Evidence of meeting #21 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 information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
The question is just to confirm that the information was routinely being relayed to the panel.
Director General, Federal Policing Security Intelligence, Intelligence and International Policing, Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
I'm not in a position to confirm what was presented to the panel in terms of Mr. Tay.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Okay, fine. You said there was....
Ms. Lloyd, would you very briefly answer that question?
Deputy Director, Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Yes, certainly.
Do we have time?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
We're over the time. My apologies, Mr. Cooper.
We'll go to Madam Brière for five minutes, please.
Liberal
Élisabeth Brière Liberal Sherbrooke, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Strengthening cybersecurity measures is one of the task force's priorities. You gather a lot of intelligence, such as intelligence on foreigners, including threat actors.
Some say that Q‑Day is coming, and quantum technology will soon be part of our lives. As is the case with AI, there will certainly be side benefits, but if it falls into the wrong hands, there could also be negative repercussions. Quantum computers will be able to process very complex problems like code decryption extremely quickly, and hackers know this. It seems they're already collecting data so they can use it later. Data theft is on the rise. Our identities and words are at risk.
How are you preparing for technological changes, particularly this shift to quantum technology, which could lead to a significant reduction in the level of security for the main standards, particularly in terms of decryption?
Associate Head, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, Communications Security Establishment
I thank the member very much for her question.
Thank you very much for providing a nice summary of what we see when it comes to some of the cyber-threats that are out there.
When I think about it, there is a lot of technology that's amazing and is helping us improve the way we do our work and our jobs and live our daily lives across Canada and the world, but some of them do pose threats.
Going back to the question, there's a threat posed by the development of quantum computers that could break the encryption we use and really impact our cybersecurity. As I've already discussed, the threat posed by AI and how threat actors use it online is something we monitor and look at quite closely. There are steps that we take to mitigate that when it comes to what we do on a daily basis to help Canadians, critical infrastructure and our government institutions to ensure that they're protected against those threats.
It also applies to what we do for election security. There are a couple of things I might note. We work very closely with Elections Canada and other institutions with ties to our democratic processes to be sure that we're collectively keeping those systems safe from all of these threats. We provide advice and guidance, and work closely with critical infrastructure, which of course has a role in our democracy as well. You can't vote if you can't get to the polling station and receive that information you need online.
We look at and assess all of those pieces. We think about the threats, and we use them to inform the advice and guidance and the partnership we have with government and critical infrastructure, especially in that critical time during an election.
Liberal
Élisabeth Brière Liberal Sherbrooke, QC
Could information sharing with other countries, for example, also help to always stay ahead of the game?
This is once again related to the question I asked earlier.
Executive Director, Rapid Response Mechanism, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
I could come back to that.
Absolutely. Global Affairs Canada is part of the G7 rapid response mechanism alongside G7 members, as well as Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, and now Poland as well. We share information in real time about these threats, and we feed off each other in terms of procuring and building the tools that we need.
As my colleagues said, the AI and quantum threats are very real, and they were outlined, but there are also tools we can use to make sure that we are keeping up with the evolution of these threats as well. There are threats, but there are also tools that we use in collaboration with our partners.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Babou, if I may, I'll circle back to the answer you gave me earlier.
You mentioned that, yes, there have been incidents on WeChat, but they've also been observed on other platforms. I don't think we can put WeChat and Pinterest on the same footing.
What kind of analysis do you do in terms of the balance of risk that WeChat poses, considering its ownership or type of use?
What is the real risk of this platform? Even if you can't comment on the qualitative aspect, perhaps you can tell us what the quantitative aspect is.
Were there more interventions related to foreign interference on that platform than on others?
Executive Director, Rapid Response Mechanism, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
The analysis we do is an overall analysis of all the platforms. I wouldn't be able to comment on a quantitative analysis of one platform versus another. We consider the threat as a whole, and therefore across all the platforms we monitor, for operational security reasons and to avoid giving too much information on the very capabilities of the Government of Canada to counter these threats. I wouldn't be able to comment in detail on the incidents we see on one platform versus another.
I think it would be important to send a message to Canadians that we're monitoring all publicly known platforms, in all languages, to ensure real-time detection of any threats we may face.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you very much.
Ms. Lloyd, you talked about some public opinion research indicating that Canadians get more information from traditional media than from social media.
Is that true for all diasporas? I understand the general picture, but are there diasporas that get more information on social media, particularly due to the language barrier?
Deputy Director, Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Mr. Chair, I would like to advise the member that the public opinion research should come out later this year, probably in the summer. I hope that a level of detail will be provided there. I'll just make a précision on my point. My point was that, for national security matters, we see the Canadian public continuing to leverage traditional media above social media.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
Thank you so much.
We'll now turn to the Conservatives. I believe they're splitting their time, but we'll start with Mr. Cooper.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Ms. Lloyd, I'll let you answer very briefly the question I asked regarding Mr. Tay and the interaction between the SITE task force and the panel. I just want to confirm that this was ongoing on a day-to-day basis, more or less.
Deputy Director, Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
That's right. I can confirm that the panel was briefed on six occasions during the monitoring period as it relates to Mr. Tay. As well, the cleared representatives for the Conservative Party were briefed on two occasions.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Thank you.
Mr. O'Hayon, you indicated there was a criminal investigation that had been opened. Is that investigation ongoing?
Director General, Federal Policing Security Intelligence, Intelligence and International Policing, Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
I can't provide any further detail besides confirming that a criminal investigation was opened.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Okay. Thank you.
I have one last question before I turn it over to Mr. Jackson.
It was indicated in the backgrounder on the situation in Don Valley North that, with respect to the propaganda campaign against Mr. Tay, engagement levels had been low, with an increase at various points during the writ period. What was the number of interactions and views? What was the scope of engagement?
Executive Director, Rapid Response Mechanism, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
The scope of engagement was in the thousands to tens of thousands, in total, of views, likes and shares.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Thank you.
I'll turn it over to Mr. Jackson.
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Thank you, Mr. Cooper.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Just in retrospect of last year.... Parliament passed a law, getting rid of the first-generation limit for Canadians living abroad. I'm just curious about how your officials and your work as the task force are going to ensure that the now greater number of Canadian citizens living abroad are protected from foreign interference in casting their ballots.