India, Pakistan attempted to interfere in Canada's elections: CSIS
The governments of India and Pakistan attempted to interfere in Canada's feder‐ al elections in 2019 and 2021, Canada's spy agency said in documents made public late Thursday night.
In 2021, the government of India had "intent to inter‐ fere and likely conducted clandestine activities," includ‐ ing using an Indian govern‐ ment proxy agent in Canada, according to an unclassified summary written by the Canadian Security Intelli‐ gence Service (CSIS).
Two years earlier, in 2019, "Government of Pakistan of‐ ficials in Canada attempted to clandestinely influence Canadian federal politics with the aim of furthering the Government of Pakistan's in‐ terests in Canada," CSIS wrote.
The stark assessments are contained in documents that were tabled as part of the federal commission of in‐ quiry into foreign interfer‐ ence. The public inquiry is ex‐ amining possible meddling by China, India, Russia and others in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
The reports all bear notes of caution about the sum‐ maries being possibly uncor‐ roborated, single-sourced or incomplete. CSIS Director David Vigneault told the pub‐ lic inquiry that intelligence is not necessarily fact, and said it may require further investi‐ gation.
Pakistan a 'limited for‐ eign interference actor'
The government of Pakistan's foreign interference against Canada was "primarily to promote political, security and economic stability in Pakistan and to counter Indi‐ a's growing global influence," read one CSIS assessment, noting that Pakistan was a "limited foreign interference actor" in 2019 and 2021.
In the case of the 2019 election, CSIS said the Cana‐ dian government conducted what it called a "threat reduc‐ tion measure" ahead of the vote, meant to "reduce the foreign interference threat posed by the Government of Pakistan."
"The situation was moni‐ tored and assessed to have effectively reduced the threat of interference," CSIS wrote.
CSIS says its intelligence shows India's government al‐ so meddled in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
India supported pro-In‐ dian candidates
CSIS alleges that in 2021, the Indian government's foreign interference activities "were centred on a small number of electoral districts." The government of India targeted those ridings, CSIS wrote, be‐ cause there was a perception by India that "a portion of In‐ do-Canadian voters were sympathetic to the Khalistani movement or pro-Pakistan political stances."
The Khalistan movement is a separatist movement with the goal of carving out an independent Sikh nation in the northern Indian state of Punjab. The Indian govern‐ ment has long maintained that the Punjabi indepen‐ dence movement under‐ mines India's national secu‐ rity.
WATCH | What is Khalis‐ tan? A look at the move‐ ment for an independent Sikh state
The CSIS summary goes on to say that it has amassed "a body of intelligence" that indicates a government of In‐ dia "proxy agent may have attempted to interfere in de‐ mocratic processes" by pro‐ viding illegal financial sup‐ port to pro-Indian candi‐ dates.
"Any such financial contri‐ bution could have remained unknown to the candidate," CSIS said.
The CSIS memo does not identify the specific ridings or candidates that may have been subject to India's med‐ dling in 2021.
CSIS describes the proxy agent as "a specific individual who takes explicit and/or im‐ plicit direction from a foreign state while obfuscating the link between influence activi‐ ties and a foreign state."
Proxy agents are based in Canada and don't necessarily have to belong to a specific diaspora community, CSIS ex‐ plains, and "are witting par‐ ticipants in furthering the ob‐ jective of the foreign state in specific circumstances."
WATCH | Foreign inter‐ ference victims give emo‐ tional testimony at federal inquiry
The documents are a se‐ ries of unclassified sum‐ maries of intelligence primar‐ ily authored by CSIS, with "in‐ put and agreement" from the Communications Security Es‐ tablishment - Canada's other spy agency which focuses on electronic surveillance Global Affairs Canada, the Privy Council Office, the Roy‐ al Canadian Mounted Police and Public Safety Canada.
Pakistan and India have not been the focus of testi‐ mony during this phase of the foreign interference pub‐ lic inquiry, which began last week. The proceedings have largely been geared toward alleged foreign interference by China. But the two South Asian countries have come up in other documents tabled at the inquiry.
A public summary of a classified CSIS briefing provided to political parties dated June 2019 lists India and Pakistan among other state actors that could en‐ gage in meddling in Canada.
Redacting a word that ap‐ pears right before the word "Pakistani" in a sentence, the briefing goes on to say "Pak‐ istani officials in Canada have likely tried to clandestinely influence and support Cana‐ dian politicians of Pakistani descent, with the aim of fur‐ thering Pakistani interests in Canada."
Three of the five para‐ graphs about India in that briefing note are largely redacted, but it notes "Indian officials have utilized a net‐ work of contacts, which in‐ cludes politicians, academics, businesspersons, media per‐ sonalities and community leaders, to monitor Canadi‐ an-based individuals that are of interest to the Govern‐ ment of India."
CSIS also wrote it has ob‐ served that there have been "Indian interference activities targeted at Canadian Mem‐ bers of Parliament, Provincial Legislative Members... out‐ side the scope of regular diplomatic norms."
In July 2021, the Security Intelligence Threats to Elec‐ tions (SITE) Task Force - a Canadian government body consisting of senior civil ser‐ vants from the RCMP, CSIS, Global Affairs and the CSE held a briefing to political parties about lessons learned from the 2019 election.
SITE wrote that in 2019, it observed "foreign interfer‐ ence activities targeting cer‐ tain ridings and candidates in relation to the election, di‐ rected largely from China, and to a lesser extent from India and Pakistan, through the use of human agents."
The document, went on to say that "none of the activi‐ ties met the threshold to pur‐ sue criminal investigations."
The document had a sec‐ tion about Pakistan, which was completely redacted.
On India, SITE said in that briefing the country is "ac‐ tively conducting foreign in‐ terference and targets Cana‐ dian political figures. Working through Indian officials in Canada, India engages in a range of activities that seek to influence Canadian com‐ munities and politicians in order to advance its political interests.
"India is interested in en‐ gaging its diaspora in Canada to shape political outcomes in its favour."