Officials split on when to report interference allegations to public, Rosenberg says

The man who wrote a report that recommends a lower threshold for notifying Canadians about foreign interference in elections says there's no consensus about what that threshold should be.

The man who wrote a report that recommends a lower threshold for notifying Canadians about foreign interference in elections says there's no consensus about what that threshold should be.

Former civil servant Morris Rosenberg's report, released on Tuesday, looked into the work of the panel created by the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol during the 2021 election. The panel was tasked with monitoring interference in the election and instructed to inform Canadians about any incident -- or group of incidents -- that threatened the ability to hold a free and fair election.

Rosenberg made several recommendations about better informing Canadians on what the panel considered to be cause for concern and urged further study on whether to inform the public about threats that do not meet that high bar.

"This is really something that I don't think there's a consensus in the political parties either about this, whether they want to keep that high threshold," Rosenberg said in an interview Wednesday.

The level of disclosure provided by security officials about election meddling is under more scrutiny after recent media reports detailing alleged interference by China in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

The Globe and Mail newspaper, citing classified CSIS records, reported that China worked to help ensure a Liberal minority victory in the 2021 election and to defeat Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing.

The Globe said the spy service quoted one Chinese diplomat as saying Beijing likes it when Canadian political parties are fighting with each other, lowering the risk they will implement policies that do not favour China.