National Defence committee  When we're talking about hybrid warfare, cyber and the information realm, Canada might have some challenges in defending itself. From my understanding, there were capabilities that were being developed by the CAF to defend against psychological warfare and information operations.

National Defence committee  The ones that are under the greatest threat from Russian cyber-operations are obviously those areas of critical infrastructure. We've seen over the past few months—at least a year—how our health sector has fallen prey to ransomware. A lot of the same organizations that engage in criminal activity such as ransomware are in Russia.

National Defence committee  I can't specifically answer that. I'm more of an expert on disinformation. My understanding is that CSE is taking a closer look, but I can't specifically answer that question.

National Defence committee  Again, I'm not a cyber expert. I can't specifically answer that question. I can't tell you what the differences are between China and Russian threat actors.

National Defence committee  I think that education is probably among the best things. Over the past several years, we've seen that it's really basic cyber-hygiene issues that have opened up some of these major institutions to the theat of cyber-attack. It's just about educating and making sure that those individuals who are operating in those organizations—and, I would say, within the government as well—have strong cyber-hygiene skills, including using strong passwords and such.

National Defence committee  That's a very good question. I would say yes, those attacks should be reported. I don't think we should be sweeping them under the rug. That way we'll have a better understanding of where the threat is.

National Defence committee  Again, I can't answer specifically to the relationship the federal government has right now with the provinces or territories with regard to cybersecurity.

National Defence committee  Absolutely. Russia has been doing this for a very long time, but China is becoming increasingly sophisticated. As far as threats go, I think we need to be keeping a very close eye on what China is doing. They also have, again, these developing capabilities, and I'm certain that Canada will become, and already is, a target of Chinese cyber-activity.

National Defence committee  You're absolutely right. Any effort to address foreign disinformation specifically needs to be non-partisan. I've long advocated for a whole-of-society approach and an approach especially within the context of Canada's Parliament and the possible formation of an all-party committee that looks at that disinformation.

National Defence committee  I'm not so sure. I mean, they were specifically targeting Latvians and Russian speakers in Latvia, but by targeting them, they were also targeting our forces. They were trying to manipulate the opinion of those local Latvians to turn them against our forces.

National Defence committee  Thank you for that question. It's a great question. I think we could be using our sanctions regime to greater effect to target Russian propagandists, the ones who are promoting these sorts of narratives that target Ukraine and that target Canadian interests as well. We should be ensuring that those sanctions are enforced and that Canadians, either wittingly or unwittingly, are not contributing to the platforms that are used by Russian state media to target us with this disinformation.

National Defence committee  Should—

National Defence committee  I question why Russia needs to have nearly 80 diplomats or perhaps more in Canada. That makes no sense to me. What are they doing here?

National Defence committee  I think that we knew and that we could have anticipated one year ago that Russia would be intensifying their information operations in the context of the war in Ukraine. We also anticipated that they would try to erode Canadian public support for Ukraine. Those operations have only intensified during the past 12 months.

National Defence committee  Absolutely. These campaigns against the Canadian Armed Forces have been ongoing since around 2015, when Prime Minister Harper ordered our forces to Ukraine and to Latvia as part of Operation Unifier and Operation Reassurance. With the operations in Latvia specifically—and this was around 2017 or 2018—they injected narratives into the Russian state-controlled media that were operating in Latvia.