Foreign Actors Exploit Canada’s Immigration Fears

By Mata Press Service

Foreign influence campaigns are increasingly exploiting Canada’s housing crisis and immigration debate to turn Canadians against each other, using domestic commentators to make narratives appear authentic and homegrown, according to a new analysis.

The tactic is particularly difficult to detect because it does not necessarily depend on fabricated stories or obviously false claims, writes Ji Young Kim of the NATO Association of Canada’s Centre for Disinformation Studies.

Instead, foreign actors can take real economic problems, amplify the most divisive explanations and use trusted local voices to redirect frustration toward immigrants, governments or other Canadians.

“Commentators exploited real domestic issues and dilemmas in Canada,” Kim writes. “They were not spreading overt lies, but rather manipulating context and stripping away alternative explanations.”

The result, she argues, is an information environment in which Canadians can be pushed into blaming one another for broader economic and structural problems.

Kim’s analysis, published Sept. 10, focuses on Canada’s housing shortage, where high prices, rising construction costs, mortgage rates and a shortage of homes have already produced widespread economic anxiety.

That anxiety makes housing particularly useful for those seeking to deepen political and social divisions.

Population growth is highly visible, Kim notes, making immigration an easy explanation for rising rents and housing shortages even though Canadians also blame poor government planning and other factors.

The basic argument that more people are competing for too few homes is easy to understand and contains an element of economic reality. That makes it far more effective as a vehicle for manipulation than an obviously fabricated claim.

Kim points to the case of Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based online media company that U.S. prosecutors alleged was secretly financed with nearly US$10 million from employees of Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT.

The U.S. Justice Department charged two RT employees in September 2024 with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors alleged the money was secretly channelled into the company to produce and distribute thousands of social-media videos aimed at Western audiences.

U.S. authorities said the operation was designed in part to “sow discord and division” while hiding the Russian government’s involvement. The indictment alleges RT had developed what its editor-in-chief described as an “entire empire of covert projects” aimed at shaping Western public opinion.

Kim argues the significance for Canada lies in how such operations can employ Canadians themselves.

Tenet Media was founded by Canadian YouTuber Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan, and employed prominent online commentators, including Canadians, to produce politically charged content.

According to Kim, the operation amplified narratives around immigration, housing, national identity and government failure, allowing foreign-funded messaging to circulate through voices viewers regarded as independent North American commentators.

That model creates a much harder form of foreign interference to recognize.

Rather than a foreign government openly telling Canadians what to believe, the message arrives through a familiar commentator discussing problems Canadians are already worried about.

Kim describes the technique as “substrate wedging,” in which an outside power identifies existing divisions in another country and pushes those divisions wider.

“The goal is to fracture the target’s internal unity,” she writes, by inserting foreign influence into domestic debates and intensifying conflicts that already exist.

Housing provides particularly fertile ground.

About 60 per cent of Canadians report anxiety when thinking about their finances, according to figures cited in the analysis, while 63 per cent of people aged 18 to 24 believe home ownership is out of reach.

Young Canadians have also become increasingly pessimistic about immigration as housing affordability has deteriorated.

For people watching the possibility of home ownership disappear while rents rise, arguments linking population growth directly to their financial insecurity can have powerful emotional appeal.

Kim cautions that the manipulation works precisely because the underlying grievance is real.

Canada does have a housing shortage. Population growth does increase housing demand. Governments have faced widespread criticism for failing to match immigration levels with housing and infrastructure.

The disinformation risk emerges when those facts are selectively presented as the complete explanation, while factors such as construction costs, zoning restrictions, interest rates, investment patterns, infrastructure shortages and years of inadequate housing construction are pushed aside.

That process can transform frustration with public policy into resentment against immigrants or other groups.

Polling cited by Kim illustrates the sense of competition. In 2025, 59 per cent of Canadians surveyed agreed the country should prioritize helping unemployed Canadians rather than recruiting skilled immigrants.

Economic insecurity and a belief that jobs, housing and public services are scarce can create what Kim describes as a receptive environment for actors seeking to reinforce zero-sum narratives.

The broader objective can extend well beyond immigration policy.

Canada has one of the world’s largest Ukrainian diasporas and has been a major supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. Kim argues that convincing Canadians their own country is collapsing under the pressures of immigration and housing could eventually weaken public willingness to support Ukraine, accept newcomers or maintain other international commitments.

U.S. prosecutors made a similar assessment of the alleged RT operation. The Justice Department said much of the content financed through the scheme was consistent with Russia’s interest in amplifying domestic divisions and weakening Western opposition to Russian objectives, particularly over Ukraine.

Kim says the use of domestic personalities gives these operations a significant advantage because audiences are less likely to perceive the message as foreign propaganda.

“Rather than inventing a grievance from scratch,” she writes, foreign actors can exploit existing problems while using local citizens as proxies.

The approach also presents democracies with a difficult challenge because the people delivering the messages are exercising their right to free expression, even when the infrastructure supporting or amplifying that speech may have foreign origins.

Kim argues greater transparency over who finances media operations should therefore form part of Canada’s response.

She calls for stronger anti-money-laundering rules requiring media companies to verify legitimate sources of funding, while warning that governments must also confront the domestic problems being exploited.