Trudeau announces new team dedicated to countering Russian disinformation

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a number of measures aimed against Russia, including the creation of a team dedicated to tackling Russian state-sponsored disinformation.

The announcement was made during the second annual Summit for Heads of State and Government of the International Crimea Platform, which was held virtually.

According to a statement released by the government, "Canada will continue to counter Russian state-sponsored disinformation by creating a dedicated team to help increase Canada’s capacity to understand, monitor, and detect Russian and other state-sponsored disinformation and enable deeper international collaboration, including through the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM)."

Canada will be joined by Germany as they work together to tackle "the threat of subnational foreign interference at community, municipal and regional levels."

This is not the first time Trudeau has gone to war against Russian disinformation. The government has long partnered with the aforementioned RRM, as well as NATO, the Media Freedom Coalition, and the Freedom Online Coalition. In March, Trudeau allocated $3 million to weed out fake news emanating from Russia.

Along with tackling disinformation, attendees of the HSGICP summit also discussed other measures they could take against Putin. These included imposing further sanctions against those in his regime, and funding major security projects in Ukraine.

In 2022, Canada has imposed sanctions on 1,300 individuals and entities from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, and committed to providing nearly $3.5 billion in financial assistance.

Trudeau also announced a total of $3.85 million in funding that would be allocated to two Ukraine projects through the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program.

$2.9 million of this would be additional funding for the Canada-Ukraine Police Development Project which will provide targeted support to the National Police of Ukraine (NPU) and Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Emergency Services, and around $950,000 which would go towards the Promoting Reform Objectives through Technical Capacity Transfer project, which focuses on providing technical advice and support to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.