Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says he decided against meeting with David Johnston, the special rapporteur on foreign election interference, because of the latter’s previous involvement with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
Poilievre also called Johnston’s special role, to which he was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in March, a “fake job.”
“He’s unable to do it impartially,” Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa on May 18. “He needs to simply hand it over and allow an independent public inquiry into Beijing’s interference.”
Johnston’s tasks as special rapporteur include giving the prime minister “independent advice” and making “expert recommendations” based on his investigations into reports of foreign election interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal general elections, according to two order-in-council releases from April….