Act before next crisis, Johnston says
Poilievre, Blanchet refuse to accept security clearances to view classified documents
Special rapporteur David Johnston says there is “an urgency” to enact changes to combat foreign interference in Canada’s elections “before the next crisis” and worries that some necessary legislative reforms won’t be made before the next federal election.
Speaking to the Star, Johnston made clear that the challenge posed by pervasive attempts by foreign state actors, particularly by the Chinese government, requires a political and parliamentary sense of urgency now.
However, on Wednesday, two of three main federal political party leaders — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet — refused to accept top secret security clearances to view what Johnston says are the classified documents underpinning his conclusion that an all-party effort could address the problem.
Several of the measures necessary could require Parliament to pass new laws, or changes to existing ones — for example, the creation of a foreign influence registry, possible Criminal Code changes to explicitly outlaw foreign interference, or changes to the CSIS Act and the law that criminalizes disclosure of classified intelligence.
Speaking to the Star’s editorial board, Johnston signalled he plans to closely examine ways to make it easier to declassify top secret information so that intelligence is more transparent to the public and more readily usable by police in court.
He’ll aim to provide specific recommendations in October on those and other policy “gaps” after holding a series of public hearings this summer and fall, after concluding there is no need for a new independent, public or judicial inquiry into allegations of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
“The elections of 2019 and 2021 were well protected by sophisticated mechanisms and there is no basis to lack confidence in their results,” Johnston said Tuesday at a news conference to unveil his report.
Johnston said Canada should not wait until “the next crisis,” given what he portrayed as a pernicious problem of Chinese state-directed foreign interference in Canada’s electoral problems.
“This is a crisis. Whether we can have the perfect world before the next election, I don’t think (we can). Whether we can make considerable strides, I’m actually confident that there’s a good chance we will.”
He said the federal government has already made “impressive” improvements in the past three to four years, and he anticipates legislation to create a foreign influence registry soon and other initiatives to come forward in the next 18 months.
Lawyer Sheila Block, who led a team from the Toronto-based law firm Torys advising Johnston on his report, added “it’s in the interest of all political parties” to collaborate on the reforms.
“Whoever wins the next election will want to have the best defence against foreign interference that you can have, so get on board and help with Mr. Johnson’s project,” she said.
While Canada’s fixed election date law suggests the next election would occur in October 2025, voters elected a minority Parliament in 2021, with the Liberals having won the most seats but not an outright majority of the 338 ridings.
The Trudeau government relies on the NDP to support its governing agenda via a deal the two parties struck last year to let Liberals stay in power until at least June 2025.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has agreed to get the required top secret security clearance to view Johnston’s confidential annex outlining the classified information.
But Singh publicly disagreed with
Johnston’s main finding, and is adamant a further public inquiry is needed to do a deeper dive into foreign interference, although the New Democrats have said they will not topple the government over it.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau again Wednesday appealed to the opposition leaders to get securitycleared to see the classified information Johnston has flagged.
Trudeau slammed Poilievre for “choosing to sit behind a veil of ignorance. He doesn’t want the facts to get in the way of a good political argument or personal attack.”
Poilievre earlier Wednesday continued to dismiss Johnston as a biased “ski buddy” of Trudeau’s and dismissed the Johnston report while calling again for a public inquiry into foreign elections meddling.
“We should leave it to an experienced judge who’s heard cases involving national security and sensitive information to decide what becomes public and what doesn’t and ultimately, to rule on what occurred and what needs to happen to fix it,” he said.
For his part, Johnston said in upcoming public hearings he will examine and make recommendations on the role and structure of the national security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians “and whether it can be strengthened,” possible amendments to the CSIS Act that “might assist in fighting foreign interference,” and better processes for ensuring intelligence reaches top public servants and elected officials.
Johnston said Parliament should look closely at how other countries deal with classified intelligence in a way “that permits us to have a degree of openness to the public.”
The former governor general added Canada can learn from its “Five Eyes” allies — the U.S., U.K., New Zealand and Australia — and from what the FBI does when it comes to converting secret intelligence collected by spies into evidence usable by police and prosecutors in court, all while protecting human sources, spycraft and relations with allies who supply Canada with information.
Johnston said he doesn’t believe CSIS is overly protective, or overclassifies intelligence as top secret. Rather, he suggested, its instinct to be secretive is because Canada is a net consumer of intelligence, not a net supplier of it to allies, and “we’re a relatively junior in that game compared to others that have been at this for at least decades, in some cases, centuries — junior in the game of foreign interference, detecting foreign interference, managing systems.”