Commentary
If you had never heard of a special rapporteur before last week, you might be forgiven. There has never been such a position in Canadian government departments, federal or provincial. There are plenty of special rapporteurs at the United Nations, however, but even there it’s an obscure title.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced his intention to name a “special rapporteur” to look into Beijing’s repeated interference with Canadian federal elections. The mandate for the proposed rapporteur will likely not include investigating the prime minister for dragging his feet on the file.
Special rapporteur is a title typically given to independent human rights activists, which the U.N. considers to be “experts” in either specific fields of human rights or in given geographic areas. For example, there are special rapporteurs for various human rights themes (like the independence of judges and lawyers) and there are special rapporteurs for Latin American or African states. Their work is to document, “report,” and denounce rights violations….