When I joined the public service many years ago, I swore an oath.
Not to party or to person, but to my country, to its democratic institutions and to my fellow Canadians.
When I first became aware of the significance of the threat posed by outside interference to our democratic institutions, I worked – as have many unnamed and tireless colleagues – to equip our leaders with the knowledge and the tools needed to take action against it.
David Johnston is a remarkable Canadian, a model of integrity and decency throughout a lifetime of personal accomplishment and public service – as professor of law, as principal of McGill and as one of our finest Governors-General.
He is also a wildly inappropriate choice as independent special rapporteur, in the matter of China’s attempts to interfere in Canadian elections, and whatever blame might attach to the Liberal government for allowing them.
Johnston is no saint, just another seedy member of the China class.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing the Conservatives of launching “horrific, partisan attacks” on former governor general David Johnston.
Trudeau delivered a full-throated defence of Johnston on Friday after tapping him this week to serve as special rapporteur on foreign interference.
The Conservatives say Johnston is too close to Trudeau, while the Bloc Québécois allege he has been “chummy” with China.
The Rapporteur schtick is a sham, the public inquiry schtick is a sham. What’s needed is that our government be deloused of the China Class starting with Useful idiot Trudeau and his fellow travelers.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim rejects ‘insinuations’ he won election due to Chinese interference
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim denounced what he said were “insinuations” made in a news article alleging Canada’s spy agency found evidence of China’s Vancouver consulate interfering in last year’s municipal election.
“I’ll just say it: if I was a Caucasian male, we’re not having this conversation,” said Sim, Vancouver’s first mayor of Chinese descent.
“If there’s proof of foreign interference in our election, I want to know about it because I’m a Canadian … but right now there are a bunch of insinuations.”
Justin Trudeau’s government has been compromised by the Chinese Communist Party and Canada’s democracy is in jeopardy. This is a startling claim, all the more so for the fact that Canadian intelligence officials are the ones making it.
Over the past month, a series of leaks from within CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, has stirred up an astonishing storm. In November, it was leaked that a clandestine CCP network had funded and infiltrated the campaigns of 11 candidates in 2019’s federal election.
… Mr. Johnston cannot seriously consider his task to be making a recommendation on whether there should or should not be a full inquiry. That has to be a given now. He can only be making recommendations on how broad that inquiry should be – and it has to be broad – or how to fit the requirement of protecting the secrecy of intelligence gathering with the necessity of telling the public what the heck is going on.
And at this point, the inquiry must deal with two sets of issues on two tracks. One is the narrow question of whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ignored credible warnings about Beijing’s meddling. The other is the broader issue of foreign interference throughout Canada’s politics.
Rare picture of two alleged Chinese agents have coffee together. pic.twitter.com/PBGNiprdLU
— Sanwin (@sanwins) March 17, 2023
Trudeau is mentally ill. He’s also among our most corrupt PM’s ever ranking with Mulroney for brazen deceit.
If there was any chance the appointment of a “rapporteur” to investigate Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interference in two Canadian elections would instill confidence in Canada’s democratic system, the chance evaporated when Prime Minister Trudeau appointed David Johnston to the role.
… Johnston’s job is to run interference for Justin Trudeau in this scandal. That’s all there is to it. Johnston is beholden to Trudeau, Trudeau is beholden to Johnston, and they are both deeply compromised by their relationships with Beijing’s emissaries and bagmen in Canada, and by their associations with the Montreal-centred corporate China lobby. And putting on the mask of an “independent” interlocutor is not the first time Johnston has scratched Justin Trudeau’s back, and not the first time Johnston has carried Xi Jinping’s water in Canada.
It’s way worse than you think.
Claims of foreign interference in Canada’s last two federal elections are “speculative” and “not based on facts,” says Liberal MP Ya’ara Saks, who also said the federal Conservatives are spreading misinformation on the matter.
Saks, who represents the constituency of York Centre in Toronto, made the comments during a meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) on March 14, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
Two opposition leaders in the House of Commons are dismissing the newly named special rapporteur on foreign election interference as a “family friend” of the prime minister and are continuing to press the government to call a public inquiry.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named former governor general David Johnston as the special rapporteur on foreign election interference during the last two federal elections.
In recent weeks, there’s been a great deal of discussion about alleged interference in Canada’s electoral process by the Communist government of China. From what we can gather, from material leaked from CSIS, the Chinese Communist Party allegedly tried to intervene to favour candidates who were sympathetic to their views with illegal donations and to try to help defeat candidates who took a strong position against the Chinese government.
China’s diplomatic mission in Vancouver has actively interfered in the city’s politics, using proxies in diaspora community organizations and grooming politicians to run in last fall’s municipal election, according to Canada’s spy agency.
A Jan. 10, 2022, Canadian Security and Intelligence Service report viewed by The Globe and Mail outlines how China’s then-consul-general, Tong Xiaoling, discussed mentoring – or as the report quoted her, “grooming” – Chinese-Canadian municipal politicians for higher office to advance Beijing’s interests.
Why no expulsions?
China election interference investigation could cause more anti-Asian racism, communities warn
As Ottawa launches investigations into claims China interfered in two elections, some members of the Chinese diaspora are warning about an increase in anti-Asian racism, while others say racism could be used to hinder the search for the truth.
“The first thing we need to be very sure about is that racism is not being used as a shield to deflect or distract from the real issue at hand,” said Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.
As anti-Asian racism has spiked as a result of the pandemic and as the Sino-Canadian relationship continues to be strained, many question the effect of the investigations on the Chinese diaspora.
Behind the scenes, Trudeau’s MPs say a public inquiry into Chinese election interference is the only real option at this point
OTTAWA — Former governor general David Johnston has been hand-picked to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government whether it should call a public inquiry into foreign elections interference — a choice Conservatives criticized but many welcomed, including several Liberal backbenchers who believe a public inquiry is an inevitable outcome.
… Another Liberal MP from the Greater Toronto Area, speaking confidentially, said it is “time for an inquiry” but it should also probe the role of Canada’s national security apparatus, particularly CSIS and the RCMP, which he said is unable to identify real threats and unfairly targets some communities.
The Star regurgitates that crap like a CCP stenographer no questions asked.
Is the Prime Minister’s Office keeping Justin Trudeau in the dark?
At first blush, such an idea seems outlandish, but what if the PMO had done so in the past? And what if such a manoeuvre allowed the prime minister the luxury and expediency of plausible deniability?
Now the dark arts of PMO advisers would be a major bonus.
