue to work on.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

When you said RRM, do you mean you need more staff?

[Nathalie Drouin]

Yes, I mean more staff, more capacity and also a clear mandate that they are operating year-round.

I should have said.... You previously referred to the registry. I think this is something we need to implement. Maybe you can talk about the early stage we're in, Sébastien.

[Sébastien Aubertin-Giguère, Assistant Deputy Minister and National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Yes, absolutely. I can confirm that the government has proposed the nomination of a candidate and that there need to be two resolutions—one in the House, one in the Senate—about this candidate. The matter has been referred to PROC. I think this was done today. I think we have excellent candidates, but for the regime to be in place, we need regulations.

The comment period for the draft regulations ended yesterday, and we've received about 60 interventions from the public. We're going to analyze them and move forward to finalize the regulations.

We are also building the FITCO and then moving toward a coming into force quite soon, so I think it's progressing at a very high pace.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

I agree. I think the minister just announced it in the House this morning.

I agree with Madame Drouin's comments on the fact that Canadians are confident in our democratic institutions here in Canada. Perhaps Madame Drouin or Monsieur Morrison can comment on why it's important to keep the body that would look at foreign interference non-partisan in order for democracy to be maintained and in order for it to not have any personal or political interest in it.

[Nathalie Drouin]

First of all, we have a very important value as Canadians, freedom of expression, and we need to respect that. We have a very strong democracy and we need to uphold it.

Monitoring incidents and talking to Canadians about incidents we see during an election should not be seen as a partisan exercise in order to favour one option to the detriment of the other. This independence is really crucial, because otherwise, the whole system will fall apart and we will not be in a better position.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Thank you so much.

I'd like to thank our witnesses.

The committee is adjourned.