In response to the G7 leaders’ communique, issued after last weekend’s meeting in Hiroshima, China sent out a riposte that said “gone are the days when a handful of Western countries can just willfully meddle in other countries’ internal affairs.”
China, of course, would never engage in the tactics of imperialist running dogs.
Democracy is built on trust.
It’s the opening line in David Johnston’s first report on foreign interference in our electoral process and it was repeated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his response to that report.
But that trust is built on public confidence that can only come from transparency. On that count, Canadians had no reason to be more confident in the government’s vigilance and response to Chinese interference after hearing from Johnston.
This was a Banana Republic Farce. Johnston is in China’s pocket as is the Liberal party.
Johnston has professed that it would be “wonderful” if all Canadians learned to speak Chinese — his three daughters have done so, having attended several universities in China. When he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Nanjing University in 2012, Johnston had already made more than a dozen visits to China. As president of the University of Waterloo, Johnston oversaw the establishment of one of China’s propaganda-and-espionage Confucius Institutes. He has met Xi Jinping several times and has accompanied several trade delegations to China.
Assuming Singh continues to support Junior then I am on for a march on Ottawa.
It’s easy to see what Volkswagen and Stellantis get out of the billions in subsidies that Canada is dangling in front of them for domestic battery plants. Such subsidies clearly improve the companies’ returns on investments enough to attract these electric-vehicle battery plants away from other jurisdictions such as the United States or Europe. It’s harder to see what the Canadian and Ontario governments get in return.
“I asked the Prime Minister and Ministers if they were aware of any orchestrated effort to elect a LPC minority. They were not.” ` Moron
Give David Johnston credit for one thing. It takes no small amount of courage, when your impartiality has been called into question and when the whole world is expecting you to call for a public inquiry into Chinese interference in Canadian elections – if only to demonstrate your impartiality – to then reject a public inquiry.
… Sorry, but the perception prevails of them as neighbourly chums in the Laurentian Elite backed by evidence suggesting due diligence was deliberately lacking as he put together his report.
For example, Johnston didn’t reach out to former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole until last week. This was the former leader most vocal about Chinese electoral interference, yet Johnston’s report was already on its way to the printers for translation, by the time an O’Toole interview was booked.
Johnston also took great pains to probe and question the accuracy of news reports yet failed to examine the Trudeau Foundation’s role in the controversy after it received substantial money from Chinese benefactors looking to buy friends in high places.
And his conclusion that senior Liberals didn’t know about Chinese efforts to help elect a Liberal minority mandate was based on merely asking the prime minister if that was the case. Not surprisingly, Trudeau said it wasn’t.
The former governor general is a poster boy for ‘elite capture’
In the uproar over revelations earlier this month that Beijing’s meddling in Canadian politics involved a secret plan to target the family of Conservative Party Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Chong, His Excellency Cong Peiwu, China’s ambassador in Ottawa, had some advice for the Trudeau government.
“China strongly urges the Canadian side to immediately stop this self-directed political farce,” Cong said, further urging Parliament to mind its manners and “not go further down the wrong and dangerous path.”
OTTAWA – The leaders of the two largest federal opposition parties are rejecting Justin Trudeau’s invitation to receive security clearances in order to review the confidential annex of special rapporteur David Johnston’s report, prompting the prime minister to accuse them of hiding behind “a veil of ignorance.”
On Tuesday, while pointing to the real threat that foreign election interference poses and the need to address some serious intelligence gaps, Johnston recommended against a public inquiry into the federal government’s handling of the issue. He instead plans to conduct more forward-looking public hearings.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to drop the NDP’s support for the Liberals in the House of Commons to force the government to call a public inquiry into foreign political interference.
Former governor general David Johnston, now special rapporteur on foreign interference, tabled a report Tuesday recommending the government not move forward with a public inquiry, citing the sensitive nature of the intelligence an inquiry would have to examine.
Parliament has already spoken on the need for an independent public inquiry into China’s meddling in Canada’s electoral system. Opposition parties united to vote in favour of an inquiry, with the (non-binding) motion passing 172-149. The will of Parliament is clear – and it is equally clear that former governor-general David Johnston’s report on foreign interference defies that will.
To have any legitimacy, such defiance would have to lay out indisputable proof that the federal government responded prudently and quickly to China’s provocations. Instead, Mr. Johnston insists that any evidence is classified, and Canadians must simply take his word for it.
Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux says his office is probing the federal government’s $13.8 billion deal with Volkswagen made to incentivize the European automaking giant to build its first overseas battery cell plant in Ontario.
Giroux told The Epoch Times that his office began analyzing the expensive deal near the end of April and is aiming to publish it at the end of Parliament’s spring session, scheduled to conclude on June 23.
Well, there we have it. Former Governor General David Johnston has delivered his much-awaited report on China’s interference in our federal elections. It is fairly thorough, looking at the intelligence process in Canada, the importance of democracy, how governments make decisions, etc., etc., etc. And in the end, Johnston recommended against creating a public inquiry into this matter.
David Johnston—from the Trudeau Foundation—wanted to make sure he wasn’t in a conflict of interest in judging the Beijing’s interference in the Trudeau Foundation.
So he got an opinion from someone who is part of the Trudeau Foundation. pic.twitter.com/55uCToFifz
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) May 23, 2023
“Democracy is built on trust,” reads the first line of special rapporteur David Johnston’s report on foreign interference. He’s right about that, which is why it’s a travesty that, 55 pages and one rambling news conference later, Johnston failed to take the one action that could begin to restore public trust in Canada’s system.
This deceiful man is in China’s pocket.
DWatch reveals David Johnston’s key adviser on foreign interference and Justin Trudeau’s actions seems to be long-time donor only to the Liberal Party. No wonder his first report found Trudeau Cabinet and Liberal MPs did nothing wrong https://t.co/Q27oskuf3T #cdnpoli #onpoli
— Democracy Watch (@DemocracyWatchr) May 24, 2023
David Johnston’s first report on foreign interference states at the outset that democracy is built on trust.
It is truly unfortunate that his rejection of a full public inquiry is likely to further erode faith that is already wavering.
In my high school yearbook, my mother inscribed: “Good, Better, Best! Never let it rest ‘til you make your good better and your better best!” The Trudeau government seems determined to stand this idea on its head — Bad, Badder, Worst! Never stop at first! Make your bad ideas badder, and your badder worst!
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is refusing to review classified information on foreign state interference, stating he won’t be “silenced” as he continues to claim — contrary to the conclusion of a new report he dismissed as untrustworthy — that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might be “complicit” in Chinese efforts to meddle in Canadian democracy.
Speaking in Quebec City on Tuesday, Poilievre did not waver from his party’s criticism of former governor general David Johnston, who published an interim report earlier in the day as the government’s “special rapporteur” on foreign political interference.
