Bob Mackin
A compilation of reaction to Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue’s Jan. 28-released, final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions.
Cover of the Hogue Commission final report, released Jan. 28, 2025.
Canadian Friends of Hong Kong
By bragging how our democratic institutions have remained “robust” and downplaying the foreign interference as “isolated cases” and “may have some impact,” Justice Hogue and her team stand in sharp contrast with the Canadian general public in that we think even one such case is too many for a democracy like ours. Their wilful blindness to this issue and to address the public concern is mind-blowing.
Justice Hogue further shows that she has not been listening to the concern of the Canadian public, or that she has been listening but not understanding, when she says she is “not aware of any federal legislation, regulations or policies that have been enacted or repealed on account of foreign interference.” The biggest Canadian concern expressed so far has always been about the interference into our democratic institutions and processes, not the legislative or electoral results. Again, their wilful blindness to the issue is eye-popping.
By describing transnational repression as “a genuine scourge” but not as a real threat, she adds another blow to the confidence of the diaspora communities, members of which are under constant fear and threats because they practice and exercise, in Justice Hogue’s words, “the fundamental values that our democracy embodies, namely, freedom of thought, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression and the right to privacy.”
Conservative Party
All this evidence amounts to proof that the Liberal government failed to protect our democracy from foreign meddling in the 2019 and 2021 general elections. It also leaves Canadians with concerns that the government failed to inform the public or take appropriate action to stop this interference because it was in the political interest of the Liberal Party.
Commissioner Hogue highlights that the government’s response has “been far from perfect,” that the government has “taken too long to act” and that the government has been “insufficiently transparent when it comes to foreign interference.”
Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue (CPAC)
Former MP Kenny Chiu (Conservative, Steveston-Richmond East)
One of the criticisms that I have with [Hogue] is that there is very little accountability that she addressed in the report in the whole commission, let alone political accountability…
It is my thinking that we need to look at the 51 recommendations that Judge Hogue had provided very seriously and start implementing many of them, and especially the ones that do not require legislative changes. Any government should look into tightening them up.
When we discuss about this topic, it’s almost like I assume there is no federal government in Ottawa anymore. Unfortunately, sadly, that’s exactly the problem that we’re facing. Ottawa, it’s in complete chaos right now. So even if we had a federal government that is fully in charge with undivided attention, with their track record, people should not be holding too much hope on their implementation.
Democracy Watch
Disturbingly, Commissioner Hogue concludes that foreign interference activities have had “minimal impact” on Canadian politics, which no one should claim because it is impossible to know that given it is legal to do many of the activities in secret.
Also disturbingly, Commissioner Hogue writes that she had “access to all the documents I deemed relevant, without redactions for national security reasons,” but the final report does not make it clear how many documents the Trudeau Cabinet withheld completely from the Inquiry. As of last June, the Trudeau Cabinet was withholding an unknown number of documents, and had redacted about 3,000 documents submitted to the inquiry. How can Commissioner Hogue conclude she had access to all relevant documents if she didn’t even see some of the Trudeau Cabinet documents?
Commissioner Hogue cannot claim that she did not know about all the dozen loopholes in laws and 10 systemic weaknesses in Canada’s anti-interference enforcement system that make foreign interference easy to get away with and cover up.
MP Jenny Kwan (NDP, Vancouver-East)
As indicated in the final report, misinformation and disinformation pose some of the greatest threats to democracy. Commissioner Hogue rightly recognized that building digital literacy is a key element of any strategy to combat disinformation and misinformation. More than ever, digital literacy is needed. Concerted action and publicly available tools are required to help verify the authenticity of digital content. Educating and empowering the public to identify fabricated or altered content will enhance the resilience of our democracy.
We are now on the eve of an election. Parliament worked across party lines to expedite the passage of Bill C-70, the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act. Yet despite the enactment of Bill C-70, the Liberal government has not issued the regulations needed to effectively implement the Act. Time is of the essence. Canada needs a comprehensive plan to combat foreign interference. It is urgent that the Liberals release the regulations and plan now.
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