Disinformation, foreign interference threatening Canada's electoral system, elections watchdog warns

Disinformation and foreign interference are two of the biggest threats facing Canada's electoral system and it will take everyone working together to counter them, says Canada's chief election watchdog.

Speaking in an interview with CBC News to mark the end of his 10-year term as Commissioner of Canada Elections, Yves Côté said online disinformation is one of the biggest challenges he's had to face and noted that it can be difficult to be optimistic about the future. 

"I think there are all kinds of challenges that are lurking and some of them are becoming perhaps worse as we move on with time," Côté said. 

However, he noted there is a solution if various groups can work together.

"Nobody should just get discouraged and abandon the fight or abandon the project," he said.

"I think many people have to contribute and I think that it's a job of politicians of all stripes, of institutions, of media, of academics. It's all kinds of people that have to pull together and say this is a danger."

Côté said he is particularly troubled by disinformation attacks against the Canadian electoral system.

"When people are trying to convince others that the way in which votes or ballots are counted does not work," Côté said.

"When they try to misinform people about where they can vote, how they can vote or where, they try to raise issues with the professionalism or the competency of, for example, Elections Canada or our own office for reasons that have no foundation to them, I find that very, very troublesome."

Côté said he has negotiated agreements with companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook that help to streamline the process of obtaining information when his office has to investigate a complaint, but he said he does not have agreements with other "foreign agencies" like Tencent, the company that owns the popular Chinese-language app WeChat. 

Côté's departure at the end of this month comes amid these new technological challenges that likely couldn't have been imagined 10 years ago when headlines were dominated by the robocall voter suppression scandal during the 2011 election, when voters in several ridings received automated telephone calls with recorded messages directing them to the wrong place to vote.

His successor, Caroline Simard, begins Aug. 15.

In addition to the challenges posed by disinformation, Côté said Simard will have to contend with the threat of foreign interference in elections.

"For us as an enforcement agency it poses all kinds of challenges, especially if those foreign countries do not have good working diplomatic relationships with us," Côté explained.