Canada’s intelligence agency has said that the governments of India and Pakistan likely attempted to interfere in its elections in 2019 and 2021, the CBC News reported.
In its report released on Thursday, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) suggested that a growing number of countries viewed Canada – and particularly its large diaspora populations – as a target for subterfuge.
India had “intent to interfere and likely conducted clandestine activities” in the 2021 Canadian federal election, it said and claimed that the country used a government proxy agent who attempted to provide illegal financial support to pro-Indian candidates.
The spy agency described the proxy agent as a “specific individual who takes explicit and/or implicit direction from a foreign state while obfuscating the link between influence activities and a foreign state.”
It also suggested India targeted electoral districts in which Indo-Canadian voters sympathised with Pakistan or the Khalistan separatist movement.
According to the documents, Pakistani government officials in 2019 “attempted to clandestinely influence Canadian federal politics with the aim of furthering the Government of Pakistan’s interests in Canada.” But it described the south Asian country a “limited foreign interference actor”.
The spy agency said the situation was monitored and assessed to have effectively reduced the threat of alleged interference.
The documents are unclassified summaries of intelligence primarily authored by CSIS, with “input and agreement” from the Communications Security Establishment — Canada’s other spy agency, which focuses on electronic surveillance — Global Affairs Canada, the Privy Council Office, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Public Safety Canada.
The reports all bear notes of caution about the summaries being possibly uncorroborated, single-sourced or incomplete, the report said. CSIS Director David Vigneault told the public inquiry that intelligence was not necessarily fact and it might require further investigation.
