Foreign interference in Canadian election 'very likely', says minister

Canada's foreign minister warned Friday that outside interference in the country's upcoming parliamentary election was "very likely".

"We are very concerned. Our judgement is that interference is very likely and we think there have probably already been efforts by malign foreign actors to disrupt our democracy," Chrystia Freeland said.

Speaking on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in northern France, she added: "What we are seeing in many liberal democracies, the effort is not so much to secure a particular outcome in an election.

"The effort is to make our societies more polarised and make us, as citizens of democracies, more cynical about democracy and that it can work."