Originally published in the Yukon News (print edition), Oct 2 2026, and online Oct 4 2026.
This past week (of Sept 21), a security workshop in Whitehorse examined how foreign governments exploit legal, economic, and media channels to disrupt democracies, and European consuls general fielded related questions at a town hall at Yukon University. Both conversations were valuable, and got me thinking about two vulnerabilities Yukon could close on its own.
The first is legislative. A research paper I wrote last year found that the Yukon Elections Act has no limit on political contributions, and no requirement that donors be Canadian citizens or eligible voters. There's no oversight of nomination or leadership contests. Nothing stops a bulk membership drive, foreign-funded or otherwise, from shaping who leads a party. Disclosure only kicks in above $250, there's no third-party spending law, and Elections Yukon has no dedicated trained auditors. The decision to pursue an audit would have to wind its way through Elections Yukon, YG legal counsel, department directors, and a minister (a lot of desks for what should be a routine compliance check). A candidate convicted of corrupt or illegal practices can still run for office here. Yukon has no disqualification standard, unlike Ontario, B.C., or the federal system. None of this requires a national task force to fix. It requires our own MLAs amending the Act. This isn't a foreign problem. It's a paperwork problem.
The second is media literacy (made ever more important with the presence of Generative AI), and here we don't need to invent anything. CIVIX, a Canadian non-partisan civics charity, runs CTRL-F that teaches students to evaluate what they see online, not by what a site looks like, but by checking who's behind it. A Canada-wide study of more than 2,300 students found the program increased "lateral reading" (the habit of leaving a page to verify it elsewhere) sixfold, from 11 percent to 59 percent of students, with the gains still holding six weeks later. Nearly all teachers said it changed how they teach digital literacy. It's already free, it's already Canadian. Adopting it in Yukon schools isn't a big ask; it's picking up something already sitting on the shelf. Customizing it for Yukon can come later.
Small electorates make these gaps matter more here than anywhere else in Canada. In 2021, the Vuntut Gwitchin riding tied 78 votes to 78 and was decided only by a random draw — a margin that would take almost nothing to move, through a handful of improperly sourced dollars or a well-timed rumour, and one that ended up deciding whether a party held a majority in our own legislature. We don't have to wait for a federal task force, a European summit, or another commission report to close these two gaps. We can do it ourselves, starting with the Legislative Assembly's Oct. 5 sitting, and pursue media literacy this school year. Our MLAs and Yukon Government’s Department of Education don't need to wait for anyone's permission.