REPORT: Canadian military illegally surveilled Canadians during COVID-19

According to the Ottawa Citizen, Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau, the former head of the Canadian Joint Operations Command, issued a plan to use propaganda techniques towards Canadians. They used propaganda techniques adopted during the Afghanistan War and other information operations.

Following that revelation, another investigation revealed military intelligence officers accessed social media information of ordinary citizens, including those who attended Black Lives Matter rallies.

In September 2020, they forged a letter posing as the Nova Scotia government to induce pandemonium among residents by falsely claiming wolves were on the loose in parts of the province.

The Canadian Armed Forces spent more than $1 million to train public affairs officers on behaviour modification techniques to further their aggressive information warfare strategy on Canadians.

However, the investigations found the initiative weaponized public affairs to change public attitudes and behaviours and that the officers responsible lacked formal training. They also demonstrated a lack of clarity on using the propaganda techniques employed. "Teams contravened requirements by not conducting a risk assessment before conducting activities on the internet, and they collected Canadian citizen information without our explicit direction," said the acting Chief of the Defence Staff Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre and Deputy Minister Jody Thomas in a June 9 document they co-signed.

Eyre and Thomas acknowledged the initiative - decommissioned in November 2020 - was an 'error' that "eroded public confidence in the institution."

Following sexual assault and misconduct allegations against senior military officials, notably retired Gen. Jonathan Vance, the Canadian military committed to new training protocols that protect Canadians better moving forward.