The decision as to whether to hold a public inquiry on any topic, including the very important issue of foreign interference in Canada’s democracy, belongs to the prime minister. It cannot be transferred to an unelected, unaccountable appointee, regardless of that person’s credentials or experience. The ongoing noise about The Right Honourable David Johnston’s appointment to this position is an unfortunate distraction of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s making.
Special Rapporteur David Johnston has refused to take questions from MPs on the House of Commons public accounts committee regarding his previous work at the Trudeau Foundation, leading members of the committee to threaten to issue him a summons.
“We have a meeting scheduled for a week today with individuals who have been involved with the Trudeau Foundation,” said Conservative MP and Committee Chair John Williamson at a meeting of the committee on May 29, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “I regret to inform you all, I have three who have declined, including the Right Honourable David Johnston.”
The NDP is introducing an opposition day motion calling on David Johnston to step down as the government’s special rapporteur on foreign interference — only days after one of its MPs was told by CSIS she has been targeted by the Chinese government.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said that while he has been careful not to attack the former governor general or his reputation, Johnston’s background has led to doubts about his work as the special rapporteur.
… The motion — which would be nonbinding if passed — is being introduced after NDP MP Jenny Kwan said she was briefed Friday by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
Gotta protect that China class.
Deputy mayor suing CSIS over alleged ‘typecasting’ of Chinese immigrants
A former Ontario cabinet minister who has been the focus of intelligence leaks related to Chinese interference in Canada is suing CSIS, saying the spy agency publicly humiliated him because of a “stereotypical typecasting of immigrants born in China as being somehow untrustworthy.”
A citizen petition against a foreign agent registry that was sponsored by Liberal MP Chandra Arya in the House of Commons in April was drafted by Sen. Yuen Pau Woo, The Epoch Times has confirmed.
“At the request of organizers across the country, I helped to draft the petition,” Woo told The Epoch Times in an email.
The petition, initiated by Coquitlam, B.C., resident Li Wang, says “a foreign influence registry poses a serious harassment and stigmatization risk for racialized communities.”
Ever since David Johnston delivered his 55-page report on election interference by Beijing, the fundamental question remains unchanged.
Why is an unelected friend of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, chosen by the PM and paid for by taxpayers, in charge of deciding whether there should be a public inquiry into foreign interference, an option Johnston has rejected?
I spent more than 30 years with Canada’s two intelligence services, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). I worked in collection, cryptanalysis, translation, analysis and distribution over those years at various times. I know how intelligence is produced and how it is marketed, and a bit on how it can help decision-makers be better informed. In short, I know that intelligence has a purpose and makes a difference.
Appearing in Winnipeg a day after David Johnston released his first report on foreign interference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed the word “serious.”
“I would simply ask Canadians, and indeed opposition leaders, to actually look at the substance of this very serious issue and take it with the seriousness it deserves,” he told reporters.
Trudeau’s appeal to seriousness is in keeping with his current line of attack against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — the Liberal argument being that these are serious times that require serious leadership and ideas, and Poilievre offers neither.
No need for a debate. Trudeau and the LPC are ChiCom Assets end of story.
Western democracy is under attack from authoritarian states like China and Russia, and Canada must do more to defend our freedoms
Chinese election interference is a hot topic in Canada. Yet, while it is indeed a matter of enormous importance, its real significance can only be understood in the context of the new Cold War against the West.
This conflict is one in which China and Russia have long been engaged, while here at home our bien-pensant elites have continuously warned against us adopting a supposedly outdated “Cold War mentality.” The only ones who are out of date, however, are those whose understanding of recent history ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of the “end of history,” in which the values of liberal democracy and the West reign undisputed forever and ever.
Canada’s spy agency has informed former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole that he was targeted by Beijing during his time as party chief and remains a target because of his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party.
A source close to Mr. O’Toole said the Conservative MP was briefed Friday by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and he is still considering how best to reveal details to the public in a manner that balances Canadians’ right to know with national-security concerns about classified information.
China’s political interference in Canada is pervasive, and likely goes well beyond what has already come to light, former prime minister Stephen Harper is warning, calling for an end to what he calls “naive globalism.”
The Chinese government has sought to influence elections in Canada, channel money to curry political favour and seek vulnerabilities in politicians who have family living in China, according to secret intelligence documents reported by The Globe and Mail in recent months.
What else could be expected? Canada is a balkanized state of 5th Columns thanks to Multiculturalism which makes loyalty a one way street.
And …
Trudeau’s China Class Buddy says “My work to protect Canada’s democracy from foreign interference is not done”
More like his work is protecting Canada’s China Class antics.
Following the preliminary report by David Johnston, the special rapporteur on the controversy over foreign interference in Canadian elections, it is clear that the federal government’s response has been an infelicitous combination of amateurism and flimflam. As I wrote in this space on April 22, Johnston’s title of “special rapporteur” is a pretentious and misleading misnomer, the position is redundant and the prime minister’s motives in creating it and filling it as he has are suspect. And if such a role had to be confected, David Johnson is not the right person for it. Don Martin, the genial, perceptive and venerable CTV News contributor, may have gone slightly overboard when he said that Johnston’s “reputation is but a smouldering ruin.” But he is probably right that “the final chapter of (Johnston’s) report will be ripe for immediate shredding upon publication in many minds outside the inner Liberal circle … Johnston should step aside from this thankless task immediately.”
Since he was first named the federal government’s special rapporteur on foreign election interference, David Johnston has been accused of being unfit for the job because of his connections to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The leaders of the Conservative and Bloc Québécois parties have both said Trudeau and Johnston are self-declared friends, that their longstanding ties are too close to allow Johnston to judge the prime minister’s actions.
“… It has been painful to watch Mr. Johnston, a heretofore model Canadian with an unimpeachable record, twist himself in knots trying to dissociate himself from Justin Trudeau, as if their previous encounters were mere coincidences that have no bearing on his personal feelings for the man. It is even worse to see him drag a former Supreme Court justice (who is also his friend) into the mix to try back him up.”
Johnston is protecting his own interests and that of his China educated daughters and fellow grifters. He is no great man of Canada.
Slightly more than half of Canadians believe that Special Rapporteur David Johnston should have called for a public inquiry into foreign election interference, according to a new Angus Reid poll on May 26.
The national public opinion survey found that 52 percent of respondents said an inquiry should have been called, while 32 percent thought it was unnecessary, and 16 percent were unsure.
