David Johnston questioned by MPs over report on China foreign interference and ties to Trudeau family
Special rapporteur David Johnston conceded Tuesday that his findings that China did not orchestrate a campaign against the Conservative Party may have been based on incomplete intelligence, casting doubt on his report’s conclusion that a public inquiry into Beijing interference in Canadian democracy is not warranted.
The Conservative MP suggested Mr. Johnston either misinterpreted the intelligence or the government withheld that information from him. He then questioned how Mr. Johnston could say there was no evidence of state-sponsored disinformation when the messaging was coming from Communist Party media organizations such as the Global Times.
“The amount of information available was an ocean and we saw a very large lake,” he told CBC. “I can’t tell you that we saw everything that one would liked to have seen, with perhaps more time, but we were never refused any access to any documents and therefore we were confident we came to conclusions based on facts.”
Mr. Johnston maintained that a public inquiry is not warranted because it would require examination of classified information that could not be shared with Canadians. He also said a public inquiry would be too expensive and time-consuming. Mr. Johnston also came under criticism for his long friendship with the Trudeau family, for serving as a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and for hiring as lead counsel Torys LLP lawyer Sheila Block, who has donated to the Liberal Party from 2006 to 2022 and attended a private fundraiser in 2021 where the Prime Minister was a guest of honour.
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