Speaking to CBC News to mark the end of his 10-year tenure as Election Commissioner to Canada, Yves Côté said online misinformation is one of the biggest challenges he has faced and noted that it can be difficult to be optimistic about the future.
“I believe that there are all kinds of challenges that lurk and some of them become perhaps worse as we move forward over time,” Côté said.
However, he noted that there is a solution if different groups can work together.
“No one should just be discouraged and give up the fight or quit the project,” he said.
“I think a lot of people have to contribute, and I think it’s the job of politicians at all levels, institutions, the media, academia. It’s all kinds of people who have to come together and say that this is a risk.”
CLOCKS Yves Côté on the complex challenge of misinformation and foreign intervention:
Misinformation and foreign interference are key challenges for elections, says Commissioner
Outgoing Electoral Commissioner for Canada Yves Côté talks about key challenges facing Canada’s electoral system.
Misinformation against the electoral system problematic
Kote said he was particularly concerned about the misinformation attacks on the Canadian electoral system. “When people try to convince others that the way votes or ballots are counted does not work,” Kote said. “When they try to misinform people about where they can vote, how they can vote or where, they try to raise questions about professionalism or competence, for example, the Canadian Election or our office for reasons they do not have. no basis. “I find it very, very annoying.” Côté said he has negotiated deals with companies such as Twitter, Google and Facebook to help streamline the information process when his office needs to investigate a complaint, but said he has no deals with other “foreign services” such as Tencent. company that owns the popular Chinese application WeChat. Côté’s departure later this month comes amid these new technological challenges we probably could not have imagined 10 years ago, when the headlines were dominated by the voter repression scandal during the 2011 elections, when voters in many riding they received automated phone calls with recorded messages directing them to the wrong place to vote. His successor, Caroline Simard, begins on August 15.
“Difficult to investigate foreign intervention”
In addition to the challenges posed by misinformation, Kote said Simar would have to deal with the threat of foreign interference in the election. “For us as an enforcement agency, it poses all kinds of challenges, especially if these foreign countries do not have good diplomatic relations with us,” Côté explained. “It’s very difficult to investigate, it’s very difficult to get the evidence that you may need to make a case, and then, of course, it’s very difficult to bring these people to Canadian courts, assuming you were able to gather the evidence that you need to do it. “ In a recent interview with CBC Radio’s The House, former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole revealed that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) briefed his party during the last election on WeChat efforts to influence the fight in a series of matches with false information. . LISTEN Erin O’Toole discusses intervention in the 2021 elections: CBC News: The House23: 06 Erin O’Toole’s Tips for Conservatives Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole opens in a lengthy, seated interview with host Chris Hall to discuss escort, China and the parliamentary group uprising that ended his leadership. Côté said his office has links to CSIS, the Canadian Security Agency, the RCMP and various police forces. “Certainly we have heard of campaigns like this or allegations that there have been campaigns like this and this is an issue that we are very interested in,” Côté said. Aside from the efforts that Canada Elections knows and can decipher, he said things are also happening under the radar that they are unaware of. “There are the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. So this is a very complicated thing where we have a role to play.”
Ensuring the privacy of voters
Another challenge is protecting the privacy of voters. Federal political parties are currently excluded from federal privacy law. Côté said he had received several complaints about political parties abusing voters’ personal information. “Given the current context, we could not really do anything because the act is so open and so generous or not so restrictive as to what the political parties are doing.” Côté has outlined new legislation in Quebec that will subject parties and candidates to privacy rules, something he hopes to see the federal government adopt. He said he also supported a recommendation made by election leader Stéphane Perrault to curb hate groups from forming recognized political parties. Some voters have said in the past that they did not want to be included in the electoral roll because of concerns that their information could be accessed by individuals or groups that promote hatred. In the end, Côté believes his term was successful, increasing the independence of the Canadian Commissioner-elect office and achieving changes such as the introduction of administrative fines as an alternative to prosecution for certain electoral violations. “We have a good team and we definitely have a commissioner, an incoming commissioner, who is extremely capable and highly qualified to take over from me and move the office to higher and better places.”
