Not only does Canada’s foreign affairs minister believe it’s likely a country will meddle in the October federal election, Chrystia Freeland believes some are already up to no good.

(David Vincent/AP)

”Our judgment is that interference is very likely and we think there have probably already been efforts by malign foreign actors to disrupt our democracy,” said Freeland at a G7-ministers gathering in France.

She believes such attempts were not aimed at securing a specific outcome but to polarize Western democracies. 

Asked if she’s worried Russia would interfere, Freeland says ”very concerned.”

The foreign affairs ministers of the G-7 — Canada, the U.S., France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan — and the European Union are meeting in France to come up with a strategy to try and prevent foreign powers from meddling.

In hopes of warding off the types of threats that tainted the American presidential election in 2016 and the Brexit vote, Ottawa’s setting up a team to sound the alarm.

This ”critical election incident public protocol” team’s made up of five bureaucrats, who’ll alert politicians and Canadians, if they become aware of interference during the election campaign.