The Spectre of Cyber Warfare Elections and the Need to Make Canada a Zone for PeaceCanadians have been informed that the 44th General Election will be monitored by national and foreign security police and intelligence agencies, along with global social-media platforms and various state-funded NGO's on the hunt for signs of what they call foreign and foreign-influenced activities. To build the case for the need for such monitoring, on July 16 the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) issued its third report since 2017 on what it calls the threat to Canada's democratic process, which it defines as "voters, political parties and elections." The report names Russia, China and Iran as suspected "adversarial states."
"Government of Canada foreign policy, military deployments, trade and investment agreements, diplomatic engagements, international aid, and immigration policy are of interest to other states. Canada's stance on an issue can affect the core interests of other countries, foreign groups, and individuals. Threat actors may use cyber tools to target Canada's democratic process to change election outcomes, influence policy makers' choices, impact governmental relationships with foreign and domestic partners, and impact Canada's reputation around the world," the CSE report says. One question which comes to mind and seems obvious is How can an election outcome be "changed" unless it is already a foregone conclusion? What "outcome" is the CSE talking about? Does it have to do with Canada's continued integration into the U.S. war-machine and the role played by supranational organizations in the service of oligarchic state control of the economy and international relations? What is the CSE talking about?
The CSE report declares that the next federal election will be marked by the promotion of hostile relations with the countries the CSE deems to be adversarial states which endanger Canada's democracy and way of life. The underlying implication is that the Canadian state expects people to line up behind the NATO alliance countries versus "enemy states." "Consistent with our judgement in the 2019 Update: Cyber Threats to Canada's Democratic Process, we assess that an increasing number of threat actors have the cyber tools, the organizational capacity, and a sufficiently advanced understanding of Canada's political landscape to direct cyber activity against future Canadian federal elections, should they have the strategic intent. We judge it very likely that Canadian voters will encounter some form of foreign cyber interference ahead of, and during, the next federal election." It states that there is "a significant amount of false and misleading information online" and claims that its assessment only deals with "online foreign influence activity targeting voters." "This influence activity happens when foreign threat actors covertly manipulate online information, often using cyber tools, in order to influence voters' opinions and behaviours. We define foreign interference as covert, deceptive, or coercive activity by a foreign actor against a democratic process, conducted to advance strategic objectives. Foreign cyber interference includes cyber threat activity by foreign actors as well as online foreign influence activity." "[W]e consider foreign interference on the scale of state-sponsored activity against U.S. elections to be improbable in Canada at this time," the CSE report adds. It also predicts that if an election is held before the COVID-19 pandemic is over, "it is very likely that the online activities of political parties and candidates will be targeted by cyber threat activity," adding that it is "very unlikely" "to be part of a sophisticated cyber campaign against a particular Canadian political party or candidate." The CSE is now following the modus operandi
of the U.S. intelligence agencies which claim
that if nothing happens it shows they are doing
a good job on preventing anything from
happening. The CSE's prediction of foreign
interference concerning the 2019 election did
not materialize and they claim it is because the
work of the secret police was obviously
effective. The CSE says much progress has been
made in combating potential cyber attacks on the
democratic process. Referring to the
United States elections, they write: "Although
there has yet to be a systematic study of the
effectiveness of these practices, a comparison
of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections suggests
that identifying and publicizing potential
online foreign influence campaigns,
strengthening the cyber security postures of
organizations involved in the election, and
improving social media companies' responses to
malicious activity on their platforms can
decrease the impact of hostile states' efforts
to influence democratic processes through cyber
means." In this light, the CSE informs that "while there are many opportunities for threat actors to target democratic processes, it is important to note that, in the past few years, there have also been significant strides towards protecting democracy around the world. This includes efforts by governments, non-governmental and research organizations, civil society, traditional media, and social media and technology companies to improve cyber security practices, raise awareness, and respond to incidents quickly. For example, Canada has implemented a broad suite of measures, including legislation (i.e., the Elections Modernization Act), agreements with social media companies, as well as several initiatives to improve communication and information sharing between Elections Canada, Canadian security and intelligence agencies, other government departments, political parties, and voters." CSE praises the role given to social-media
corporations and various organizations to
monitor political discourse on the web. It says
that measures that can deal with suspect content
and accounts include: "- demoting 'borderline content' (i.e., content
that almost violates community guidelines); The Growth of Private Cyber Mercenaries and
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It reiterates the
exact words it used in 2017 to explain why
Canada is a target. The CSE says that Canada
plays "an active role in the international
community, participating in key multilateral
forums, including the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
the Group of 20 (G20), and the Group of Seven
(G7)."
Elections are
supposed to be a time for Canadians to decide
for themselves what domestic and foreign policy
they want. They should be free to advocate
whatever vision they see fit for the country,
including Canada's withdrawal from NATO; and the
need to dismantle NATO, opposition to various
neo-liberal global alliances and trade deals,
Canada's current integration into the U.S. war
machine, and self-serving conceptions of rights
both at home and abroad; the need for political
renewal to replace the present constitutional
order with one decided by the people through a
democratic process of the people's choosing, and
so on. Will they be able to do so without being
targeted and turned into suspected agents of "an
adversarial state" -- other than our own of
course?
