FRIDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O NEWS | A
Experts on misinformation,
including the former head of Can-
ada’s spy agency, are urging Cana-
dians to be more aware of the
consequences when they share
news online without checking
that it’s authentic.
Panelists at an Ottawa confer-
ence on online misinformation
said that while foreign actors
such as Russia and China are
working to polarize political de-
bates and spread false informa-
tion, Canadians need to acknowl-
edge and take responsibility for
the role they play on social
media.
“The biggest and most impor-
tant thing we can do is to use our
brains,” said Richard Fadden, a
former director of the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS) and a former national
security adviser to the Prime Min-
ister.
Specifically, Mr. Fadden said
Canadians should make the effort
to seek out reliable sources of in-
formation and different perspec-
tives.
“This is exactly what Russia
and China want to have happen
in Western countries. They want
us to be more divided. They want
us to be polarized. They want us
to start doubting our institu-
tions,” he said.
In the context of the current
political debate, Mr. Fadden said,
Canadians are becoming polar-
ized on issues such as climate
change and immigration, and he
urged political leaders to be cau-
tious in managing those divi-
sions.
Canada’s Communications
Security Establishment (CSE) has
issued two reports warning it is
very likely Canadian voters will
encounter foreign cyberinterfe-
rence ahead of, and during, the
2019 federal election campaign.
In January,the federalgovern-
ment announced the creation of
a Security and Intelligence
Threats to Elections Task Force,
which is chaired by CSE and also
includes CSIS, the RCMP and
Global Affairs Canada.
In its most recent update, CSE
said in July that the agency had
not yet come across any specific
cyberthreats targeting the 2019
federal election.
Two other panelists at Thurs-
day’s conference, which was orga-
nized by Canada 2020, said inter-
national studies show baby
boomers are more likely to
spread false information online
than younger Canadians.
Elizabeth Dubois, assistant
professor of communications at
the University of Ottawa, said the
focus on foreign interference in
Canadian politics can distract
from Canadians being largely re-
sponsible for spreading question-
able information to their friends
and family.
She said a culture shift in
which politicians and others are
regularly called out if they share
dubious material online would
help improve the situation.
“We need the spread of misin-
formation to be socially unac-
ceptable,” she said.
Throughout the year, designat-
ed officials with the main politi-
cal parties have been receiving
classified security briefings about
potential foreign interference.
The briefings likely include ad-
vice to parties about securing
their websites and databases in
order to reduce the risk of hacks
and privacy breaches.
Canada’s spy agency outlined
the types of potential threats that
could affect the election cam-
paign.
“Foreign threat actors, most
notably hostile states and state-
sponsored actors, are targeting
Canada’s democratic institutions
and processes,” CSIS stated in a
report to Parliament this year.
“While Canada’s electoral system
is strong, threat actors have
sought to target its politicians,
political parties, elections, and its
media outlets in order to manip-
ulate the Canadian public and in-
terfere with Canada’s democra-
cy.”
Ryan Foreman, a spokesman
for the CSE, said the task force on
election threats continues to
share intelligence with senior
government officials.
He noted in an e-mail that a
panel of deputy ministers is in
place to determine whether any
of the information would require
the government to issue a public
alert during the campaign.FormerCSIS
directorurges
Canadiansto
stoponline
spreadoffalse
information
BILLCURRYOTTAWAA Canadian film company is accusing the
federalgovernment of interference after
an arm’s-length regulator suspended
funding for its completed docudrama
about the row between Ottawa and Beijing
over the detention of Huawei executive
Meng Wanzhou.
The Toronto production company, New
Realm Studios, said Tuesday that the Cana-
da Media Fund is in breach of a finalized
contract and that Ottawa and the CMF are
penalizing it for its association with former
Donald Trump aide Stephen Bannon, who
is helping with U.S. distribution.
Days before the English-language tele-
playClaws of the Red Dragonwas set to air
on the cable channel New Tang Dynasty
Canada (NTD-Canada), the channel’s U.S.
counterpart announced on Aug. 23 that Mr.
Bannon, a vociferous critic of Beijing,
would join the project as an executive pro-
ducer, acting in the capacity of U.S. distrib-
utor.
New York-based New Tang Dynasty,
which supports Mr. Trump’s confronta-
tional approach to Beijing, retains the U.S.
rights and hoped that Mr. Bannon’s experi-
ence and contacts in the film business
would help them find channels free from
the kind of political interference that
would arise if they had partnered with a
multinational corporation.
According to New Realm, widely dis-
seminated news of Mr. Bannon’s associ-
ation with the docudrama prompted dis-
cussions between thefederalgovernment
and the CMF, whose officials subsequently
notified the producers of the suspension
on Aug. 28.
In their view, Mr. Bannon’s U.S. citizen-
ship made the production ineligible for the
$200,000 subsidy.
They also raised questions about his
character.
“At the beginning of the conversation,
[the CMF] said they got questioned by the
government of Canada,” said producer
Sophia Sun, who spoke with a panel of
CMF officials. “They told me that, unfortu-
nately, they have to cease the funding
pending an investigation first. We were
supposed to receive that money just
around that time.”
Ms. Sun said the CMF’s point person on
the call, director of programs and policy
Rod Butler, did notspecify which govern-
ment official or ministry he had spoken
with.
The federalgovernment did not directly
address questions about whether Ottawa
had interfered in the funding for the do-
cudrama.
Instead, Simon Ross, press secretary to
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodri-
guez, said the CMF is an independent orga-
nization responsible for making its own
funding decisions. “We will continue to re-
spect its independence,” Mr. Ross said, re-
ferring further questions to the fund.
In response to a series of queries from
The Globe and Mail, the CMF, which re-
ceives its funding from Ottawa and private
broadcasters, issued the following state-
ment: “Given the ongoing, internal review
of the project’s eligibility, the CMF can’t
speak about the possible outcomes of this
evaluation,” said Valerie Creighton, the
CMF’s president and chief executive.
“Funding has been paused until CMF com-
pletes its review and is satis-
fied that the project meets all
eligibility criteria. Non-Cana-
dians in key creative roles
would render the project in-
eligible for CMF funding. The
subject-matter of the content
does not affect a project’s eli-
gibility.”
In conversations with Mr.
Butler, Ms. Sun said, he ap-
parently voiced concerns
about Mr. Bannon’s national-
ity. In order to receive fund-
ing from the regulator, a pro-
duction must be fully home-
grown – part of a point sys-
tem called 10 out of 10, in which all the
main people must be Canadian. With Mr.
Bannon attached to the project as an exec-
utive producer – suggesting he helped
make the teleplay – the project was no
longer eligible for a subsidy.
The producers argue they had filled the
requisite production quotas and that the
CMF had already signed off on it. Mr. Ban-
non, they say, was involved solely for the
purposes of U.S. distribution.
In regard to this role, Canadian Broad-
casting Regulatory Policy stipulates that
“[t]he duties of foreign executive pro-
ducers shall be limited to noncreative, non
production-related functions. Such func-
tions could include arranging financing
and foreign distribution.”
According to Ms. Sun, Mr. Butler also
raised Mr. Bannon’s character as an issue.
“If there’s a murderer, and you put him on
the show as executive producer, what
would the funder think?” she recalled himsaying.
The CMF would not confirm the ac-
count. The Globe also queried Mr. Butler.
“Mr. Bannon is involved on the U.S. side
for the purpose of distribution, which is ve-
ry common in this business,” said Joel
Etienne, an executive producer of the tele-
play. “They should know that. We did all
the production here. The production is
100-per-cent Canadian and was completed
before Mr. Bannon signed on.”
Documents provided to The Globe and
Mail show that on July 30, the two sides
agreed that the CMF and NTD-Canada
shared domestic rights and that NTD-U.S.
had distribution rights.
A human-rights lawyer who recently
lost the Conservative nomination bid for
the riding of York Centre, Mr. Etienne says
Ottawa and the CMF have deliberately con-
flated production and distribution for po-
litical purposes. “What isthe government’s
business in getting involved? Clearly this is
interference and censorship.”
The two-part teleplay depicts the tra-
vails of a Chinese-Canadian
journalist covering the dip-
lomatic fallout of a Chinese
executive’s detention in Van-
couver. The reporter is
threatened with reprisals
against her parents, who are
visiting China, unless she
backs off. And to complicate
her life, she lives with an am-
bitious businessman who
works for the Huawei-like
company depicted in the tel-
eplay. As part of its ripped-
from-the-headlines content,
a dead ringer for former am-
bassador John McCallum
struggles to free two Canadian expats in
Chinese custody.
In an interview with The Globe, Mr. Ban-
non said he has held five screenings in
Washington for select groups of 50. “To a
person,” he said, “none of the people there
knew about the Canadian hostages held in
China.”
In response to the CMF pulling funding,
he said Canadians should be really proud
of this film. “It’s a great way to access the
story, and they put it together on a shoe-
string budget. It’s about everyone’s search
for the truth, just like the journalist’s own
search. It’s about well-meaning people
who awaken to the threat of Huawei.”
Mr. Bannon, who said he has no finan-
cial stake in the project, said he aims to ex-
pand on it with five additional episodes
that involve a grand jury in the Western
District of Washington State, which indict-
ed Huawei on 10 counts of intellectual-
property theft.Fromleft:JoelEtienne,KevinYangandSophiaSunareseenatNewRealmStudiosonSept.9.Thecompany’snewfilm,
ClawsoftheRedDragon,isbasedonCanada’sdetentionofHuaweiexecutiveMengWanzhou.FRED LUM/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
FilmcompanyallegesOttawa
pulledfundingoverBannonties
StudiobehindHuawei-inspired
docudramacontendsit’sbeing
penalizedfortappingformer
TrumpaideasU.S.distributor
CRAIGOFFMAN
STEVENCHASE
According to
New Realm, widely
disseminated news
of Mr. Bannon’s
association with the
docudrama
prompted
discussions between
the federal
government and
the CMF.Authorities in Indian Kashmir have arrest-
ed nearly 4,000 people since the scrapping
of its special status last month,govern-
ment data show, the most clear evidence
yet of the scale of one of the disputed re-
gion’s biggest crackdowns.
Muslim-majority Kashmir, claimed by
both India and Pakistan, has been in tur-
moil since India stripped its portion of the
region of its autonomy and statehood on
Aug. 5, leading to clashes between security
forces and residents and inflaming tension
with Pakistan.
In an attempt to stifle the protests that
the reform sparked in Kashmir, India cut
internet and mobile services and imposed
curfew-like restrictions in many areas.
It has also arrested more than 3,800 peo-
ple, according to a government report dat-
ed Sept. 6 and seen by Reuters, although
about 2,600 have since been released.
A spokeswoman for India’s interior
ministry did not respond to a request for
comment. Neither did Jammu and Kash-
mir police.
It was not clear on what basis most of
the people were being held but an Indian
official said some were held under the Pub-
lic Safety Act, a law in Jammu and Kashmir
state that allows for detention for up to two
years without charge.
The data, for the first time, show the ex-
tent of the detentions, as well as indicating
who was picked up and where.
More than 200 politicians, including
two former chief ministers of the state
were arrested, along with more than 100
leaders and activists from an umbrella
organization of pro-separatist political
groups.
The bulk of those arrested – more than
3,000 – were listed as “stone pelters and
other miscreants.”
Rights group Amnesty International
said the crackdown was “distinct and un-
precedented” in the recent history of the
region and the detentions had contributed
to “widespread fear and alienation.”“The communication blackout, security
clampdown and detention of the political
leaders in the region has made it worse,”
said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty Interna-
tional India.
India says the detentions are necessary
to maintain order and prevent violence,
and points to the relatively limited num-
ber of casualties compared with previous
bouts of unrest.
The government says only one person is
confirmed to have died compared with
dozens in 2016, when the killing of a mil-
itant leader sparked widespread violence.
Of the detained political leaders, more
than 80 were from the People’s Democratic
Party, formerly in coalition in Jammu and
Kashmir state with the ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party.
About 70 are from the National Confer-
ence, which has for years dominated poli-
tics in Indian Kashmir, and more than a
dozen from India’s main opposition Con-
gress party.REUTERSThousandsdetainedinIndianKashmirsince
specialstatusscrapped,governmentdatashow
DEVJYOTGHOSHALSRINAGAR
ALASDAIRPALNEWDELHI