Feds need to better communicate what Critical Election Incident Public Protocol does, says Rosenberg

Recent days have revealed regular reports—mainly by Global News and The Globe and Mail—on allegations of Chinese interference in the last two federal elections. In early 2019, before the national vote in October of that year, Karina Gould (Burlington, Ont.), then-minister of democratic institutions—(a cabinet position that no longer exists) announced the establishment of the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (CEIPP), which the federal government explained would be “a mechanism for communicating with Canadians during the writ period in a clear, transparent, and impartial manner in the event of an incident that threatens the integrity of elections.” In July 2019, a nine-point cabinet directive was released outlining aspects of the CEIPP, including its purpose and process. However, two years later, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) received Governor General Mary Simon’s approval to dissolve Parliament for a snap election on Sept. 20, 2021, there was little mention of the protocol. “Communication on the protocol needs to change,” said Morris Rosenberg, the former senior federal public servant tasked by the Privy Council of Canada to write a report on the CEIPP’s implementation and effectiveness in addressing threats to the 44th general election in 2021. Late last month, he released the public version of his report. A classified version of the report was provided to the prime minister and to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, according to the Privy Council Office. Rosenberg told The Hill Times in an interview that the federal government did a good job of highlighting the protocol in 2019 through regular press briefings, but did “not do it well in 2021. Nobody knew about it.” “It’s called the public protocol,” said Rosenberg, a lawyer, who served as deputy minister of justice, deputy health minister and deputy minister of foreign affairs under both Liberal and Conservative governments. “The idea of press briefings is really important because people are going to get their information, not necessarily from government announcements and websites, but through the press,” he said, adding that journalists have a crucial role to play in being “vigilant” about foreign interference. The CEIPP is comprised of a panel of five senior federal bureaucrats, two of whom hold positions Rosenberg once held. The panel members include the clerk of the Privy Council of Canada, the national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister, along with the deputy ministers of justice, public safety and foreign affairs. Under section 6.0 of the cabinet directive, the panel’s mandate is to determine the “threshold for informing the public” when the occurrence of one or more incidents “threatens Canada’s ability to have a free and fair election." Among the 16 recommendations in his report, Rosenberg suggested that “there should be further study of the issue of whether the protocol should be amended to provide for the possibility of announcements below the threshold set out in section 6.0.” In an interview, he explained that could include interference affecting an individual riding or “population sub-group.” The Rosenberg report said that in both 2019—the review of which was conducted and led by former CSIS director James Judd—and 2021, the panel found that the federal government “did not detect foreign interference that threatened Canada’s ability to have free and fair elections.” Janice Stein, left, Jim Judd, and Derek Burney, pictured in 2008 outside the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright “However,” he added, “the national security agencies saw attempts at foreign interference, but not enough to have met the threshold of impacting electoral integrity.” Rosenberg told The Hill Times that “the determination for whether the threshold is met is left to the panel.” He said that when Gould released the cabinet directive for the CEIPP, the threshold was intended to be “very high” and that the hope was “that it will never have to be used.” Rosenberg explained that there was also a concern “that if there was an announcement by the panel, that in of itself could have a consequence of undermining Canadians’ confidence in the election.” While there has been an explosion of news regarding Chinese interference in Canadian elections, Rosenberg said that “it’s very hard to prove that somebody is acting as a proxy for any foreign government, which could have many ways of getting to people.” In his report, Rosenberg wrote that “it is often difficult to determine whether incidents were co-ordinated and involved inauthentic amplification through the use of proxies, or whether they are honestly held views of Canadians who may have legitimate interests in supporting good relations with a foreign state.” Late last month, Democracy Watch called on Canada Elections Commissioner Caroline Simard to investigate and report on when she plans to penalize or prosecute anyone involved in “China-sponsored interference” in the last two federal elections. Commissioner of Canada Elections Caroline Simard, left, and Canada's Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault, pictured March 2, 2023, at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee to answer questions about foreign election interference. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Such interference requires investigation at an arm’s length from government, which the CEIPP’s panel is not, argues Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch. The five members, he said, are “not independent—they serve at the pleasure of the prime minister.” Conacher said it would be better if the federal government followed the model former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper proposed, but later withdrew, to establish a public appointments commission, whose members would conduct “merit-based searches for qualified candidates” to serve on the CEIPP panel, and submit two or three names to an all-party parliamentary committee that would choose the final appointments. Rosenberg addressed the panel's composition in his report, which was largely based on interviews with all members of the 2021 panel and some 2019 panel members, along with Stéphane Perrault, Canada’s chief electoral officer, and Yves Côté, the former elections commissioner, as well as representatives of the national security agencies and other government officials. Some comments suggested “that a group of eminent Canadians would have more public credibility than a group of senior deputy ministers, should it become necessary to have an announcement that there are threats to Canada’s ability to have a free and fair election.” However, Rosenberg argued that a panel “composed of senior deputy ministers has several advantages,” including “their knowledge, experience and judgment and the working relationship among them,” and that “they are skilled at drawing out the expertise of the SITE agencies”—a coordinating body comprised of representatives from CSIS, the RCMP, the Communications Security Establishment, and the Rapid Response Mechanism based at Global Affairs Canada. Senior public servants “are also adept at assessing the information they receive and in challenging it, where necessary,” whereas “a group of eminent Canadians may be associated with interests or causes that may become election issues, raising questions as to their neutrality,” wrote Rosenberg, adding that “representatives of the three parties that chose to receive briefings during the last election all continue to support a panel composed of senior public servants.” Rosenberg told The Hill Times that panel members should not only be briefed by the national security agencies, but also by representatives of civil-society organizations—“with expertise on interference and disinformation,” as he stated in his report—and “who may take a different view on the nature of the problem,” as he added in an interview. As he stated in his report, Rosenberg said he believes that “election interference is only one element of a broader series of threats to Canada’s democratic institutions” that includes “reducing the public’s trust in democratic institutions, increasing polarization, lowering trust in the media, and promoting the strategic interests of a foreign state.” There are also several unknowns, as he explained in an interview. “Technology is changing, the threat actors are changing, the geopolitical reasons for interfering in elections are changing,” said Rosenberg, who also served as deputy secretary to the cabinet, responsible for operations under former prime minister Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government. The CEIPP, he underscored, “has to be one instrument in an array of instruments that the government is using to protect our democratic institutions.” Between the last two federal elections, the protocol also clarified the scope of interference to include its domestic sources. “When you look at ideologically motivated violent extremism—what happened with the convoy, what happened in the United States on Jan. 6, 2021—there is a concern about Canadians, not influenced by foreign interference, who may be interested in undermining our democratic institutions,” said Rosenberg, who in his report cited “a large amount of misinformation circulating about vaccine requirements and other public health measures, much of it being spread by domestic actors” which became an election issue during the COVID-19 pandemic last year. “Everyone thinks about the use of the internet, but let’s talk about old-fashioned violence,” he added. “You had people throwing rocks at Trudeau, you had an incident where Singh had to be moved out quickly because there was some intimation of violence.” Earlier this month, Shane Marshall, a former People’s Party of Canada riding association president, pleaded guilty to assault following a September 2021 incident at the federal Liberal leader’s election campaign event in London, Ont. when gravel was thrown in the direction of the prime minister. Last year, during the Ontario election campaign, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South, B.C.) was verbally harassed in Peterborough, Ont. before and after a rally at the campaign office of the provincial NDP candidate, Jen Deck, where protesters yelled profanities at him and, as he later recalled, “some really horrible things like, “I hope you die.’” Rosenberg said that in future federal elections, police and intelligence agencies need to coordinate with the major political parties to ensure that their leaders and candidates are provided with adequate security throughout their campaigns. “There is a lot of attention being placed on China now,” he added. "But we also need to be vigilant on how the threat of interference is evolving.” The Hill Times

Feds need to better communicate what Critical Election Incident Public Protocol does, says Rosenberg

'Communication on the protocol needs to change,' says Morris Rosenberg, who says the federal government did not do a good job communicating the panel's work in 2021. 'Nobody knew about it. It’s called the public protocol.'

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