Former Governor General David Johnston has delivered his final — and confidential — report on foreign interference to the Prime Minister, ending his tenure as Special Rapporteur on the issue.
Mr Johnston had announced his intention to step down as special rapporteur on foreign interference on June 9, citing the “highly partisan” climate surrounding his appointment and his work. Before leaving, he had to submit a “brief final report”, which was done on Monday.
The Office of the Independent Special Rapporteur said it was a “confidential supplement to the annex” to the first report, meaning it will not be made public. Instead, a two-paragraph side letter from Mr. Johnston to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was released.
The former governor general was named special rapporteur on foreign interference in March by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the government faced pressure from all quarters to respond to allegations that China had attempted to interfere in the last two federal elections.
In May, in his preliminary report, Mr Johnston concluded that a public and independent inquiry was not the best way to address the problem of foreign interference, due to the highly confidential nature of the information involved. .
The director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, David Vigneault, assured a House of Commons committee in March that the 2019 and 2021 elections had been free and fair. The leaders of all the political parties have also stressed that they do not question the results of these elections.
However, the opposition parties have been calling for a public inquiry for several weeks now. Mr. Johnston was asked to report by May 23 on whether this was the best option.
In that initial report, David Johnston concluded that a public inquiry would not be helpful given the constraints of national security laws and the amount of classified information that would have had to be processed. Instead, he planned to hold public hearings to educate Canadians about how foreign interference happens and how to deal with it.
These hearings were to include testimony from government officials, national security officials and members of the Chinese diaspora. The work was to be supported by three special advisers with expertise on national security intelligence, law and diaspora communities.
Days after the report was released, a majority of MPs passed a non-binding NDP motion calling on Mr Johnston to step down over alleged bias, with Tory leader Pierre Poilievre repeatedly accusing him of being too close of Justin Trudeau to examine the actions of his government.
Mr Johnston was friends with Pierre Elliott Trudeau and took ski trips with the Trudeau family when Justin was a child.
In his June 9 resignation letter, Johnston said his goal in leading the government’s investigation into alleged Chinese interference was to help build trust in democratic institutions.
“I find that, given the highly partisan climate surrounding my appointment and my work, my role has had the opposite effect,” he wrote at the time.
In his letter on Monday, Mr. Johnston said he had provided a copy of the supplement to his report to the Privy Council Office in English, and had requested that it be translated by translators with security required.
He added that the gently will be turned over to Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency.
“This completes my work as Independent Special Rapporteur and my resignation is therefore effective today,” Mr. Johnston wrote. My legal team and I will be available to you, to the extent that we can assist the Government of Canada (or any body charged with investigating this important matter) in pursuing the next steps in the investigation of foreign interference. »
Towards a public inquiry?
Following the announcement of Mr. Johnston’s resignation, discussions took place behind the scenes in Ottawa regarding the possible terms of reference for a possible public inquiry.
Johnston encouraged Prime Minister Trudeau to appoint a ‘respected person with national security experience’ to complete the job he had started, and suggested he consult with opposition parties to choose that person .
For its part, the federal government thanked Mr. Johnston for his work “on this important file”.
Meanwhile, a June 7 letter from the chairman of the Office of National Security and Intelligence Review, or OSSNR as it is known, was made public on Monday, reminding the government that Mr. Johnston was also asking him to release secret cabinet documents to the agency for it to review.
The agency has since claimed that the government provided it with a limited number of documents that it initially withheld due to cabinet confidentiality.
The letter from OSSNR President Marie Deschamps states that her review is separate from Mr. Johnston’s work and asks that all documents be submitted without any restrictions.
The OSSNR initiated an intelligence review of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections in response to media reports of Chinese interference.
This review includes analysis of how information was shared between government departments and agencies.