Stand on Guard with David Krayden - June 09, 2023


TAKE 5： David Johnston, special rapporteur, resigns ｜ Stand on Guard Take 5


Episode Stats

Length

6 minutes

Words per Minute

147.49263

Word Count

1,000

Sentence Count

69


Summary

David Johnston steps down as Special Rapporteur for PM Justin Trudeau's election investigation into alleged foreign interference in Canada's election. What does this mean for the future of the investigation? And what does it mean for Canadian politics?


Transcript

00:00:00.800 Hi, it's David Creighton here.
00:00:03.240 This is Take 5.
00:00:05.180 We stand on guard with David Creighton.
00:00:07.040 We've got some really very exciting news.
00:00:11.360 Breaking news, really.
00:00:12.820 It's David Johnston, the special, or as the conservatives have been saying lately,
00:00:18.180 loyal rapporteur for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
00:00:23.260 He was appointed to investigate foreign interference in Canadian elections.
00:00:28.620 He didn't really do much of that.
00:00:31.700 And Parliament voted last week for him to step down.
00:00:35.520 He's done that today.
00:00:37.400 David Johnston has resigned as special rapporteur.
00:00:41.860 The appointment being made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
00:00:45.580 So this is quite something.
00:00:46.840 Now, why did he do it?
00:00:49.060 Did he say, because I am a great respecter of democracy?
00:00:52.880 No, he said he took the position.
00:00:55.380 He says he took the position because he wanted to instill trust, to restore trust, in the parliamentary office.
00:01:09.260 Except he didn't quite get around to doing that.
00:01:13.680 And the statement clearly says that he wanted to restore trust, but that because of the highly partisan atmosphere, quote unquote, that he was working in, he wasn't able to do his job properly.
00:01:28.180 And that's the statement essentially there.
00:01:30.180 And I'll add this, here's the letter that was sent to the Prime Minister this afternoon.
00:01:39.120 So we're a bit of a surprise here because he really gave no indication this week when he was at committee that he had any intention of resigning.
00:01:50.680 He was going to stay the course and he was going to finish what he thought was his job because he thought he was doing a very good job.
00:02:00.560 But clearly, the preponderance of conflict of interest was developing here.
00:02:05.980 Here he was a good friend of Justin Trudeau, a good friend of Pierre Trudeau, a good friend of the Trudeau family, a former board member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
00:02:15.980 And as soon as he becomes special rapporteur, what does he do?
00:02:20.620 He hires a leading liberal donor to be his left-hand woman slash person in this.
00:02:27.540 He hires a crisis management team that was the same one that was hired by the liberal MP in Don Valley North,
00:02:39.120 who was under suspicion and investigation for being a recipient of Chinese election interference.
00:02:48.120 Same crisis management team.
00:02:50.100 So why does he hire a crisis management team before there's even a crisis?
00:02:53.820 Is he anticipating one?
00:02:55.000 Well, he got one.
00:02:56.040 He got one very quickly.
00:02:57.680 As soon as he released his report, even sooner than that, as soon as his appointment was made,
00:03:03.140 people thought it was funny because everything started to come out about how he was a lifelong Trudeau man
00:03:10.120 and a lifelong Ottawa establishment person.
00:03:13.380 This was quite clear from the beginning.
00:03:14.840 But when the report came out and was sent essentially a literature review,
00:03:20.220 his staff were just spewing forth what was already out there in the media.
00:03:26.500 And he puts this in there as a report.
00:03:28.780 This is like a university abstract, a very unusual.
00:03:33.360 And, of course, if you wanted to get the guts of the information,
00:03:37.540 you had to have some sort of special security classification to get it,
00:03:44.580 which is absurd because top secret should have been enough.
00:03:47.400 And I'm sure, you know, Pierre Paglia, for one, already has that as the official opposition leader.
00:03:52.740 So very bizarre, but he was adamant that he was going to complete his job, as he said.
00:04:01.880 And clearly, he's not going to be doing that.
00:04:03.860 He's out.
00:04:04.600 So what happens next?
00:04:05.640 Does Trudeau go out and hire another Trudeau man to be his special rapporteur?
00:04:09.740 Or does he admit that only a full public inquiry, which is being demanded by all three opposition parties,
00:04:20.200 Conservative, Bloc, and NDP, is the only answer?
00:04:25.980 Because this is a political crisis for Justin Trudeau.
00:04:30.120 He's done it again.
00:04:31.380 He has lost a key member of his government.
00:04:35.440 They pulled the plug.
00:04:37.000 They pulled the chute.
00:04:37.900 They're out of there.
00:04:39.320 Trudeau's left, in this case, it looks like holding the bag.
00:04:43.040 But you know, this Teflon prime minister will find a way to say, this is not my fault.
00:04:49.620 This has never been my fault.
00:04:51.900 This isn't going to be my fault.
00:04:53.780 And we're going to find a way out of this.
00:04:55.740 And I'm going to get my way.
00:04:57.080 But I don't think the Teflon is going to be that resilient anymore.
00:05:02.060 And I think this is going to be a golden opportunity for Conservative leader Pierre Paglia to sweep down
00:05:06.960 and really score some political points here.
00:05:09.660 But more importantly, the score some points for Canada, because this special rapporteur was not in the national interest.
00:05:16.520 And you know, before all of this happened, I had a modicum of respect for David Johnson as being one of the most sane and rational governor generals we've had in years.
00:05:27.220 After a series of crazies that were nominated by Jean Chrétien, and certainly the last two nominated by Justin Trudeau have been really beyond the pale in terms of their livelihood and their conduct.
00:05:43.920 But it's because David Johnson took this position.
00:05:48.060 It's because he allowed himself to be co-opted by the Trudeau government.
00:05:52.980 He allowed himself to be put in the pocket of Justin Trudeau that he has lost credibility.
00:05:58.440 And right now, he had no credibility.
00:06:01.000 And that's really the reason he left this position.
00:06:03.960 And you could see that written all over his face and all through his body movements when he appeared at the committee meeting this week on the House procedure.
00:06:13.260 Committee meeting that's investigating Chinese election interference.
00:06:17.220 He looked like a defeated man, a beaten man.
00:06:20.760 And he looked really like someone who is not up to the job of even being a yes man or an acolyte for Justin Trudeau.
00:06:30.000 Clearly, he was finished.
00:06:32.660 And we've had that confirmed today.
00:06:34.960 So for take five, for stand on guard with David Creighton, this is David Creighton saying we'll see you soon.
00:06:43.260 Maybe even tomorrow.
00:06:44.320 And the story continues.