Foreign Affairs committee  It's extremely important that we have a strong sanctions regime. I think, quite frankly, over the past 15 months, during Russia's barbaric invasion of Ukraine, that Canada has demonstrated international leadership in terms of sanctions and applying those sanctions on members of t

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I believe the government could engage more closely with human rights organizations and civil society groups that are tracking human rights violations around the world, and work internationally to harmonize our sanctions with our allies, some of whom have close relationships

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and esteemed members of this committee, for inviting me to testify today on Bill S-8 and Canada's sanctions regime. I had the privilege of leading the Canadian civil society campaign for Magnitsky legislation, during which time I had the honour of working wi

National Defence committee  Those two examples that I gave you did have a significant impact on Russian speakers in Latvia. That is of serious concern. In 2020, the GRU Ghostwriter campaign that suggested that Canadian troops had caught COVID when they were at home and were spreading it to Latvians made nat

National Defence committee  Thank you for that question. This is one of the top narratives that Russia is trying to promote in the west to try to erode our support for Ukraine. Facts and the truth are what will debunk that narrative. The fact that Ukraine is fighting corruption in Ukraine.... All of the

National Defence committee  Yes, I was.

National Defence committee  I think Russia has failed in many ways over the past 12 months. Certainly, militarily, as you mentioned, they are clearly not the force we feared they would be. With regard to disinformation, they have certainly been losing the fight against President Zelenskyy and his governme

National Defence committee  Absolutely. I think a committee for cyber-threats and, I would argue, one for disinformation as well should be created. An all-party committee much like the national security and intelligence committee could be created, one that is non-partisan and that can meet on a regular basi

National Defence committee  Absolutely, and I believe that our intelligence agencies do keep an eye out. Specifically, CSIS does monitor domestic extremism and such, as does the RCMP. That definitely is happening, but I don't think we're doing a very good job or an effective job of monitoring how foreign ac

National Defence committee  That's an excellent question. What we're seeing is a close alignment right now of Chinese disinformation and Russian disinformation. They support each other. The Chinese information ecosystem, so to speak—the media ecosystem—is absolutely parroting Russian disinformation when i

National Defence committee  Well, in terms of cyberwarriors, I would also say that in the realm of disinformation, it's really important that we have offensive capabilities and that we push back. I think we've spent the past several years trying to figure out what this threat looks like and how to defend ou

National Defence committee  Well, I think some of these people get good at what they're doing by not necessarily always.... It's a good question. I would say that at least in the information realm, I think we can train the right people. We don't have to go and find these actors who are operating with others

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Thank you again for, I think, that question. The problem comes in when our foreign adversaries take those issues that are polarizing us and weaponize them against us. As Canadians, we have the right to freedom of expression, so if we don't like our government, we're absolutely f

National Defence committee  In order to be better prepared, we need to make sure that we have the resources available to train experts in this field—to make sure that programmers are able to identify where these threats are and recognize them when they do target our military systems and our critical infrast