Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here and to Mr. Perrault for coming once again to our committee to engage in this very important study on the impact of foreign interference in our elections.
I think we are all in full agreement that this is an extremely important topic. Commissioner Hogue, in her study, stated that information manipulation “poses the single biggest risk to our democracy.” She said, “It is an existential threat.” I gather from your earlier testimony that you would agree with that.
Earlier this week, we had witnesses from the critical election incident public protocol panel come before us. They have underlined that this is a risk. They expanded by saying that foreign interference activities in Canada continue to be “pervasive, sophisticated, and persistent”. Just before you came here, in the earlier panel today, the minister quoted those same words.
Despite that, the “Retrospective Report on the 45th General Election” stated that “none of the incidents reviewed by the Panel threatened Canada’s ability to have a free and fair election.”
I put that to the witnesses earlier this week. They reaffirmed that, but they also pointed out that one of their goals is that “Canadians must have full confidence that their election is secure”.
I know that in your testimony you talked a bit about that.
Earlier witnesses were less equivocal with this answer, in nice bureaucratic language:
The CEIPP Panel is encouraged that public reaction to the enhanced communications posture adopted during GE45 viewed such efforts as generally effective.
Have we met the goal? Has the panel met the goal? Has your department met the goal of ensuring Canadians have full confidence that their elections are in fact secure?