LeBlanc challenges opposition to suggest Johnston replacement, leaves door open to public inquiry
David Johnston will leave no later than end of June after delivering brief final report
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Saturday he will work quickly to consult with opposition parties around forging a public process to investigate foreign interference in Canadian elections, including who might lead a public inquiry into the issue.
"My job, in the very next few days, in short order, is to ask opposition leaders to take this matter seriously," and address questions around a public process or inquiry, who would lead it, what its scope and timeline would be and how it would address national security information, LeBlanc said.
"Those are the questions we're prepared to have in very short order," he said. "We're not looking to delay this process at all."
In his answers to reporters on Saturday, LeBlanc described a range of possible paths forward, including simply replacing David Johnston as a special rapporteur, a public process of a different kind or working with parties toward a formal public inquiry.
But he noted that the terms of a potential public inquiry — which opposition parties have long called for — were unclear, and there was the significant challenge of how it could handle sensitive national security information.
Johnston resigned Friday evening, writing in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that because of the political atmosphere around his role, he was having a detrimental effect on trust in the political process — the opposite of his goal.
In his letter, he said he will leave by the end of June, or earlier if he delivers his final, brief report before the end of the month. He also urged the government to consult with opposition parties on who might complete his work.
The Liberals' political opposition had criticized Johnston's appointment given his ties with Trudeau dating back to the current prime minister's childhood.
On Friday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blamed the Liberals for putting Johnston in a tough spot and repeated his demand for a public inquiry.
"[Trudeau] has destroyed the reputation of a former governor general all to cover up his own refusal to defend Canada from foreign interests and threats," he said in a post on Twitter.
In a statement to CBC News on Saturday, a spokesperson for Poilievre reiterated the Conservatives' demand for a public inquiry, framing it as a precondition for further discussion.
"Liberals must end the coverup and announce a public inquiry now. Only once they finally follow the will of Canadians and Parliament to call an open and independent public inquiry will Conservatives discuss further details," said Sebastian Skamski, Poilievre's director of media relations.
LeBlanc sought Saturday to put the ball back into the opposition's court, challenging them to work together to provide suggestions around the future of a public process. He also noted he would be consulting with experts and legal scholars around next steps.
He said the a public inquiry is something "the prime minister said he would have contemplated as far back as a number of months ago" but that the government had accepted Johnston's recommendation against it. Trudeau has resisted calls for a public inquiry, preferring to focus on reviews underway by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), as well as Johnston's efforts.
Leblanc also said Saturday that he said the process of finding a suitable person to step into Johnston's role or lead a public process would be made harder by the events of the last few months.
"Obviously Mr. Johnston's decision to step aside is as a result of the toxic partisan climate that was created largely by the Conservative party, and other opposition parties as well," he said.
"It might be hard to ask someone to step into the snowblower that they passed over David Johnston."
Michelle Rempel Garner, a Conservative MP, suggested on Twitter on Saturday that the government was simply hoping to run out the clock on the issue, as the House of Commons enters its last few weeks of sittings.
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With files from Darren Major