In this episode of The Blueprint, host Jamie Schmael is joined by Brantford MP Larry Brock to discuss the David Johnson report from the Special Rapporteur on Chinese interference in our election, and why it raises so many questions about the impartiality of the report.
00:00:00.000Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
00:00:09.660host, Jamie Schmael, member of Parliament for Halliburton Caworthalikes Brock with new content
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00:00:28.420Google Play, and Spotify if they can't watch the show in its entirety right this very second,
00:00:33.760as we always do for you. We have a great show lined up for you. And I brought back probably
00:00:38.680the person I think that has the most frequent flyer miles on this program, Larry Brock, member
00:00:44.880of Parliament for Brantford Brant. Thank you so much for coming back on. So happy to be back.
00:00:49.480And this feels like home. Absolutely. This is home for you, Larry. As always. And of course,
00:00:53.820we're so far aligned that we even wore purple together. We did. Without even calling each
00:00:58.840other this morning. Without even calling each other. I know. We're just thinking alike.
00:01:02.380Telepathically, we're on that same wave, right? Yeah. That's why I think I keep having you on
00:01:05.500the show. I think so. So we are going to talk about something that kind of blew up during the
00:01:10.340constituency week before or after, I should say, the program last week was that David Johnson,
00:01:16.780the special rapporteur, says that there is nothing to see here in terms of interference
00:01:22.080in our elections from Beijing or otherwise. But just trust them because we can't see the document.
00:01:27.420We'll get into the other stuff about who we consulted. And that's a mess of its own.
00:01:32.580Is there anything to see here, Larry? David Johnson says no.
00:01:35.620There is so much to see here. There are so many hanging threads, the proverbial
00:01:41.540hanging threads to this particular report. I don't know if you had a chance to review it cover to cover.
00:01:46.780I have some takeaways that I think are important for our viewers to take note of.
00:01:54.360Notwithstanding everything that we heard from the government, that media reports were largely
00:02:00.580false as it relates to all the leaks shared by that one brave or many brave reporters, not reporters,
00:02:09.500sorry, but employees of our spy agencies who revealed details to our reporters. And notwithstanding
00:02:16.620that particular narrative, David Johnson confirmed that it was actually truthful, with one exception,
00:02:23.900and that's in relation to Han Dong and his interference with respect to the two Michaels.
00:02:30.700But he was permitted to pierce the confidentiality bubble and confirm that that was false, but could not elaborate on
00:02:43.980anything else because of confidentiality. You can't have it one way and not the other, in my view.
00:02:49.980And it's really a pattern that I've often seen in committees with respect to what they're prepared to share and
00:02:56.940what they want to hold back. So again, another miscue by this government, choosing, in my view, someone who established himself a very credible, respected, learned, not only journalist, but former professor,
00:03:17.980law dean, of course, our governor general, someone who's actually been part of previous commissions, again, with no apparent conflict of interest, but why he chose to accept this is really unfathomable.
00:03:37.980I just, I don't understand, given all of the attention, all of the concerns that CESA's had, with respect to the Trudeau Foundation,
00:03:47.980receiving that $140,000 that was specifically earmarked to go to the Foundation, the only contract that was signed by Justin Trudeau's brother, Alexandra, in the 20 years that he's been associated with the Foundation,
00:04:05.980he had to have his own personal stamp on it. If that's not enough to raise the red flag, I don't know. But David Johnson was part of the Foundation.
00:04:29.980So if that, on the face of it, given his prestigious background, if that was not an obvious conflict of interest, I don't know.
00:04:38.980Right? What about all the video that's surfacing of David Johnson and Trudeau going on about how close friends they are and family friends?
00:05:22.980Nobody else. So tell us who he went to.
00:05:24.980So let's turn to the learned, retired jurist, Frank Iacobucci. As a lawyer, you know I probably read dozens and dozens of books.
00:05:36.980And dozens of his decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada. The highest court in this country.
00:05:43.980The problem however, well he freely wanted to give a legal opinion and that legal opinion was, by his review, notwithstanding all the evidence to the contrary,
00:05:54.980there was no conflict of interest. No legal conflict of interest. We have to be careful with the terminology.
00:06:01.980The problem is, that retired justice is sitting on the Trudeau Foundation.
00:06:05.980Look at that. Just had to look across the boardroom table.
00:06:07.980How convenient. In a country of 40 million people, of learned, distinguished scholars and jurists, Justin Trudeau and David Johnson can only find those two.
00:06:22.980But wait, it gets worse. I feel like I'm selling ShamWow or something.
00:06:25.980But wait, there's more. Who else did he turn to for advice?
00:06:28.980He turned to his trusted legal advisor, Sheila Block.
00:06:33.980Now, I can say with complete honesty, surprisingly, Sheila Block is not a member of the Foundation, but she's certainly a donor to the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:06:45.980In fact, we have gone through her history of political donations and she's contributed to no other federal party other than the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:07:04.980Right. Like, you want it to be as clean as possible so the Canadians can have trust in this whole situation that's evolving around us.
00:07:12.980But yet, they just went to one board member, another Trudeau Foundation board member.
00:07:16.980They went to a Liberal donor. Like you said, is there nobody else that they could get advice from?
00:07:21.980Obviously, but look at the train wreck that this currently is.
00:07:26.980As I indicated, David Johnson has distinguished himself and now his closeness to the Trudeau brand and this Trudeau government has tainted him to the contrary.
00:07:40.980Take a look at all the people close to Trudeau, Justin Trudeau, that have been burned by their relationship with him.
00:07:47.980Let's talk about the random liberals that he likes to refer to, those former members of his party.
00:07:54.980Let's take a look at Jody Wilson-Raybould.
00:07:56.980Our former Attorney General, our Minister of Justice, got too close to Justin.
00:08:02.980And in fact, I don't know if you read her book, Indian Cabinet, she made a quote that I think is quite telling.
00:08:09.980She wishes she had never met Justin Trudeau. Quite telling.
00:08:16.980We have former Minister of Health, Jane Philpott, who supported, who had the audacity to support a colleague, Jody Wilson-Raybould.
00:08:25.980She was taken out. She was asked to leave.
00:08:28.980Then, of course, the last random liberal, our Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, who completely wanted to take this country in a different direction during the pandemic because he had a concern regarding fiscal responsibility.
00:08:46.980So, not just Captain Ministers, we got the former Privy Counsel, Michael Warnock, who went down because of his close relationship in terms of protecting Justin Trudeau.
00:08:56.980And, of course, his lifetime, long-time friend, university buddy, Principal Secretary, Gerald Buss.
00:11:56.980They fight the good fight on social media.
00:11:59.980You're in the house every day like I am, Jamie.
00:12:02.980We hear them constantly criticizing the government for not doing this right, for not doing that right.
00:12:08.980But yet when it comes to an actual vote that has the potential of a vote of confidence and taking down this most corrupt government that this country has ever seen,
00:12:30.980I hope that they telegraph this and have a meeting.
00:12:34.980I'm hoping that Jagmeet Singh has a meeting with Justin Trudeau to make it abundantly clear that this is either a unanimous or a majority vote in favor of a full independent public inquiry.
00:12:48.980And he makes that a condition of the coalition or the coalition false.
00:12:55.980As our leader has indicated, and I refer to our leader today during my intervention as Canada's next great prime minister,
00:13:03.980he made it abundantly clear in his intervention this morning that either Justin Trudeau calls the fully independent public inquiry or his first job will beat.
00:13:15.980At this point, does Justin Trudeau, does the Liberal Party actually have confidence in the House?
00:13:19.980I would say hopefully not if the Liberals vote this down.
00:13:23.980The other thing is, even if the majority in the House, the Conservatives, Bloc, and NDP, potentially Greens, vote in favor of public inquiry,
00:13:31.980the government can then, Justin Trudeau can then drag their feet on it because I believe there's no timeline on that public inquiry that the NDP are calling for.
00:13:43.980We've got 19 days, 19 days between now, today, and the end of our session before we embark on our summer break.
00:13:54.980Even if, hypothetically, he convinces Justin Trudeau to call that inquiry, to your point, it could be well past the election before it's called.
00:14:06.980And Trudeau doesn't want to call it for a whole bunch of reasons, speculation.
00:14:09.980I think you and I can have a field day with that.
00:14:12.980But the evidence is pointing to the fact that it benefited.
00:14:16.980This interference, this alleged interference, benefited the Liberal Party with up to nine seats.
00:14:21.980We had, we had Beijing operatives in Vancouver who were boasting in 2021 that they were so gleeful and happy that they helped defeat the two conservative candidates, thus preserving a Liberal government.
00:14:36.980A Liberal minority government is what Beijing wanted.
00:14:55.980Not only that, the Public Safety Minister said that the Chinese police stations, the Beijing-led police stations, Communist Party of China police stations, were closed.
00:15:03.980Turns out, oops, they're actually still operating.
00:15:05.980How many more lies is Justin Trudeau willing to accept from that Public Safety Minister?
00:15:11.980I've lost track how many times that he has deliberately looked people in the eyes, in the house,
00:15:17.980at committee, said one thing when the opposite was the truth.
00:15:22.980It's completely disgusting and incompetent.