OTTAWA: China and India are likely to try to interfere in the Canadian general election on April 28, while Russia and Pakistan have the potential to do so, the country’s spy service said on Monday.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service made its comments at a time when Ottawa’s relations with both India and China are chilly. Beijing and New Delhi have denied previous allegations of interference.
Vanessa Lloyd, deputy director of operations at CSIS, told a press conference that hostile state actors were increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to meddle in elections.
“The PRC (People’s Republic of China) is highly likely to use AI enabled tools to attempt to interfere with Canada’s democratic process in this current election,” she said.
Asked for a response to the CSIS comments at a regular news briefing on Tuesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said China had always adhered to the principle of not interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, and had “never had any interest in interfering in Canada’s internal affairs”.
Canada last year expelled six Indian diplomats - including the head of mission - over allegations they were involved in a plot against Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.
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