MONTREAL—Tenet Media, which allegedly took part in a Russian propaganda campaign targeting the U.S., had a fascination with Canada, according to a new report.

The Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO), which studies Canada’s media industry, analyzed 1,952 podcasts from right-wing podcasters Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson, who hosted shows on Tenet’s platform and elsewhere. Roughly a quarter of these episodes included distinct discussions about Canada and often focused on topics “of interest to Russian operatives,” according to the report.

A sentiment analysis of Tenet Media’s content, using an AI tool, showed Canada was portrayed negatively almost 50 per cent of the time, with positive mentions limited to 16 per cent. The most negative conversations revolved around racism, wokeness, replacement theory and other divisive social topics favoured by Russian operatives, the report explained.

Canada’s outsized presence in Tenet Media’s content underscores the extent to which Russia seeks to influence public opinion around the world, according to researcher and Russian disinformation expert critic Marcus Kolga. “We are a relatively important member of several Western alliances, including NATO and so, to undermine Canadian support for Ukraine is very important to Russia,” he said.

According to a September U.S. Department of Justice indictment, two employees of RT, Russia’s state-controlled media, paid a media company US$9.7 million as part of an effort to amplify U.S. domestic divisions and weaken opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Though they weren’t directly named in the indictment, reports have identified the company as Tenet Media, owned by Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, a married Canadian couple.  

The MEO report captures content produced by Pool, Rubin and Johnson for Tenet Media as well as their own channels between January 2023 and September 2024. The Tim Pool Culture War, which was licensed to Tenet Media, was particularly obsessed with Canada, mentioning the country in 50 per cent of the 70 episodes.

In one, Pool told listeners that Canada is a woke-ish hellhole led by a Fidel Castro lookalike. “Even in northern towns, there are still people wearing masks with their Ukraine flags,” said guest Natasha Biase. “You can’t go to a church without seeing a Pride flag outside of it,” added fellow guest Katherine Krozonouski. “What is wrong with your country?” Pool asked his guests at one point. Biase and Krozonouski are both Canadian.

Pool, who was paid $100,000 per episode, has since said he and other Tenet personalities were “deceived and are victims” if accusations against Tenet are proven true.

The obsession with Canada isn’t necessarily aimed at spreading disinformation within Canada itself. Rather, the country is being used as a cautionary tale about the dangers of alleged leftist excesses for American listeners.

“It’s probably a bit easier to misinform people about another country’s politics because people are just going to be less aware of what’s going on,” said MEO director Aengus Bridgman, who co-wrote the report. “So they’ll be more inclined to believe what they hear, especially if they are inclined to believe the worst about Canada.”

On a July 2023 episode of Timcast, one of Pool’s podcasts produced outside of Tenet Media, Montreal-based content producer David Freiheit said Canada’s Liberal government’s assisted-suicide policies were part of the Liberal government’s attempt to “dilute” Canada’s current population concurrent with mass immigration.

In an interview with The Logic, Freiheit called the MEO report “absurd,” saying Pool and other podcasters were producing content before Tenet’s founding in 2022. “Trudeau and the Liberal government and Jagmeet [Singh] and the NDP, the Conservatives as well, have turned the country into an international laughing stock with respect to human rights, vaccine mandates, corruption,” Freiheit said when asked why so much of the Tenet Media content focuses on Canada. 

He wouldn’t say whether he has been in contact with Chen and Donovan, though he said it is unlikely that they are co-operating with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Pool didn’t respond to a request for comment. In comments on social media, Pool, Rubin and Johnson have described themselves as “victims” of the alleged Russian effort.

Tenet has not commented publicly on the allegations and did not respond to a request for comment. A federal government business registry shows Chen and Donovan are directors of Roaming Millennial, which was incorporated in 2022. No one answered when The Logic recently visited their listed address, a quaint, yellow home off a thoroughfare in Hudson, Que., a leafy redoubt located about 60 kilometres west of Montreal. 

Chen and Donovan haven’t responded to numerous requests to testify in the investigation into Russian interference and disinformation campaigns in Canada, parliamentary clerk Simon Larouche told The Logic. 

Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk was a notable disseminator of Tenet Media content, having amplified accounts by various Tenet personalities at least 70 times between September 2023 and September 2024, according to a report commissioned by Reset Tech, a British non-profit. 

The reach of Tenet’s social media posts was amplified by as much as 216 times when Musk shared them, the report found. Tenet’s X account tagged Musk in at least 39 posts during this period. These posts were often about Donald Trump, free speech, censorship, as well as diversity and inclusion programs. 

In turn, Musk replied to or reposted content directly from Tenet Media’s X account three times, including a documentary made by Canadian Tenet personality Lauren Southern that purports to expose eco-terrorism in the country, as well as the “dark money” funding it.