Indeed, Russian transnational repression is a persistent and growing threat to our democracy. Transnational repression itself is when a foreign regime uses coercion, threats, intimidation and violence to discredit and silence regime critics, including activists, minority communities and even parliamentarians. This is happening in Canada. In the worst cases, the Kremlin has tried to poison its critics, like the Skripals in the United Kingdom, or use brutal violence, like in the case of Alexei Navalny's colleague, Leonid Volkov, in Lithuania.
In Canada, we've observed Russian government surveillance of diaspora groups, campaigns to discredit parliamentarians and efforts to incite hate towards the Ukrainian diaspora. I've personally been targeted multiple times by the Kremlin and their proxies and influencers in Canada to intimidate and discredit me. Russian state media regularly publishes articles about me. Former Canadian diplomats, academics and officials connected to Kremlin think tanks like the Valdai club, Russian companies and a trade promotion agency have tried to discredit and defame me through poison pen campaigns. I was among the first Canadians placed on the Kremlin's sanctions list.
In 2019 I received a series of emails threatening to kill me and my family, originating from Internet IP addresses in Canada and in Moscow. When I looked to help from the RCMP, they told me to report it to my local law enforcement agencies. They, in turn, told me to report it back to the RCMP, who then told me to report it to CSIS. CSIS, as we all know, is a black hole that focuses primarily on the collection of information. Luckily for me, an officer in York Region picked up my file a few months later and opened an investigation. They found one culprit, a radicalized Russian nationalist living between Thornhill and Florida. Thankfully, York Regional Police provided me and my family with victim training and a phone number to call in case of a future emergency.
I should also mention that for the Ukrainian community, Russia's incitement of hate has manifested in violence towards Ukrainian community members, including vandalized businesses, homes and even vehicles. Students have been intimidated, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress has even been forced to create a national crisis hotline to support victims.
We've also witnessed parliamentarians targeted with transnational repression. In 2018, the Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, and her family were the targets of just such a campaign, where historical facts were distorted and manipulated to defame her and her entire family and, in fact, the entire Ukrainian community. A story was first planted into a Moscow blog that was run by an alleged former KGB agent. It then spread from there into the constellation of Kremlin-aligned online proxy platforms. That story eventually metastasized into our national media, which willingly ran this very well-orchestrated Russian information operation against her. This is not unlike the Chinese state's Global Times campaign against former Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole in 2021, which, coincidentally, was first exposed by my organization, DisinfoWatch.
The campaign against Ms. Freeland also demonstrates that Russia is playing the long game, operating between elections to impact election outcomes, not just during elections—an important fact that has been clearly missed by the commission looking into foreign interference in our elections. In terms of national security, this is a significant threat, as we currently leave the door wide open for Russia, China and Iran to target and attack our citizens and residents. We need to be doing much more in terms of protecting these vulnerable communities.