Mr. Johnston surprises himself
And us
David Johnston, the independent special rapporteur appointed by the Prime Minister in March to examine the threat of foreign interference to Canada’s electoral processes, surprised himself.
In his first pubic report, issued on May 23, he resisted enormous pressure from opposition politicians and media pundits to call a public (judicial) inquiry; he resisted his own initial inclination on taking the job—that a public inquiry had to be the way forward to ensure public confidence in Canada’s ability to safeguard its electoral processes and democracy.
He found otherwise after two months of study of intelligence reporting and after a whole series of briefings with senior officials from the national security community, Ministers, the Prime Minister and opposition political leaders (minus Pierre Poilievre, who refused to meet with him).
Mr. Johnston’s press conference is on CPAC, here:
https://www.cpac.ca/episode?id=1ba8a07c-1e55-4483-9f64-e244891a7358
His first report is at:
https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/di-id/documents/rpt/rapporteur/Independent-Special-Rapporteur%20-Report-eng.pdf
There are three stated reasons for his decision against a public inquiry. One concerns the inherent contradiction in pursuing a public inquiry when much of the matter for study would involve sensitive intelligence that could not be revealed in public. Yes, let’s acknowledge this fundamental reality. There are secrets that need to be protected.
A second argument involves the question of what a public inquiry would delve into. Mr. Johnston examined the intelligence records and compared them with media reporting and allegations based on selected leaks. He found the media reporting often lacking in context and sometimes guilty of misconstruing the facts. He doesn’t see any value in holding a public inquiry to explore faulty media narratives.
There is a serious criticism here of how media organizations with access to leaked material have reported their stories. Something for the media to digest. Let’s see if they do. Early signs are not encouraging, including a quote from the Globe and Mail’s team of Bob Fife and Steve Chase (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-david-johnston-interference-inquiry-report/) , to the following effect:
“The Johnston findings did not dispute a series of reports by The Globe and Mail on Chinese foreign influence in Canada, including Beijing’s targeting of Mr. Chong or China’s efforts to influence the 2021 election.”
Except that some of his findings did exactly that and call attention, in particular, to exaggerated construals in the Globe and Mail’s key February 17, 2023 report on alleged Chinese interference in the federal election in 2021. Chutzpah its not dead in journalism.
Mr. Johnston’s criticisms of Global News’ more egregious reporting have yet to generate a response from that organization. Its lead correspondent, Sam Cooper, appears to have gone silent since April 14.
Mr. Johnston also found no evidence of any negligence on the part of the government when it came to addressing intelligence reports and no indication that the pursuit of a partisan political agenda played any role. So he suggests that can be taken off the table as a focus for a public inquiry.
The third argument he made was that there is a better, faster way to advance public understanding of the threat of foreign interference and come up with recommendations for fixing whatever is broken in the government national security and intelligence system. That better way suggested by Johnston is a parallel process of public hearings, more informal, less guided by legal strictures and legal issues. This is Mr. Johnston’s surprise middle way, not called for in his terms of reference. Public hearings won’t allow for witnesses to be subpoenaed or classified documents to be produced. Johnston believes these powers are not necessary. It will allow for open discussion and it can be run quickly.
None of these cogent reasons will sway opposition politicians and those in the media who have long made up their minds about the need for a public inquiry. The demand for a public inquiry will only quieten if the results of Mr. Johnston’s public hearings satisfy Canadians and produce concrete recommendations for improving Canada’s national security system in the face of the foreign interference threat. That’s a stiff test, but let’s see.
Public hearings could be a significant step forward in improving something that successive government have largely failed at—which is national security transparency. The Liberal government only has itself to blame for the crisis they found themselves mired in over foreign interference allegations. Previous governments had no better record of transparency, arguably an even worse one.
Mr. Johnston deserves credit for surprising himself and surprising us. The rest of his mandate, which runs until October, will be taken up by public hearings.
There is no truer statement than this in his report:
“Canada requires a more sophisticated approach to national security, designed for the current challenges. This includes a less politicized environment to discuss national security issues.”
If the public hearings phase can be conducted in this spirit, they deserve a chance to succeed.
(In my next post I will discuss the issues that Mr. Johnston wants to focus on for the remainder of his mandate. Please stay tuned.)
Maybe you should read “Wilful Blindness”, Sam Cooper. Years of research, documentation. See Amazon books. I guess you chose to overlook the fact that Johnston only addressed 3 issues not the 10 reported. He did not touch the 11 candidates regarding election interference reported. Completely overlooked is the Trudeau Foundation and the CCP funding they accepted resulting in the dissolution of the board. Most would find it odd that 80% of political donations to Trudeau’s riding were from BC, all with Chinese names. Notwithstanding CCP police departments in Richmond, Toronto, Montreal, still operating. Notwithstanding CCP military conducting military exercises on Canadian soil, courtesy of Trudeau until finally stopped by senior military.
These are only a few issues that come to mind. Maybe look at the BC Cullen Commission, money laundering, whereby billions are laundered into Canada yearly, primarily from China. Where do you think that ends up? This has been going on since 1986 beginning in BC. As for Cooper, he is the best and primary source of investigation into these matters. No, he is not silent. You just have not heard him. Time to pay closer attention.
The only question in my mind is how this has managed to stay out of the limelight for so many years, since I have known about it for years. I guess that’s why leaking was the only solution. The “Ottawa Bubble” definitely lives up to its name. Time it was “popped” for good.
re: Mr. Johnston surprises himself And us
I recoil when I read "us" or "we all" because it unfortunately often reveals a bit more of the writer than the content.
Who exactly is "us". It certainly wasn't me. I also doubt that Johnston from the outset had any other motivation than to shelter the Laurentian elite poster boy and his entourage from further scrutiny. Johnston wasn't surprised.
Perhaps the only person surprised was you. I'm disappointed.
Even if a public inquiry was hobbled by exaggerated definitions of "sensitive information", it would at least make Canadians aware of how much more information is readily available to the CCP than to "us".