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David Johnston, longtime family friend of Justin Trudeau and former special rapporteur on Chinese election meddlingTVO / YouTube

OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) –– Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed former Governor General David Johnston, a long-time family friend and member of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation, as his “independent special rapporteur” to investigate alleged Communist Chinese Party (CCP) election meddling. 

Trudeau made the announcement yesterday, saying, “Canadians need to have confidence in our electoral system, and in our democracy.” 

“As Independent Special Rapporteur, David Johnston brings integrity and a wealth of experience and skills, and I am confident that he will conduct an impartial review to ensure all necessary steps are being taken to keep our democracy safe and uphold and strengthen confidence in it,” stated Trudeau. 

Trudeau, under mounting pressure to investigate the alleged CCP interference, said last week he would be appointing an “independent special rapporteur” in lieu of a public inquiry which MPs from all opposition parties had requested

According to Trudeau, Johnston will have a “wide mandate to look into foreign interference in the last two federal general elections and make expert recommendations on how to further protect our democracy and uphold Canadians’ confidence in it.

Trudeau said that the government “will comply with and implement his public recommendations, which could include a formal inquiry, a judicial review, or another independent review process.” 

Johnston a long time ‘family friend’ of Trudeau  

Johnston served as Governor-General, as the Queen’s representative, from 2010 to 2017. Although he was appointed by former Conservative Party of Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Johnston has deep family ties to Trudeau. 

For example, he serves as a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. The same foundation which recently revealed it was given $200,000 alleged to be connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

The foundation said it was returning the money after this information became public. 

Johnston is also well-known to be a friend of Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliot, and was known to Justin when he was a child. 

When Johnston stepped down in 2017 as Governor General, Trudeau referred to him as a “family friend.”  

Of note is that Trudeau then appointed Johnston to head the Leaders’ Debates Commission. This same commission barred People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier from being allowed to debate in the 2021 election.  

Johnston’s appointment blasted by Conservative MPs, pundits

Conservative commentators and MPs were quick to blast the appointment of Johnston as “special rapporteur.” 

“Trudeau names another Trudeau Foundation insider to tell us we don’t need an inquiry into Beijing’s interference. The foundation is a partisan group of elite insiders that got $200k from Beijing. No one associated with it can be trusted on this issue. Call a public inquiry now,” tweeted former CPC leader and current MP Andrew Scheer. 

CPC current leader Pierre Poilievre, who had before blasted the idea of a “rapporteur” as a “fake job,” also skewered Trudeau for his appointment. 

Justin Trudeau has named a family friend, old neighbour from the cottage, and member of the Beijing-funded Trudeau foundation, to be the independent rapporteur on Beijing’s interference,” tweeted Poilievre. “Get real. Trudeau must end his cover up.”

Corey Morgan of the Western Standard also chimed in with his thoughts: 

As did True North’s Andrew Lawton:

Last week, LifeSiteNews highlighted how two new reports from Canada’s national security agency reveal that the Communist Chinese government was allegedly funding Canadian political candidates in the 2019 federal election. 

The potential interference by foreign agents has many Canadians concerned, especially considering Trudeau’s past praise for China’s “basic dictatorship” and his labeling of the dictatorial nation as his favorite country other than his own. 

While the overall scandal has been brewing for some time, the issue really took off on February 17 when the Globe and Mail, citing Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents, reported that “an orchestrated machine was operating in Canada with two primary aims: to ensure that a minority Liberal government was returned in 2021, and that certain Conservative candidates identified by China were defeated.” 

Matters were made worse on February 24 when Global News broke a story that showed that Trudeau was made aware of these allegations but did not take any action. 

Recently, during testimony before the House of Commons ethics committee last week, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Cheuk Kwan revealed that he witnessed firsthand proxies of the CCP take busloads of people to vote for their preferred nomination candidate. 

Last week, Trudeau’s Federal Trade Minister Mary Ng was mum after being confronted about her endorsement of a Canadian organization considered a front of CCP, the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO). 

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