Canada’s Foreign Interference Inquiry Asked to Examine Far-Right Media Outlet Allegedly Funded by Russia

A Russian-Canadian diaspora group is asking Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference to examine new evidence surfaced in a US Department of Justice indictment alleging a far-right media outlet run by a Canadian YouTuber received $10 million from Russia to interfere in the 2024 US Presidential vote.

The Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance says the indictment also suggests the founder of a far-right alternative media outlet called Tenet Media was also creating content focused on Canada’s 2021 federal election at the same time as she was allegedly under contract with a Russian entity.

According to the indictment, Tenet Media’s founder had a “written contract” to create “English-language social commentary” content for ANO TV-Novosti, the parent company of RT. This “paid work” is alleged to include articles, videos and social media postings, some of which was apparently posted on the founder’s “personal accounts (without attribution to RT).”

The indictment indicates the contract to create content applied between March 2021 and February 2022 – a time period that overlaps with Canada’s federal election in September 2021.

US Department of Justice indictment

Lauren Chen, a Canadian YouTuber and founder of Tenet Media, hosted an official PPC “Debate Debrief” livestream event with party leader Maxime Bernier following the 2021 federal leaders’ debate.

During the hour-long livestream, Bernier complained about failing to meet the requirements to participate in the debate and discussed topics like immigration, cutting foreign aid, public health measures, vaccines as well as skepticism about the health risks of COVID-19 and the science on climate change.

Chen and Bernier were joined by David Freiheit, a failed PPC candidate in the Montreal-area riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount who also runs a YouTube channel under the pseudonym “Viva Frei.”

“Just for clarity’s sake,” Chen told Bernier at the outset of the event, “I do not claim to be impartial.”

Lauren Chen (Twitter)

In a statement to PressProgress, the People’s Party of Canada said it was not aware that the host of its leaders’ debate event was simultaneously under contract with a Russian state entity.

“If true, it’s unfortunate and concerning,” PPC spokesperson Martin Masse told PressProgress. “The news that came out this week was the first time we heard that Lauren Chen may have been under contract with a Russian news organization.”

The PPC’s spokesperson stressed this was “one online discussion with Lauren Chen” and “could have been held anywhere with anyone,” adding it “doesn’t amount to foreign interference by any stretch of the imagination, whoever was paying Ms. Chen for her work.”

Photo credit: People’s Party of Canada (Facebook)

The Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance, an organization representing the Russian-Canadian diaspora that was granted standing at the ongoing Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference, agrees Chen’s ties to the PPC and Russia are “concerning.”

In a letter to Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue obtained by PressProgress, the RCDA is calling on the public inquiry to “examine and assess allegations concerning Russian propaganda in Canada” contained in the US Department of Justice’s Tenet Media indictment last week.

“On September 5, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment revealing that Canadian influencers were paid by Russia to advance Russian propaganda, including during the 2021 general election,” the RCDA’s letter to Commissioner Hogue states. “The indictment also revealed that Canadian nationals, operating through their Canadian company, established a right-wing news media outlet aimed at influencing political discourse in both the United States and Canada.”

“It’s not surprising to me that there was a Russian disinformation campaign supporting the People’s Party,” RCDA director Yuriy Novodvorskiy told PressProgress. “From the many observations about how Russian government disinformation works, it tends to radicalize political discussion.”

“This seems aligned with what we’ve seen happening in other countries.”

Guillaume Sirois, Counsel for the RCDA, notes the timeline overlap between Chen’s contract with ANO TV-Novosti and her campaigning for the PPC brings the issue within the scope of the inquiry’s mandate to examine foreign interference during Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

“If RT, an agent of the Kremlin, is paying a Canadian influencer during the 2021 general election and that influencer shares information about the election, posts an interview with Maxime Bernier, seemingly promotes a specific Canadian political party without attributing any of this to RT or disclosing its contractual relationship with RT, it’s obviously within the commission’s mandate to investigate,” Sirois told PressProgress.

RCDA notes Tenet Media “published dozens of videos since 2023 focusing on key political debates in Canada, including immigration, inflation, housing, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau” while allegedly receiving $10 million in Russian money, adding “these Canadian-focused videos, supposedly funded by Russian operatives, have garnered half a million views on platforms such as YouTube and Rumble.”

RCDA’s letter cites original reporting by PressProgress which found Tenet Media produced over 50 videos focused on Canadian topics this year.

NEW: The far-right media outlet linked in US federal indictment to a secret Russian influence campaign produced 50+ videos focused on Canada

We reviewed the videos before they were taken down and found they were viewed half-a-million timeshttps://t.co/IVdKAEdJLr #cdnpoli

— PressProgress (@pressprogress) September 6, 2024

The majority of Tenet Media’s allegedly Russian-funded CanCon videos feature Lauren Southern, a former Rebel Media personality known for extreme views on race and immigration.

Southern issued a statement over the weekend emphasizing that she has not been “not been accused of any crimes” and denies having any knowledge of the allegations contained in the indictment.

Following her departure from Rebel Media several years ago, Southern spent time in Europe with prominent figures in the European far-right and later traveled to Russia to create a series of videos with Alexander Dugin, a Russian neo-fascist philosopher considered an influential ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lauren Southern (Twitter)

Two guests featured in Southern’s Tenet Media videos were from two Canadian far-right alternative media outlets called True North and The Counter Signal.

Katrina Panova, a Counter Signal personality who appeared in a video warning Canada is turning into the Soviet Union, denies receiving funds from Tenet Media or Russian sources for her appearance. Candice Malcolm, Editor-in-Chief of True North, similarly denies her outlet received any Russian funding.

Chen, who has occasionally appeared on outlets like Rebel Media, Fox News, Blaze TV and the Daily Wire, was a regular contributor to RT between 2021 and 2022.

In the months leading up to Canada’s September 20, 2021 election day, Chen appeared in other content focused on Canadian politics.

On September 17, three days before election day, American far-right influencer Dave Rubin hosted an election panel featuring three Canadian influencers: Lauren Chen, Ezra Levant and David Freiheit.

Rubin, a high-profile personality employed by Tenet Media, issued a statement last week denying any knowledge that Chen was covertly financing his salary, believed to be worth millions of dollars, through Russian sources.

Rubin Report (YouTube)

During the election, Chen promoted the People’s Party and opposed the Conservative Party of Canada through a number of videos and posts on social media while allegedly contracted by a Russian entity.

In a now deleted video, Chen declared her support for the PPC while telling right-wing voters why they don’t need to worry about splitting the vote between the Conservatives and PPC.

“Canada is having an election in around a month,” Chen said in another tweet one month before the election. “There is only (one) choice, and it’s not the ‘Conservative’ Party, it’s People’s Party.”

Lauren Chen (Twitter)

On another occasion during the writ period while allegedly contracted by Russians, Chen criticized Conservative leader Erin O’Toole for participating in an event opposing gender-based violence.

“Please, don’t vote in a cross-dressing-to-virtue-signal Prime Minister,” Chen wrote, before explicitly calling on her followers to “Vote PPC.”

Lauren Chen (Twitter)

During testimony before the Foreign Interference Inquiry earlier this year, O’Toole speculated Russian actors may have sunk his hopes of becoming Prime Minister.

“There was always a fear that some of the troll farms and some of the Russian influence was boosting some of the messages from the PPC both on anti-LGBTQ type messaging,” O’Toole testified. “When COVID happened, the restriction / vaccine issue I believe was amplified by those channels.”

O’Toole pointed to a September 23, 2021 report from Global Affairs Canada’s Rapid Response Mechanism unit stating that “Russia-friendly accounts continued to amplify Peoples Party of Canada (PPC)-related content.”

While it appears Canadian government monitoring systems detected some kind of Russian activity linked to the PPC, it is unlikely those “Russian-friendly accounts” had any meaningful impact on O’Toole’s political fortunes – the RRM Canada noted it only found “approximately 1-2 likes / retweets.”

At the time, the PPC denied O’Toole’s allegation and disavowed foreign support.

“We’re talking about 1-2 Russian state-sponsored accounts liking and retweeting two PPC candidates,” the PPC told PressProgress in April. “We of course disavow all kinds of foreign interference in Canada’s democratic process.”

Maxime Bernier (Twitter)

The Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance says the new revelations raise questions about why this information did not come to light earlier and whether Canadian security and intelligence agencies were even aware of the problem.

“It’s very challenging for the RCDA, or even CSIS or Communications Security Establishment, to identify these kinds of foreign interference campaigns,” Sirois told PressProgress. “And even when you identify these information campaigns, it’s even more challenging to attribute that campaign to a foreign actor.”

“I don’t think they did that and, in this case, during the 2021 general election.”

RCDA questions why representatives from big social media platforms have not been called to testify before the foreign interference inquiry, suggesting they could shed light on the true scope of the threats to Canada’s democracy and noting a US Senate investigation into foreign interference focused heavily on the role of social media.

“Obviously these are relevant actors,” Sirois said. “Knowing how their algorithms function and what they do to mitigate the impacts of disinformation campaigns during the election period and to better understand their relationship between the federal government are all important questions that we need addressed.”

Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance letter to Commissioner Hogue: