Tories Argue Investigation Should Confirm Foreign Interference Affected Elections

There is substantial evidence suggesting that foreign interference had an impact on the last two elections, as stated by the Conservative Party in its submission to the public inquiry.

The party also expressed concerns about the standards used by elections integrity mechanisms, which they believe failed to detect interference.

The public hearings of the foreign interference commission concluded on April 10, and parties with intervenor status have shared their assessments of the findings so far.

According to the CPC, the commission should consider that the standards applied by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force and the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (referred to as the Panel of 5) are flawed.

During election campaigns, the SITE task force assesses interference-related information from security agencies, while the Panel of 5 has the mandate to alert the public about any event that poses a threat to elections integrity.

“If action is only taken when the Panel of 5 decisively concludes by consensus that foreign interference is happening, that standard will likely never be met given the challenges of intelligence gathering,” the CPC stated.

The CPC also recommended that the commission acknowledge that while foreign interference did not determine the outcome of the elections, it did have an impact on the 2019 and 2021 general elections.