Bogus ballots?

Election interference: Canada, Australia, and Timmins.

Note - You can read this as well as other posts on my page here.

Foreign interference - Today, we got the long-awaited report that studied foreign meddling with our elections. There was no evidence found of traitors within Parliament, and the few attempts by foreign states to influence parliamentarians were largely ineffective. But harsh words in the report still on incompetence. Information passed on from CSIS and other groups was not readily shared with members, or was not always passed far enough up the ladder -the repost couldn’t tell if this was deliberately done or not. Plus, some members showed poor judgement or were naive. This miscommunication and poor judgement is part of the culture, it seems, and likely was no better under the previous government. And there is little reason that it may change in the future. Maybe we just got lucky, maybe we weren’t worth enough effort. Disinformation, and attempts to influence remain a threat, and were out of the scope of her mandate. There is a need for Parliament to recommend better controls and pass the appropriate legislation for Elections Canada to tighten things up. Here’s some info they have on this - Understanding Foreign Interference.

I’m not sure where a Poilievre government will stand on this, as the attitude change needs to start with the leader. Last year, he refused to get the necessary security clearance to review some classified reports on interference. Maybe he was worried about his own members and wanted plausible deniability. Maybe he was just playing games—he likes to do that.

From Australia - Via The Guardian, this is also an issue in Australia, as they will likely have an election in a few months. Some are worried about deepfakes, misinformation, and a government that is reluctant to take swift action. Two independents, David Pocock and Kate Chaney have written to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the special minister of state, Don Farrell, calling for “truth in political advertising” reform.

From Timmins - The Northern Ontario NDP MP Charlie Angus is calling for an investigation into Elon Musk over potential election interference. Not only for past behaviour in Canada, but for potential actions. It is troubling that he used his wealth and influence to blatantly interfere in the US electoral process, supports the far-right in Germany, praises Poilievre, and has been criticized by other countries for meddling. What’s worse is that he controls the social media platform X, which has few guardrails and algorithms he can shape to force his bias on the platform. Here’s the two-page letter from Angus.