India, China may seek to meddle in election: Canada

CSIS warns of election interference by China, India, Russia, and Pakistan in upcoming Canadian general election.

China and India are likely to try to interfere in the Canadian general election on April 28, while Russia and Pakistan have the potential to do so, the country's spy service said on Monday (March 24, 2025).

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service made its comments at a time when Ottawa's relations with both India and China are chilly. Beijing and New Delhi have denied previous allegations of interference.

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Canada was slow in responding to efforts by China and India to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 elections but their outcomes were unaffected by the meddling, an official probe said in a final report released in January.

Vanessa Lloyd, deputy director of operations at CSIS, told a press conference that hostile state actors were increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to meddle in elections.

"The PRC (People's Republic of China) is highly likely to use AI enabled tools to attempt to interfere with Canada's democratic process in this current election," she said.

Earlier this month Beijing announced tariffs on more than $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products, retaliating against levies Ottawa slapped on Chinese electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products last year.