What is taking so long? Why hasn't the government announced a public inquiry into foreign interference
Justin Trudeau is looking for 'full buy-in' from opposition parties to launch 'any next process'
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trudeau once again laid the blame on the opposition for having played “terrible, partisan and toxic games” which ultimately led to former governor general David Johnston formally stepping down as the government’s special rapporteur on foreign interference this week because of his personal connections with the Trudeau family.
“We will ensure, before we launch any next process, that there is full buy-in by the other parties on how it’ll be done and who will do it,” he said. “Because we do not want to see someone of the integrity of David Johnston, or future people we might choose to do this work, attacked by the same partisan toxicity that unfortunately we saw on display over the past months.”
Trudeau tasked Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc with negotiating with the Conservatives, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP to find a way forward nearly three weeks ago.
LeBlanc said he was hopeful to announce the next steps before the end of the parliamentary session last week, but that did not happen. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet also let it slip at the time that he believed a deal was imminent, but that also did not materialize.
Since then, all sides have been extremely tight-lipped on the state of discussions.
NDP House leader Peter Julian said that talks are constructive and that he is confident all sides will be able to reach an agreement but “things aren’t quite there yet.” His Conservative and Bloc counterparts declined to provide comment on what is happening behind closed doors.
Ben Smith, president of Altitude Public Affairs and a former Conservative staffer, said that in engaging in good faith discussions and trying to find a consensus on the way forward, opposition parties have shown they can be “reasonable” in dealing with this sensitive issue.
“By being straight shooters, they’ve backed the government into a corner where they can’t play politics as an escape,” said Smith.
But Greg MacEachern, principal at KAN Strategies and a former Liberal staffer, said the onus is now on opposition parties to find someone who will be willing to lead such a process after what transpired in the last few months and suggested it might be more complicated than anticipated.
“Here’s the challenge: Which Canadian is going to … come forward and volunteer if David Johnston isn’t good enough? Who will not have their reputation torn apart?” he asked.
Cam Holmstrom, founder and principal of Niipaawi Strategies, said he is ready to give the benefit of the doubt to the Liberals as to why no announcement has been made yet, given it is on the eve of the Canada Day long weekend and most Canadians’ focus is elsewhere.
He also pointed out that the government might have been waiting for David Johnston to submit his final report on foreign interference — which will not be public — to the prime minister, which he did at the start of the week.
Smith thinks the Liberals, who have been privately grumbling about foreign interference being an issue that only the Ottawa bubble cares about, could take their time over the summer break to delay calling an inquiry for as long as they can.
But the opposition parties might lose patience if that is the case. If parties reach the end of the first week of July and the government has not yet formally announced there will be a public inquiry, Holmstrom expects “the temperature will get raised considerably by the opposition.”
“Then I’m raising Holy Hell, I’m going to the ramparts because there’s no reason for that,” he said.
Holmstrom said the government would likely need the summer to name a person or a group of people to lead the inquiry, to hire staff and get the process up and running by the fall if they hope to have a proper report done before the next election comes, whenever it may be.
MacEachern said the prospect of a public inquiry and the potential of foreign interference making headlines once again might indeed be giving the government pause.
“I would imagine that there are folks inside on the government side that are looking into a public inquiry and going, well, we’re gonna be signing up for a year or years of what we saw from March till June. Is this what we really want and is it going to get what we want accomplished?”
Only the Bloc has publicly suggested names of people who might be fit to lead the inquiry, such as former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour but that suggestion was struck down by Conservatives and the NDP since she was a mentor for the Trudeau Foundation nearly two decades ago.
Conservatives have said they would suggest names to lead an inquiry only once the government would formally announce it goes ahead.
As for the NDP, it has sponsored two motions already calling for a public inquiry. If the prime minister tries to shut this down, Holmstrom said he would have a hard time picturing the New Democrats letting this pass — and it could seriously compromise their deal with the Liberals.
“This is the one thing that could blow the whole confidence-and-supply agreement sky high,” he predicts.
Smith said the government can decide to delay and delay the process all it wants, but opposition parties will be keeping the pressure on and they show no signs of giving up.
“From day one, the government has mismanaged this file, and after the resignation of David Johnston, it’s all but inevitable that they’ll call a public inquiry into the matter of foreign interference. Now, they need to rip the Band-Aid off and actually get to it.”
