David Johnston will deliver his verdict next Tuesday: should the Trudeau government launch a public inquiry into China’s interference efforts on Canadian soil? The answer seems inevitable. And former judge and commissioner of public inquiry, Jeffrey Oliphant, adds his voice to all those who claim one. Whoever chairs it will also have to have a free hand, insists Mr. Oliphant, in an interview with The duty.
The current context has for him the air of deja vu. Fifteen years ago, it was this same David Johnston who recommended to the then Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to hold a public inquiry into the financial dealings between Brian Mulroney and businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. Rather than retiring as planned, Mr. Oliphant took the helm of this commission of inquiry. “The most exciting and interesting professional experience of my career as a judge,” he recalls.
Former Governor General David Johnston is now preparing to recommend to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whether or not to hold an investigation into the Beijing regime’s attempts at electoral interference. His mandate provides that he report to the government “by May 23”. Since the Prime Minister is traveling in Asia until Sunday, Mr. Johnston may indeed wait until next Tuesday to report on the state of the mechanisms in place and the improvements to be made in order to detect but above all to counter any attempt at interference.
Over the months of revelations, calls for a public and independent inquiry have also multiplied. Mr. Johnston today seems to have his hands almost tied.
In Jeffrey Oliphant’s opinion, this investigation should be left to the sole discretion of his or her commissioner.
“The mandate should not be imposed by the government because of the political aspects that are linked to this whole file, including the allegations as to the propriety of the behavior of the Prime Minister and certain members of the cabinet,” said Mr. Oliphant.
The questions to be answered by the survey will be equally important. “Because they affect not only Canadian citizens, and especially Chinese-Canadian citizens, but also the security and sovereignty of the nation. It will therefore be necessary to determine what the Prime Minister, the members of his government and the machinery of government knew, and what they did when they were made aware of the actions of the Chinese regime. And to be able to go through, to do this, the documents of the Council of Ministers and the reports of the CSIS or the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).
As for the person who will be entrusted with the presidency of this commission of inquiry, his choice will be “of paramount importance”, maintains Mr. Oliphant. “That person needs to be fearless, well-respected and known for their integrity, so that no matter what the outcome of the investigation, people will respect those findings, whether they agree or not. »
An untenable doubt
Everyone in Ottawa seems to agree that Mr. Johnston will recommend such an inquiry — whether public, independent or judicial.
The current situation is untenable. The Bloc Québécois criticized the government on Monday for having called four by-elections in the midst of a scandal of foreign interference. An easy position to take for the Bloc, which will only participate in one of these partials, in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount where it came fourth two years ago with 5% of the vote…
But the fact remains that these doubts raised around an election do not bode well for the next general election.
Because there are outstanding questions. How extensive was Beijing’s foreign interference efforts in the 2019 and 2021 elections? What did the Trudeau government know and do to counter them? And what about China’s efforts to influence political candidates, MPs or political employees, alleged by the source of the Globe and Mail ?
The former chief electoral officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, asked others in an open letter to the Globe and Mail recently. How was this interference carried out? Which candidates and which political parties have been targeted or favored? What form did these messages take targeting them, on what platforms, at what point in the electoral cycle? Were these campaigns organized from inside or outside Canada? And were they financed in a way that contravened the Canada Elections Act?
Even if David Johnston does indeed call for a commission of inquiry, it will not be completed by the next general election – which many are expecting in 2024.
The Rouleau commission, invoking the Emergencies Act, only lasted ten months. But others have stretched beyond three years. The Oliphant commission lasted two years, as did that of Judge Frank Iacobucci on the actions of Canadian intelligence services that contributed to the detention of three Canadians of Arab origin in Syria. An investigation that had gone through the work of CSIS and the RCMP for 20 months, which a possible commission on Chinese interference may look like.
The opposition parties are demanding one loud and clear, and every day. It remains to be seen whether, if it materializes, it will be able to reassure them and at the same time Canadians. It is to be wished. Because the debates in the Commons or in committees do not help anything.
Judge Oliphant recalls parliamentary exchanges, in the months preceding his own investigation into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, which only served to “score political points”. He would surely make the same observation today.
David Johnston now seems to have no choice but to live up to the hopes of political parties, former election and intelligence officials, and Judge Oliphant. It is about the “confidence of Canadians in the integrity of our democratic institutions”, the very one that figures in these words at the heart of the mandate that Justin Trudeau entrusted to him two months ago.