Access-to-information records show Ottawa used an expensive “Digital Citizen Initiative” to fund partisan research to the tune of $19.4 million over four years, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
The so-called initiative was launched in 2019 by then-democratic institutions minister Karina Gould to poll Black people on whether they voted Liberal and also hired Liberal publicists to monitor “anti-Liberal” media.
“Canada’s best defence against threats to democracy remains an engaged and informed public,” Gould said in 2019.
“By building their skills, Canadians can better understand online deceptive practices, recognize disinformation and be less susceptible to online manipulation.”
Cabinet said the initiative was supposed to counter an “increase in false, misleading and inflammatory disinformation published online and through social media.”
However records show public funds were used for partisan purposes like polling Liberal preferences of Black voters and tracking “anti-Liberal” posts on Twitter, now known as X.
The Surrey, B.C.,-based Kingdom Acts Foundation was paid $70,500 for a project titled “Exploring the Impact of Disinformation on the Diverse and Marginalized African Canadian Communities.”
The money was used by the foundation to survey 1,131 Black people on how they voted.
“A significant outcome of this research report is that most African Canadians in the sampled population are affiliated with the three main political parties,” said a project summary.
“Findings indicate 49% of the sampled African Canadian group are affiliated with the Liberal Party of Canada.”
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Halifax-based PR firm Iris Communications Inc., which was operated by former Nova Scotia Liberal aides, was paid $99,500 for a project titled “Mapping and Preempting Covid-19 Disinformation in Canada” with the purpose to monitor “anti-Liberal” media.
“The Digital Citizen Initiative needs to understand disinformation and how it evolves in a Canadian context and how it affects Canadians differently,” wrote Iris Communications.
Media perceived to be unfriendly to the Liberal party were a focus given “the ‘anti-Liberal’ cluster was more likely to post about COVID-19,” wrote publicists.