Canadian military intelligence warned that digital identity, central bank digital currencies, smart cities, and other digital technologies form the basis of an “authoritarian toolkit,” an architecture capable of surveillance and state control, especially when combined. But provincial and federal governments are incrementally advancing the same technologies.
Juno News obtained a 2024 Canadian Forces Intelligence Command (CFINTCOM) assessment after a lengthy and fraught access-to-information process. The request was filed more than a year ago and sought 12 records, but only one has been disclosed.
Much of the material was initially considered too sensitive, with the intelligence assessment itself marked “TOP SECRET // CANADIAN EYES ONLY.”
Significant portions remain withheld for national security reasons.
The partially disclosed material examines how authoritarian governments such as China and Russia use digital technologies to monitor their populations, restrict individual behaviour, and reinforce state control.
