Canada's security and intelligence organizations are at the frontline of Canada's actions to combat foreign interference campaigns against our democratic institutions. Under their individual mandates, the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force members continually undertake activities to detect and counter foreign interference.
The SITE Task Force plays an important role in safeguarding Canada's democratic institutions and processes. In January 2025, the SITE Task Force was activated to monitor the Liberal Party of Canada's leadership campaign for possible foreign interference.
Today, the SITE Task Force published its resulting report - Threats to the Liberal Party of Canada 2025 leadership campaign. The report highlights that the SITE Task Force did not find any incidents impacting the outcomes of the leadership contest.
During this period however, the SITE Task Force did observe and report on activity that was deemed to be foreign interference. This included online information manipulation campaigns detected through Global Affairs Canada's Rapid Response Mechanism and the SITE Task Force's mitigation of an information operation targeting contestant Chrystia Freeland. On February 7, 2025, the SITE Task Force briefed the executive of the Liberal Party of Canada and members of Ms. Freeland's leadership campaign about these findings, and published a statement to ensure public awareness of the manipulation activities.
The report also notes a security concern involving an individual identified by the RCMP. The individual was later successfully prevented from attending a campaign event held by contestant Mark Carney.
Other findings from the report include:
- No cyber incidents were detected that suggested any foreign state actors were specifically targeting Liberal Party of Canada leadership contest infrastructure.
- No direct violent extremist threats to the leadership contest were identified on social media, message boards, chatrooms, online forums, or in the media.
- No direct threats were identified to the contestants, nor to the administration of the contest.
The SITE Task Force concluded that these incidents did not impact the outcomes of the leadership contest.
As noted in the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada's Democratic Processes and Institutions and the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, leadership and nomination contests are susceptible to foreign influence. This was the first time the SITE Task Force was activated for a party leadership contest since the creation of the SITE Task Force in 2019. The SITE Task Force will monitor future leadership contests for officially recognized parties in the House of Commons.
The Government of Canada will continue to adapt its efforts against foreign interference so that Canadians can have confidence in the strength and the resilience of our democracy.
