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OTTAWA — Canada’s election security watchdog has accused the Chinese government of promoting Liberal Leader Mark Carney in what it’s calling an “information operation” taking place on Chinese-language social media.
In a Monday morning press conference, Laurie-Anne Kempton, of the Privy Council Office, said the operation is currently being undertaken by Youli-Youmian — the most popular news site on the WeChat social media platform.
“Intelligence reporting links the Youli-Youmian account to the PRC (People’s Republic of China) Chinese Community Party’s central political and legal affairs commission,” said Kempton during the press conference, joined by other members of the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) task force.
The operation, she said, concerns stories about Carney that amplify his stance on the United States, while also targeting his experience and credentials.
“The SITE task force assesses that the foreign state backed operation was intended to influence Canadian Chinese communities, and looked to mold perceptions about the candidate,” Kempton said.
“The campaign received high levels of user engagement and views, between 85,000 and 130,000 interactions, and estimate of 1 million to 3 million views.”
The article in question, translated into English, glowingly promotes Carney as a “tough-guy” prime minister prepared to stick up for Canada, and characterized U.S. Donald Trump as referring to Poilievre as a “stupid candidate.”
“The Liberal Party was like an ant on a hot pot, urgently needing a ‘saviour’ to clean up the mess, so they set their sights on former central bank governor Carney, a financial elite, and wanted to quickly bring Carney to the forefront,” read a translated excerpt from the article, entitled “Canada’s road to a survival election.”
The article correctly noted that Carney became PM without having a seat in the House of Commons, but incorrectly stated that the Liberals have “very few seats” in Parliament.
It also contended that Canadian voters are concerned a Conservative government would put its emphasis on resources and that the loosening of environmental regulations threatens to create a “Trump 2.0” situation and send Canada further into “the quagmire.”
Engagement on the articles, the task force said, was suspiciously high — exceeding engagement even on state-controlled news outlets like the People’s Daily.
Liberal party officials were briefed on the matter Sunday.
Carney’s garnered scrutiny over a relationship with China described by some pundits as overly cozy — including several meetings with senior Chinese officials, including a sit-down last year with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While Carney refused to remove Liberal MP Paul Chiang from the ballot for a call to turn in Conservative Candidate Joe Tay to collect a bounty placed on his head by Beijing, it took word of an RCMP investigation to prompt Chiang — a former York Region cop — to step aside himself.
The task force will raise their concerns with Tencent, WeChat’s parent company, later on Monday, she said.
The Toronto Sun reached out to the Carney campaign for comment.
Conservative incumbent Michael Chong — himself a victim of a Chinese disinformation campaign — said it isn’t surprising to see Beijing once again meddling in Canada’s elections.
“(Beijing) knows that for a decade the Liberals have turned a blind eye to Beijing’s interference in Canada’s democracy,” he said.
“They know that the Liberals have stood by as Beijing interfered in our democracy, targeted and harassed our citizens, and threatened Canada’s interests at home and abroad.”
torontosun.com
OTTAWA — Canada’s election security watchdog has accused the Chinese government of promoting Liberal Leader Mark Carney in what it’s calling an “information operation” taking place on Chinese-language social media.
In a Monday morning press conference, Laurie-Anne Kempton, of the Privy Council Office, said the operation is currently being undertaken by Youli-Youmian — the most popular news site on the WeChat social media platform.
“Intelligence reporting links the Youli-Youmian account to the PRC (People’s Republic of China) Chinese Community Party’s central political and legal affairs commission,” said Kempton during the press conference, joined by other members of the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) task force.
The operation, she said, concerns stories about Carney that amplify his stance on the United States, while also targeting his experience and credentials.
“The SITE task force assesses that the foreign state backed operation was intended to influence Canadian Chinese communities, and looked to mold perceptions about the candidate,” Kempton said.
“The campaign received high levels of user engagement and views, between 85,000 and 130,000 interactions, and estimate of 1 million to 3 million views.”
The article in question, translated into English, glowingly promotes Carney as a “tough-guy” prime minister prepared to stick up for Canada, and characterized U.S. Donald Trump as referring to Poilievre as a “stupid candidate.”
“The Liberal Party was like an ant on a hot pot, urgently needing a ‘saviour’ to clean up the mess, so they set their sights on former central bank governor Carney, a financial elite, and wanted to quickly bring Carney to the forefront,” read a translated excerpt from the article, entitled “Canada’s road to a survival election.”
The article correctly noted that Carney became PM without having a seat in the House of Commons, but incorrectly stated that the Liberals have “very few seats” in Parliament.
It also contended that Canadian voters are concerned a Conservative government would put its emphasis on resources and that the loosening of environmental regulations threatens to create a “Trump 2.0” situation and send Canada further into “the quagmire.”
Engagement on the articles, the task force said, was suspiciously high — exceeding engagement even on state-controlled news outlets like the People’s Daily.
Liberal party officials were briefed on the matter Sunday.
Carney’s garnered scrutiny over a relationship with China described by some pundits as overly cozy — including several meetings with senior Chinese officials, including a sit-down last year with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While Carney refused to remove Liberal MP Paul Chiang from the ballot for a call to turn in Conservative Candidate Joe Tay to collect a bounty placed on his head by Beijing, it took word of an RCMP investigation to prompt Chiang — a former York Region cop — to step aside himself.
The task force will raise their concerns with Tencent, WeChat’s parent company, later on Monday, she said.
The Toronto Sun reached out to the Carney campaign for comment.
Conservative incumbent Michael Chong — himself a victim of a Chinese disinformation campaign — said it isn’t surprising to see Beijing once again meddling in Canada’s elections.
“(Beijing) knows that for a decade the Liberals have turned a blind eye to Beijing’s interference in Canada’s democracy,” he said.
“They know that the Liberals have stood by as Beijing interfered in our democracy, targeted and harassed our citizens, and threatened Canada’s interests at home and abroad.”
China actively promoting Carney Liberal campaign: Election watchdog
The Chinese operation meant to "influence Canadian Chinese communities" and "mold perceptions" about Carney, a SITE task force member said
torontosun.com
