Global Courant 2023-05-24 04:35:00
As the hour wore on, his understanding of the French language failed him, his answers fell into long-winded ramblings, and he was forced to go on the defensive when his once impeccable character came under attack.
At some point during the media release of his ‘special rapporteur’ report on the merits of holding a public inquiry into foreign interference in recent elections, former Governor General David Johnston must have realized he had been duped by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
After taking the job believing there was a clear path for him to simply snoop top secret files and launch a public inquiry, Johnston says the facts forced him to take a detour over loose gravel, past cliffs, without roads. .
He looked at the entire intelligence file on leaked examples of Chinese meddling – and found that it conflicted with Global TV stories based on snippets of classified material.
The spy agencies told him that almost anything he saw would never be let out of the room — and Johnston realized there was no point in organizing a public inquiry based on shielded evidence.
And after a parade of cabinet ministers and the prime minister described how they couldn’t access alerts from spy agencies or get foreign intelligence that hadn’t been validated, he couldn’t find any evidence that they were lying to save their political skin – if he looked for it indeed to.
So the former viceroy was faced with a non-winning choice.
The furious headlines and angry public mood meant that he could only dismiss an inquiry if he did something to appease the mob begging for an inquiry, lest he face charges of writing a cover-up.
So Johnston chose to stage the sham public hearings that he will personally oversee this fall.
He did this knowing that it was a pathetically inadequate response for a foreign Democratic assault of this magnitude. He did it knowing it would be seen as protecting the prime minister and his ministers from well-deserved scrutiny. And he did it knowing that he was the worst person to collect the input and write down the final conclusions.
But, but, but, he stammered when the question of his impartiality arose, his “friendship” with Trudeau consisted only of their kids skiing together and the strange sharing of a parking space in a mountain resort condo. And his involvement with the Trudeau Foundation was exactly that of a former university president interested in his grants.
Sorry, but the perception prevails of them as neighborly friends in the Laurentian Elite, supported by evidence suggesting that due diligence was deliberately lacking when he compiled his report.
For example, Johnston only reached out to former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole last week. This was the former leader who spoke the most about Chinese election meddling, but Johnston’s report was already on its way to printing for translation by the time an O’Toole interview was booked.
Johnston also went to great lengths to investigate and question the veracity of news reports, but failed to investigate the Trudeau Foundation’s role in the controversy after it received significant funds from Chinese benefactors seeking to buy friends in high positions .
And his conclusion that senior liberals knew nothing about Chinese efforts to help elect a liberal minority mandate was based on mere asking the prime minister if that was the case. Not surprisingly, Trudeau said no.
To wrap up this liberal-friendly 59-page verdict, Johnston found communication gaps in government rather than credibility gaps.
He declared the government’s handling of allegations and threats of foreign interference as incomplete and not incompetent.
And on the main issue, how this administration’s internal responses to interference reports, Johnston has already submitted his findings. The “hearings will not focus on ‘who knew what and what did they do about it’. I have researched these issues, drawn conclusions and provided as much information as possible to the public,” he said.
And so the stage is set for publicity seekers who voluntarily appear before Johnston in circus-style hearings to voice their opinions in front of the cameras, be it anyone or no one.
There will be no public inquiry, allowing invited and involved parties to take the stand with attorneys examining their testimony for insights, lies or loopholes.
The full truth about Chinese meddling and manipulation in our elections and how the government faced/ignored the problem will forever remain secret and elusive.
Johnston no doubt knows now that he should never have accepted Trudeau’s invitation to get out of a cozy double pension for this horrifying act of suicide.
His reputation is but a smoldering ruin and the last chapter of his report will be ripe for immediate destruction in many outside the inner liberal circle when published.
If he still possesses the wisdom and intellect we saw when he was governor general, Johnston should immediately resign from this thankless task and go back to spoiling his grandchildren in the mountainside apartment.
While it’s far from conventional thinking out there amid the anger directed at his conclusions, I feel something different for the once-eminent, now-maligned David Johnston: pity.
That’s the bottom line…
Can’t see the Special Rapporteur’s enclosed report above? click here
