Attempted interference in 2021 election did not compromise the result: report

A panel of top civil servants has concluded that attempts to interfere with the 2021 federal election did not affect the results, according to a report released Tuesday.

But the report also says Ottawa should consider changing the rules to allow the panel to alert Canadians to "potential" impacts on election integrity.

The federal government established the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol in 2019 to monitor and alert the public to credible threats to Canada's elections. The team is a panel of top public servants tasked with determining whether incidents of interference meet the threshold for warning the public.

The government released a redacted independent report assessing the panel's work on Tuesday.

"In 2019 and 2021, the panel, as part of the Protocol, determined that the Government of Canada did not detect foreign interference that threatened Canada's ability to have free and fair elections," the report says.

While the report notes there were attempts at interference, it says those attempts didn't compromise the integrity of the election.

"National security agencies saw attempts at foreign interference, but not enough to have met the threshold of impacting electoral integrity," the report says.

The report specifically notes that there is no evidence to suggest that attempted interference targeted Elections Canada itself.

WATCH | Ottawa prepared to implement elections integrity report recommendations: LeBlanc

The panel is tasked with alerting the public to any attempts at electoral interference that would have a demonstrable impact on the outcome of an election. But the report says that the government should consider amending the threshold so that an alert is issued when there is evidence of a "potential impact."

"How [is the panel] to assess, within the brief period of an election campaign, what the impact is?" the report says.

"How are they to determine how many Canadians have been exposed to false information? How are they to distinguish the impact of interference or disinformation from the variety of other factors that voters take into account?"

The report also recommends that the panel's scope be expanded to include the period leading up to an election campaign.

Speaking to CBC News Network's Power & Politics, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government is prepared to move forward with the recommendations.