(Ottawa) Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has decided not to meet with former Governor General David Johnston, who is investigating allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed Johnston as a “special rapporteur” to examine possible shortcomings in the federal government’s response to foreign interference – and to recommend whether to hold a public inquiry.
Mr. Poilievre argues that Mr. Johnston is unable to carry out his task independently because he was once a member of the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation, which has justly come under scrutiny for accepting a donation which would be linked to the Chinese government.
The Conservative leader told reporters on Thursday that he sent a letter to Johnston in April asking how he could independently investigate the Trudeau Foundation, but had not received a response from the special rapporteur.
Johnston, who was named governor general in 2010 by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, told CTV in 2016 that his family’s friendship with the Trudeaus stretched back decades and that they used to skiing together.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION ARCHIVES
Former Governor and “Special Rapporteur” David Johnston
He also said his wife also became close to the Trudeau family when they all lived on the Rideau Hall property in Ottawa. In 2017, at the end of Mr. Johnston’s term at Rideau Hall, Justin Trudeau called him a “friend of the family” during a speech in Parliament.
“He is a friend of Justin Trudeau, a neighbor at the chalet, a family friend and a member of the Trudeau Foundation, who received $140,000 from Beijing,” Mr. Poilievre said in French on Thursday. “So the Trudeau Foundation is involved in foreign interference, and Mr. Johnston is involved in the Trudeau Foundation.
“He has bogus work and he is unable to perform it impartially. He just needs to step down and allow an independent public inquiry into Beijing’s interference,” he said in English.
The Conservative leader said Canada must abandon the “special rapporteur’s distraction” and launch a public inquiry to look into allegations of Chinese foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
The other chiefs met Mr. Johnston
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, wrote on Wednesday evening on Twitter that he had met Mr. Johnston, “little independent rapporteur”, and that he had called for an independent commission of inquiry. “We didn’t invite each other to dinner,” concludes Mr. Blanchet.
New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh also met Johnston, alongside Vancouver MP Jenny Kwan, who had not yet been told she was a potential target of foreign interference.
“We asked Jenny to attend because she listened very actively to the Chinese community raising their concerns about foreign interference,” the NDP said in a statement. “Much of the public discussion on the issue has focused on politicians and we wanted to make sure the impact on ordinary people was taken into account” by the special rapporteur.
The NDP said it requested the meeting and that Mr. Singh asked the special rapporteur to recommend a public inquiry.
Mr. Johnston has served on the board of directors of some 15 public companies and was named a member of the Trudeau Foundation in 2018.
As part of his mandate as special rapporteur, he will have to determine in particular what Mr. Trudeau, his political staff and the ministers knew about the attempted interference by foreign agents, and what the government did about it. The government ensures that Mr. Johnston has access to secret documents to conduct his investigation.
The special rapporteur is expected to make his recommendations on whether or not a public inquiry should be held by next week, but he has until the end of October to complete his review.