Disinformation is endangering democracy ahead of Canada’s 2025 federal election

Probably one of the most frustrating things to experience, especially ahead of a major election, is watching friends or acquaintances sharing obvious misinformation or disinformation online, knowing there’s nothing you can do to make them change their minds. Even when it’s pointed out that the source is untrustworthy, or the “news” has been refuted with evidence, those who have bought the lie will simply deflect and deny. 

As Canadians prepare to cast their ballots on April 28 (and in advance polls this long weekend), experts have identified both external and internal threats to our democracy. The risks of foreign interference and social media propaganda campaigns are very real, and without the ability to analyze and evaluate information for accuracy and reliability, disinformation can easily distort and divide. The proliferation of artificial intelligence has only made the truth harder to distinguish, which is exactly what fake-news disseminators want.

EKOS president and pollster Frank Graves is absolutely right when he says that we’re living in an era that sees “a crisis of both trust and truth.”

Foreign interference and homegrown propaganda

A healthy democracy depends on people being able to make informed decisions. Disinformation that preyed on people’s COVID-induced anxieties — turning them into anger — had a lot to do with the “Freedom” trucker convoy madness and much of the hate targeted at former prime minister Justin Trudeau. Often, people couldn’t even articulate why they “hated” him; they were simply convinced that they did. It would later be revealed that Russian bots and Russian state TV had largely been behind foreign interference that aimed to destabilize our democracy. 

Things haven’t slowed down since then. In March, Canadian award-winning news organization Press Progress reported on Canada Proud, a group that has close ties to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — a 2022 report by the CBC revealed that Poilievre had hired the team behind Canada Proud to “boost his messages online.”

More recently, the third-party advertiser was running attack ads associating Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with Jeffrey Epstein’s “global child sex trafficking ring.” Canada Proud ran 10 separate Facebook ads insinuating vague ties between Carney and “notorious pedophile” Jeffrey Epstein. They spread like wildfire. According to the investigation, Canada Proud spent around $15,000 on Carney-Epstein ads that were viewed nearly two million times, and has run at least 29 additional ads targeting Carney since late February.

Jeff Ballingall, the founder of Mobilize Media Group and Canada Proud, estimated that Canada Proud has purchased between $150,000 and $200,000 in advertising for the campaign, all from donors to the cause.

The only real photo of Carney and his wife standing next to Ghislaine Maxwell is from a public event that took place in 2013, “two years before allegations about the British socialite’s role in Epstein’s crimes became publicly known,” as Press Progress notes. 

But that hasn’t stopped those eager to spread disinformation.

Among images circulating and being shared abundantly are AI-generated photos of Carney and Maxwell looking extra friendly. If you’re AI-savvy, it’s easy to spot the fake photos. Most of them bear the telltale Grok seals on the bottom right, indicating the image has been generated. But many people aren’t AI savvy.

AI is the perfect weapon for foreign interference and electoral disinformation because too many voters online are not equipped to detect fake news, biased reporting or political propaganda masquerading as facts-based political criticism. 

Disinformation is ‘an existential threat’

In 2023, the Canadian government established the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions. Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, a judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal, was appointed commissioner.

This past February, after the inquiry concluded, Justice Hogue warned Canadians that we must guard against the “existential threat” of disinformation, which can be weaponized through artificial intelligence and spread through social media to undermine democracy.”

The report called disinformation “the single biggest risk to our democracy.”

The government is so concerned about deliberate disinformation during the electoral campaign that it even published important tips on how to detect and report disinformation that could pose a threat to Canada’s electoral process. I would urge everyone to look at them. 

In early March, Communications Security Establishment Canada released an update on the cyber threats facing Canada’s democratic process and warned of “a surge of use of AI for election interference by China, Russia and Iran,” and other hostile foreign actors using AI to “sow division and distrust within democratic societies.”  

In the meantime, our southern neighbour is now categorically and unequivocally one of those “hostile foreign actors.” The Trump administration isn’t even subtle about its desire to annex (read: invade and compromise a sovereign country’s territory and national interests), both by making outright threats to Canada and its leadership and by openly meddling in our democracy. 

Trump’s MAGA influencers and grifters have been loudly endorsing Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre in our current electoral campaign, and bot accounts have been busy spreading misinformation and fake support for the party. 

Elon Musk has long crossed the line from trying to influence politics to full-on political interference, by amplifying far-right accounts and pundits, and openly supporting far-right political parties and politicians in Brazil, Argentina, Germany and elsewhere. 

Musk has openly criticized Trudeau and offered his support to Poilievre and the Conservative Party. 

Beware of bots + more media literacy tips

If you spend any amount of time on social media, you’ll encounter bots. They’re usually accounts that have recently been created, don’t have much of an online history and engage with you by saying something outrageous or patently false, which incites you to immediately respond, in turn creating more traction for them and the generation of more posts. 

Experts say that the best way to respond to bots is not to. You report them as a fake bot and block them. The less you engage with them, the better. It isn’t always easy. Even seasoned journalists will occasionally get suckered into pointless back-and-forth exchanges, only to realize they’re not talking to a real person. 

Always make sure to read past the headline. Many sensational headlines are often refuted later in the article itself. But how many people furiously sharing it as real news bothered to read the entire article before rushing to share? More importantly, how many of those sharing hoped you wouldn’t look past the headline?

When something feels “off” or is too outrageous, question it. Before you share it, thoroughly read it, make sure it’s accurate and the source is reliable. There are plenty of reputable fact-checking websites that can help you decipher truths from falsehoods: PolitiFact, Reuters Fact Check, Snopes, FactCheck.org or AP Fact Check.

Elections Canada has also published an extensive guide, helping voters fight disinformation and become better at spotting “fake news” ahead of this election. Read it.

While it’s getting harder and harder to figure out what’s real and what’s fake these days, you still owe it to yourself not to become an easy target. 

Media literacy and extra caution are essential in this toxic climate — trust me. 

Better yet, don’t. Do your own homework. ■

This article was originally published in the April 2025 issue of Cult MTL.

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Read more weekly editorial columns by Toula Drimonis.