Liberals and Conservatives report fruitful talks on public inquiry into foreign interference

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The Liberals and Conservatives said they had fruitful talks Friday in multiparty negotiations on what a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada might look like.

The tone from the two biggest parties in the House of Commons was markedly different from earlier this week when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Official Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre traded barbs over lack of progress in the talks.

Sebastian Skamski, director of media relations for the Opposition Leader’s Office, said the parties actually reached agreement on the terms of reference for a public inquiry.

He said now the discussion is turning to who might lead it. The Conservatives have submitted suggestions, Mr. Skamski said – something other parties had already done. “All parties have shared their suggested names for a potential commissioner,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Liberal cabinet minister in charge of negotiations on an inquiry, however, would only say that talks Friday went well.

“It was a very productive meeting,” said Kelly Ouimet, director of communications for Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

“Work continues and we hope to continue to make progress expeditiously next week.”

A guide to foreign interference and China's suspected influence in Canada

Ms. Ouimet declined to confirm that any agreement had been reached. “No agreement yet but excellent progress being made” she said.

Ms. Ouimet said from the Liberals’ perspective, agreement has been reached on some components of an inquiry. ”There are elements that we have agreed to; more details to be worked out and we will announce more in time.”

The NDP and Bloc Québécois could not be immediately reach for comment.

The governing Liberals have resisted launching an inquiry in recent months despite three votes calling for one in the House of Commons by opposition parties, who hold the majority of seats.

Instead, Mr. Trudeau had tapped former governor-general David Johnston to investigate Chinese government interference in the 2019 and 2021 election campaigns.

But Mr. Johnston abruptly announced his resignation in June, citing a “highly partisan atmosphere.” This followed revelations that a crisis communications firm, Navigator, hired by Mr. Johnston to help with his probe, had previously worked for MP Han Dong, whose conduct was part of the investigation.

Mr. Johnston was criticized after it was learned that his lead counsel in the probe, Sheila Block, donated $7,593.38 to the Liberal Party between 2006 to 2022 and attended a private Liberal fundraiser in 2021, where Mr. Trudeau was the guest of honour.

Opposition parties had adopted a motion calling for his resignation, saying in their majority decision that Mr. Johnston was unfit for the job because of his long-standing friendship with the Trudeau family and his connection to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

A public inquiry would follow months of reporting on Chinese foreign interference, including revelations reported in The Globe and Mail that Beijing targeted Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong – attempted intimidation that the MP was never told about. The disclosure of this meddling prompted the Canadian government to expel Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei in May.

Mr. Johnston’s first report, tabled on May 23, was met with ridicule from the opposition after he concluded that there was no evidence the government ignored Canadian Security Intelligence Service reports on Chinese election interference. The inconsistencies in the findings were raised at a Commons committee.

In testimony to a parliamentary inquiry earlier this month, Mr. Johnston said he may have had incomplete intelligence when his report said he was unable to trace misinformation campaigns directed at some Conservative candidates in the 2021 election to the Chinese government.

On May 30, former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole informed the House that CSIS briefed him that “my party, several members of my caucus and me were targets of misinformation and voter suppression that was orchestrated by China before and during the 2021 election.”

At parliamentary hearings on June 6, Mr. Johnston said his assessment was based on information before CSIS briefed Mr. O’Toole.

Later in an interview with David Cochrane on CBC’s Power & Politics, Mr. Johnston acknowledged the “very real differences” between his report and what Mr. O’Toole told the Commons based on his CSIS briefing. “Yes, there are stories that simply don’t add up and that requires further review,” he said.

Mr. Johnston acknowledged that he didn’t have enough time to sift through all available information – but maintained he saw enough.

“The amount of information available was an ocean and we saw a very large lake,” he told CBC. “I can’t tell you that we saw everything that one would liked to have seen, with perhaps more time, but we were never refused any access to any documents and therefore we were confident we came to conclusions based on facts.”

Mr. Poilievre seized on the discrepancy to press the Prime Minister to fire Mr. Johnston.

Mr. Trudeau has repeatedly defended Mr. Johnston, calling him a “man of integrity” whose “judgment is top notch.”

A Nanos Research poll conducted for The Globe and CTV May 31 to June 3 found a majority of Canadians favoured a public inquiry.

The poll asked whether those surveyed believe Canada should have a formal public inquiry, headed by a judge with full subpoena powers, into foreign interference, or continue with public hearings led by Mr. Johnston.

Nanos found 59 per cent of respondents supported a formal public inquiry as the appropriate approach to tackling foreign interference in Canada. Another 25 per cent said they support or somewhat support public hearings that were planned by Mr. Johnston, which were to hear from Canadians targeted by China, as well as national-security experts.

In the planned hearings, Mr. Johnston would not have had subpoena powers or the right to cross-examine witnesses under oath.

The government was prompted to act this year after months of reporting on foreign interference in Canadian politics.

The Globe and Mail produced more than 15 stories based on national-security sources and secret CSIS documents. These range from a February story relying on CSIS intelligence reports that described a concerted strategy by Beijing to disrupt the democratic process in the 2021 election campaign, to a May story about Mr. Chong and his family being targeted by the Chinese government after he spearheaded a parliamentary motion in 2021 declaring China’s repression of Uyghurs to constitute genocide.