MPs meeting to discuss calling foreign interference rapporteur Johnston to testify
CTV
Opposition MPs have teamed up to force a meeting of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) on Thursday, to discuss calling special rapporteur David Johnston to testify about his recommendation against a public inquiry into foreign election interference.
Opposition MPs have teamed up to force a meeting of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) on Thursday, to discuss calling special rapporteur David Johnston to testify about his recommendation against a public inquiry into foreign election interference.
Set to unfold between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET, PROC will convene—despite it being a break week for the House of Commons—to discuss and potentially vote on a motion to haul Johnston before the panel of MPs to explain his decision not to pursue public hearings.
On Tuesday, Johnston issued his first report as the special rapporteur looking into foreign interference, in which he highlighted serious shortcomings within Canada's intelligence apparatus, but said he found no evidence to suggest the federal government knowingly or negligently failed to act.
Johnston's first order of business was the rule on the necessity of a public inquiry, a move he determined would not be possible as the key pieces of sensitive classified information, focused on who knew what and when, "cannot be disclosed publicly" and would essentially duplicate the work he's undertaken in the last two months.
His decision against an inquiry was quickly panned by all of the federal opposition parties who continue to insist the issue merits a proper— and as public as possible—airing of all the facts, to reassure Canadians.
"David Johnston's decision is a slap in the face to diaspora groups who are subject to abuse and intimidation by hostile foreign governments and all Canadians rightly concerned about foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections and future elections," reads the letter requesting the meeting.
It was signed by all Conservative, Bloc Quebecois and NDP MPs who sit on PROC, writing that: "David Johnston must come before committee and answer for his decision at the earliest opportunity."
