QUESTION PERIOD — Global Affairs
Canada-Russia Relations
February 27, 2024
Senator Gold, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, Canada banned all Russian state media from our public airwaves to prevent the Kremlin from spreading its propaganda and disinformation here. Canada also placed all Russian state-controlled media on our sanctions list. However, it seems that Russian state media is still being beamed to many homes in Canada through streaming devices offered by companies in Canada: eTVnet and Kartina.
Will the Canadian government ask the RCMP to investigate these companies who may be profiting from the spread of Russian disinformation in Canada? Will it act to prevent Russia’s hateful propaganda, disinformation and conspiracies from being sent into the homes of Canadians?
Thank you for that very important question.
Senator, while I cannot speak to any possible Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, investigation, I can tell you that the government continues to condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s use of war propagandists to justify its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Together with international partners, the government will continue to stand up to the Russian regime and address Russian disinformation. To that end, the government announced late last year further sanctions against persons and entities who, by their role in the Kremlin-backed orchestration of disinformation and war propaganda, directly promote Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Thank you, Senator Gold.
Is there a role for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, in addressing this Russian propaganda, particularly as we see an increase in pro‑Russia sentiment percolating in some sectors of our community and an uptick in the amount of politically destabilizing disinformation being spread by the Russian media here in Canada?
I’m not in a position to comment on the role of the CRTC, which is independent from the government in that regard.
However, Canada is also — and I wanted to add this response to my earlier answer — sanctioning disinformation entities that are directly funded by the state as federally owned entities or receive funding in the form of state grants distributed by Kremlin agents. The Government of Canada continues to do what it can to fight back against this disinformation.
