Hogue Report on Foreign Interference should be a Call to Action

Justice Marie-Josee Hogue, the Commissioner for the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, has released her final report, somewhat lost in the flurry of Trumpian threats and chaos. It felt like the report was a long time coming, and while there was likely some individuals who thought it would produce some sort of smoking gun and directly implicate some Members of Parliament or political staff or agencies of foreign interference, that’s not exactly what happened. However, there are some very important details in the report, as well as vital proposals that should be heeded and implemented to ensure foreign actors don’t impact our democracy.

Justice Hogue and her team spent the past 18 months examining witness allegations, tens of thousands of classified documents, and other related materials to produce an extensive report. You would think by the headlines following the reports release that it may have been all for naught. Hogue inquiry finds some parliamentarians’ conduct troubling, but not treasonousread a Global & Mail headline. No evidence of 'traitors' in Parliament conspiring with foreign states: public inquiryread a CBC article. While this is accurate, that MPs weren’t actively conspiring to aid foreign governments and undermine our nation’s sovereignty, the story does not end there. Foreign interference isn’t just about the internal workings of parliament and whether it’s possible some elected officials are working for foreign entities, but also the external forces that try to influence those elected officials, Canadian voters, and more.

“There are legitimate concerns about parliamentarians potentially having problematic relationships with foreign officials, exercising poor judgment, behaving naively and perhaps displaying questionable ethics,” wrote Hogue in her report. “But I did not see evidence of parliamentarians conspiring with foreign states against Canada. While some conduct may be concerning, I did not see evidence of ‘traitors’ in Parliament.” This is an important distinction. The issues surrounding foreign interference are clearly about nations, people, and companies trying to find some way to unduly influence our body politic. This is where the Hogue Report focussed most of its recommendations, and exactly where the Federal government needs to channel its energy to address the manipulation of Canadians from outside our borders.

Justice Hogue presents a good collection of 51 different recommendations that could realistically tighten up areas where Canadians are most at risk of foreign interference. It proposes improving our intelligence gathering departments, like CSIS, and doing a better job of communicating findings with major government departments and with Canadians. It also recommends that “leaders of all political parties represented in the House of Commons should be encouraged and given the opportunity to obtain Top Secret security clearances as soon as possible after they become leaders,” which should be an obvious requirement for all leaders in Parliament, but one current leader (Pierre Poilievre) surely hasn’t gotten the memo.

“While allegations of interference involving elected officials have dominated public and media discourse, the reality is that misinformation and disinformation pose an even greater threat to democracy,” a portion of Justice Hogue’s report reads. Social media has been a hotbed for the sort of foreign interference and information gathering that creates serious concerns for the way our democracies operate. For years, intelligence agencies have been warning us about the potential for foreign actors to influence the way Canadians perceive their country, the issues that are important to them, and this has been swayed by social media. The Hogue report recommends requiring news and social media outlets to label altered content, and “creating a government entity to monitor the domestic open source online information environment for misinformation and disinformation that could impact Canadian democratic processes.” They are rational solutions to ensure that Canadians can trust the information they are being provided through social media.

These are just a few examples of what the Hogue report recommends to ensure that the country can gird itself against foreign actors who seek to undermine our democracy. Not every person attempting to interfere in our democracy has been as blatant as someone like Elon Musk, and we must ensure that we take the recommendations of her report seriously.