Canada’s special rapporteur on foreign interference has hired crisis communications firm Navigator, his office confirmed on Friday.
In an email to CTV News, a spokesperson for special rapporteur David Johnston explained that Navigator was hired at the start of Johnston’s mandate “to provide communications advice and support.”
h/t Mauser
David Johnston’s position is barely tenable. Can his investigation be salvaged?
As always, multiple things can be true at the same time.
David Johnston can be both a flawed choice to investigate the government’s response to intelligence on foreign interference — and the target of unfair treatment since taking on that task. The prime minister could have been better off asking someone else to be special rapporteur — and Johnston’s reception from his critics may have diminished the number of people willing and able to do the job.
Multiple things can be true simultaneously but this isn’t one of them.
Junior and Special Crony are closer than they are pretending to be, proven by their own statements.
Johnson is a sinophile of the first order with a vested interest in minimizing his own activity as a member of the China Class.
Nothing else explains his report’s exclusion of O’Toole’s evidence.
Canada’s long, sordid history of corporate welfare debacles should have been warning enough.
In this country, “paying to play” in a given industry — the polite euphemism preferred by its advocates — has never been a matter of buying a one-off admission ticket to Aerospaceworld or Automotiveland, freeing our economy to run about and hop on unlimited rides with exciting names like The Great Canadian Spinoff Effect.
A July 2021 CSIS assessment warning Beijing was targeting a Conservative MP and his relatives in China was sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national-security adviser at the time, as well as three deputy ministers, but it’s unclear if anyone read the top-secret document, MPs heard Thursday.
National security adviser Jody Thomas, who was deputy minister of National Defence in 2021, was adamant that Mr. Trudeau was unaware of the threat to the MP, who turned out to be Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong, until The Globe and Mail revealed he was a target on May 1. The Globe report cited the Canadian Security Intelligence Service assessment and a national-security source.
“On vacation” is maybe one step above “the dog ate my homework.”
h/t Mauser
Stellantis says there is not yet a final deal to save a $5-billion electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor, Ont., as high-stakes negotiations between Ottawa, Ontario and the company continue around billions in additional subsidies for the facility to stay in Canada.
The global auto manufacturing giant on Thursday denied a report the previous day by the Toronto Star that a “tentative deal” between the company and federal and provincial governments had been reached.
OTTAWA — Barely one in four Canadians have faith in former governor general David Johnston’s credibility and impartiality as special rapporteur on foreign interference, a new poll by Léger for National Post shows, while nearly half are unimpressed with the Liberal government’s general handling of the foreign interference issue.
No one takes orders at the Burger King in the rest stop off of Ontario’s Highway 401 near Port Hope. Instead, there’s a large touch screen that customers use to select and pay for their Whoppers and fries.
That is just one small example of how companies are choosing to adapt to falling unemployment, rather than griping about a labour shortage that is in large part a mirage. Unfortunately, such innovation seems to be the exception, with many business groups preferring to press for increases in cheap labour, in the form of temporary foreign workers.
Tell the modern day Judas clique of the UNIPARTY and their Century 100 and China Class cronies to go to hell.
They are looking to destroy Canada for the sake of a few pieces of silver.
Mass immigration is a ponzi scheme.
I was surprised, saddened and puzzled when former governor general David Johnston, who was clearly in a perceived conflict of interest, accepted the prime minister’s request to become a “special rapporteur.” Surprised he would make such an obvious mistake, saddened he would risk tarnishing his reputation as a dedicated and effective governor general and puzzled about his motivation. Those reactions intensified when his preliminary report rejected a public inquiry called for by a majority vote in Parliament and over 70 per cent of Canadians. I was also disappointed that it defended the government on virtually every issue while criticizing the media, the security services and the Conservative party. It also made clear his conviction he has no conflict of interest, notwithstanding much evidence and a widespread perception to the contrary.
Right through the 2021 federal election campaign, senior Trudeau government officials knew that the Chinese government and its operatives in Canada were running a sophisticated disinformation and voter suppression campaign targeting the Conservative Party and its candidates, former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole told me on Tuesday.
That much was clear from the briefing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service made available to him last Friday, O’Toole told me. But what remains unclear is why none of these officials said anything — and that’s just one key question that remains unresolved following last week’s report on Beijing’s election-interference operations by “independent special rapporteur” David Johnston.
This revelation should result in arrests except we’re ruled by corrupt men.
Stellantis NV is likely to receive more in subsidies for a new electric-vehicle battery plant in Canada than the C$13 billion ($9.5 billion) Volkswagen AG extracted for a similar project, according to an expert who has crunched the numbers.
Stellantis and South Korean partner LG Energy Solution Ltd. announced the factory in Windsor, Ontario last year, but have halted construction while they negotiate more financial aid from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government. The companies are seeking the equivalent of what they would receive under the Inflation Reduction Act if they located the plant in the US.
OTTAWA — Months after arguing Nigeria’s ruling party is responsible for terrorist acts, the Trudeau government has sent a cabinet minister to celebrate the swearing-in of its new president.
This week, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen visited Abuja to attend the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu, whose All-Progressive Congress party has ruled Nigeria since 2015.
Yet in Immigration and Refugee Board filings, Canada called the party “an organization that engaged in subversion of democratic processes as they are understood in Canada” and said it was responsible for numerous acts of terrorism.
I wonder what scam Hussen and the Nigerians are plotting?
A government holds power in a democracy only on loan from the public. The onus is therefore always on the government to show that it is worthy of the public’s trust. It is the price of power.
A government is not entitled to the presumption of innocence. If a breach should open in the public’s trust in government, the onus is on the government to repair it. It is not on the public to trust it.
Last Thursday the NDP gave notice of an opposition motion that will be debated today and voted upon later this week.
That motion calls on David Johnston to step aside from his role as Special Rapporteur, and would require the government to urgently establish a public commission of inquiry. Crucially, it also states that the inquiry would be led by an individual selected with unanimous support from all recognized parties in the House,
It is rare for an opposition motion to have this much importance.
I get that Mulcair may feel compelled to talk up Jaggy’s “heroics” but let’s face it the motion has no teeth and Trudeau and his Special Crony will ignore it.
OTTAWA — Two former executives in Canada’s intelligence services told MPs that despite Special Rapporteur David Johnston’s concerns, a public inquiry can be held into foreign interference while still keeping classified information secret.
Dan Stanton, a former CSIS officer and manager, said holding a public inquiry is entirely possible, citing examples such as the inquiries into the Maher Arar affair and the Air India bombing, which took place despite the sensitive information involved.
OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dared NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh Tuesday to bring down the government over a lack of a public inquiry into foreign interference, an issue that Poilievre’s predecessor brought into sharper focus by disclosing new details about how he and the party were targeted by Beijing.
Former Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole’s decision to reveal elements of what he was told by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) last week came as MPs were debating an NDP motion calling on the special rapporteur for foreign interference, David Johnston, to step down from the job and for the government to do what he didn’t — call a public inquiry.
Deal's a deal, @TheJagmeetSingh tells reporters, vows never to renege on pact to keep @JustinTrudeau in office 'til 2025 regardless: "There is not a threat here." https://t.co/k0GJDWj7it #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/hq4LMZNK9F
— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) May 31, 2023
h/t Mauser
