Has Canada officially named India its top security threat?

A claim has recently surfaced on the social media platform X(formerly Twitter) alleging that Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission has officially listed India as its top national security threat, exposing its hostile covert operations against Canada. The claim has been shared by Pakistan-based handles stating these facts.

An account named PSYWAR Bureau posted a video and an image on X and wrote: “Canada Foreign Interference Commission has officially listed India as its top national security threat, exposing its hostile covert operations against Canada.
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Several accounts also posted the same video and made similar claims on X. The preview link can be seen here, here, and here.

Fact-Check

The DFRAC team investigated this claim and found it to be false.

We conducted a keyword search on Google related to the above viral claim and came across a PDF file titled “Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions” on the website of Government of Canada publications. As per this PDF file, the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) is, at the time of writing this report, the most active perpetrator of state-based foreign interference targeting
Canada’s democratic institutions, whereas India has been listed on the second position. Moreover, Pakistan has also been placed in this list as the file cited that Pakistan engages in foreign interference in Canada to promote stability in Pakistan and to counter India’s growing influence. Its activities target various facets of Canadian society and
all levels of government.

Not only this, we also found a report published by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs stating that the Foreign Interference Commission, which is conducting the inquiry, was established on September 7, 2023, following widespread concerns of foreign interference into Canadian democratic processes. The Commission released an initial report on May 3, 2024 that found that foreign interference by the People’s Republic of China had undermined public confidence in Canada’s democracy, that there had been efforts to influence outcomes in the 2019 federal election—bolstering certain candidates while undermining those seen as unfriendly to the PRC—and also that diaspora groups, including students, had been particularly targeted by foreign interference efforts.

Furthermore, the report stated that in 2024, a Canadian parliamentary committee identified India as the second-most significant foreign interference threat to Canada’s democratic institutions and processes.

Certainly, India has been listed on the second position by the Foreign Interference Commission of Canada in the context of state-based foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic institutions.

Conclusion

It is evident from DFRAC’s fact-check that the viral claim alleging Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission has officially listed India as its top national security threat, is completely false. A brief investigation of this claim reveals that the most active perpetrator of state-based foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic institutions, is the People’s Republic of China while India has been placed on second position.

Analysis: Misleading