No way to know if ‘misleading information’ affected election results in B.C. riding: report [Video]

The final report on foreign interference in Canadian politics found there is no way to know whether “misleading information” affected results in a B.C. riding during the 2021 federal election, but the defeated candidate in the riding says he still feels vindicated by the investigation’s findings.

Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, commissioner of the public inquiry into foreign interference, found that it’s possible that a misinformation campaign that China was likely involved in could have impacted the results in the Steveston-Richmond East riding.

However, she said it’s “not possible to directly link misleading media narratives with how any given voter cast their ballot.”

“And even if I were to assume that some votes were changed, there is no way to know whether enough votes were changed to affect the result.”

Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu, who was first elected in the B.C. riding in 2019 after coming second in 2015, was defeated in …