The fallout from the David Johnston debacle

TORONTO—David Johnston is an honourable man who was treated dishonourably, subjected to unwarranted slings and arrows by the opposition parties. Criticism of Justin Trudeau’s government for its initial failure to call a public inquiry, or questioning Johnston’s report on China's meddling in recent federal elections would be one thing, but challenging Johnston’s integrity and impartiality is another. Impressive and inspiring achievements in corporate, government, philanthropic, and academic work led to his appointment to the Order of Canada in 1988, when Pierre Poilievre was still in elementary school. Poilievre’s insistence that Trudeau engaged in a “coverup of Beijing’s interference” and his description of Johnston and Trudeau hyperbolically as “ski buddies” while refusing to review classified information Johnston offered him brings Poilievre no honour. Poilievre, whose job history amounts to little more than “professional politician” is whip smart, but character matters more than cleverness. To have questioned Johnston’s objectivity because of his previous association with the non-partisan Trudeau Foundation charity was a canard, akin to declaring members of selection committees for Rhodes scholarships as unworthy of their roles because of Cecil Rhodes’s racist views. Involuntarily caught up in Ottawa’s political shenanigans, the Trudeau Foundation’s president and board of directors resigned. A pity, since the Trudeau Foundation’s main role of providing financial support for outstanding university students has been disrupted. There was no need for the Trudeau Foundation to return donations it had received from someone allegedly tied to the Chinese Communist Party; there is no evidence and indeed no possibility that the Foundation’s work promotes China’s geopolitical interests, softens its image, or influences the scholarly research it supports. Ask the CCP to contribute more; it is for a worthy cause. Johnston, who administered the oath of office to Poilievre when he entered Stephen Harper’s cabinet in February 2015, may have had a more intimate association as governor general with Harper than with Trudeau; they met and spoke regularly, and he acted faithfully on Harper’s advice. Good on Harper for having selected him as governor general, a salutary change from the string of celebrities and politicians who preceded him. Johnston truly is a constitutional expert, the most essential part of the job. He was also an excellent choice as a “special rapporteur,” (though the job itself was perhaps somewhat curious and problematic) on how to move forward on the issue of Chinese election interference. Taking it on at the request of the prime minister was consistent with his life-long record of public service. Now that the opposition parties have what they clamoured for, a potential public inquiry, they are squabbling over its terms of reference, shifting the spotlight from Trudeau onto themselves. Such an inquiry, if it takes place, will not unveil the intelligence documents that Johnston offered to Poilievre. A growing cascade of imbroglios has deservedly weakened Trudeau and the Liberal brand, but it is unlikely that his alleged brushing off intelligence reports about foreign election interference has been the primary cause. The media have repeatedly referred to an erosion of trust in the electoral system, but the evidence is hard to discern beyond the fevered minds of journalists preoccupied with seeing their byline below a sensationalist headline. Global News, who broke the story of China’s interference, which no doubt occurred—one Chinese diplomat has already been expelled—reported that “CSIS urged Trudeau’s team to rescind Dong’s candidacy, a national security official said.” CSIS would never do that, and the journalist who wrote it has been terminated. While Chinese government meddling may have played a role in a small number of constituencies, Canadians still trust the electoral system. Former U.S. president Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” poppycock has yet to infect Canadian public opinion. Only two per cent of poll respondents list “national security” as an issue, a rubric that may or may not be taken as including foreign electoral interference. Whether or not a public inquiry is struck, Trudeau has betrayed the vow he made when he became prime minister: “to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government.” The hear-no-evil, see-no-evil syndrome that has plagued him and some of his ministers recently—Bill Blair, Harjit Sajjan, and now Marco Mendocino—must be pinned on him alone since it is his PMO that appoints ministerial political staff and not the ministers themselves as once was the case. The debasing of Johnston signals to other worthy, outstanding Canadians that selflessly offering themselves for public service may result in having daggers hurled at them. In one sense, Trumpworld’s “swamp” has come to Parliament Hill in the form of the extraordinary partisan polarization that has engulfed it. Poor Johnston has been its most noteworthy casualty. Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, is the author of 1950s Canada: Politics and Public Affairs (University of Toronto Press). The Hill Times