The Liberals are desperately hoping attention will turn elsewhere in the next two months.
The Liberal government has released the official mandate for ‘Special Rapporteur’ David Johnston. The most important piece of information is that Johnston is supposed to issue his decision on whether or not to hold a public inquiry by May 23rd, over two months from now.
Here’s what the government said in their official announcement:
“As Independent Special Rapporteur, Mr. Johnston is being tasked with assessing the extent and impact of foreign interference in Canada’s electoral processes, including by examining information related to the 2019 and 2021 federal elections to determine what the government did to defend Canada against electoral interference. Building on the work of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), he will identify any outstanding issues requiring attention, with a view to uphold Canadians’ confidence in our democratic institutions and electoral processes. Mr. Johnston is to recommend any additional mechanisms or transparent processes, such as a formal public inquiry, he deems necessary to reinforce Canadians’ confidence in the integrity of our democratic institutions by May 23, 2023. Additionally, he will identify innovative approaches and improvements in the way public agencies work together to combat foreign interference in our electoral processes.”
As you can see in the bolded part, we won’t be getting an answer on whether an inquiry takes place anytime soon. They say a week is a lifetime in politics, so eight weeks to wait is clearly absurd. Obviously, this is all a delaying tactic. David Johnston was appointed to slow everything down, and protect the Liberals from calls for a public inquiry.
Think of all that could happen in the next eight weeks. Think of all the desperate distractions and attacks the Liberals will be unleashing to try and direct public attention elsewhere. And with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh joining the Liberals in attacking the Conservatives – making the completely false claim that the Conservatives are opposed to a public inquiry – it will be all-hands-on deck from the Liberal/NDP political establishment in their attempts to make all of this go away.
It is essential for Canadians to realize what is really happening here. The Liberals are doing everything they can to look like China’s foreign interference is being addressed, without actually addressing it. Everything is put off into the future, everything is delayed, everything is about buying time in the hopes the political environment will change and the issue will somehow disappear. After all, if the Liberals really wanted to address China’s foreign interference, why did they only start talking about it after a whistleblower – who the government says they are hunting for – brought the issue forward?
This is why the pressure cannot let up. We saw how pressure pushed the Liberals to finally relent on their filibuster, and that pressure must now be applied to demanding a public inquiry. Far too much is at stake to allow the Liberals to get away with their manipulative and dishonest delaying tactics.
Spencer Fernando
