Don Martin: David Johnston's reputation is but a smouldering ruin

As the hour dragged on, his French language comprehension failed him, his answers drifted into long-winded rambles and he was forced onto the defensive as his once-impeccable character came under attack.

At some point during that media release of his “special rapporteur” report on the merits of holding a public inquiry into foreign interference in recent elections, former governor general David Johnston must’ve realized he’d been had by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

• Capital Dispatch: Sign up for in-depth political coverage of Parliament Hill

Having taken the job believing there was a clear pathway for him to simply rummage around top-secret files and call for a public inquiry, Johnston says the facts forced him to take a loose-gravel, cliff-hugging, road-less-travelled detour.

He viewed the full intelligence file on leaked examples of Chinese interference – and found it conflicted with Global TV stories based on snippets of secret material.

The spy agencies told him almost everything he viewed would never be allowed out of the room – and Johnston realized it didn’t make sense to stage a public inquiry based on shielded evidence.

And after a parade of cabinet ministers and the prime minister described how they couldn’t access spy agency alerts or be given foreign intelligence that hadn’t been validated, he couldn’t find any proof they were lying to save their political skins - if indeed he looked for it.

So the former vice-regal was confronted with a no-win choice.

The raging headlines and angry public mood meant he could only reject an inquiry if he did something to appease the mobs clamouring for a probe or else he would stand accused of authoring a cover-up.

So Johnston opted to call for the sham of a public hearings he will personally supervise this fall.

He did this knowing it was a pathetically insufficient response for a foreign democratic assault of this magnitude. He did it knowing it would be seen as protecting the prime minister and his ministers from well-deserved scrutiny. And he did it knowing he was the worst person to collect the input and write up the bottom-line conclusions.

But, but, but, he stammered as the question of his impartiality came up, his "friendship" with Trudeau was merely their kids doing some skiing together and the odd sharing of mountain resort condo parking space. And his Trudeau Foundation involvement was just that of a former university president interested in its scholarships.

Sorry, but the perception prevails of them as neighbourly chums in the Laurentian Elite backed by evidence suggesting due diligence was deliberately lacking as he put together his report.

For example, Johnston didn’t reach out to former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole until last week. This was the former leader most vocal about Chinese electoral interference, yet Johnston’s report was already on its way to the printers for translation, by the time an O’Toole interview was booked.

Johnston also took great pains to probe and question the accuracy of news reports yet failed to examine the Trudeau Foundation’s role in the controversy after it received substantial money from Chinese benefactors looking to buy friends in high places.

And his conclusion that senior Liberals didn’t know about Chinese efforts to help elect a Liberal minority mandate was based on merely asking the prime minister if that was the case. Not surprisingly, Trudeau said it wasn’t.

To bottom line this Liberal-friendly 59-page verdict, Johnston found communications gaps in government instead of credibility gaps.

He declared the government’s handling of foreign interference allegations and threats to be incomplete not incompetent.

And on the key issue of how this government’s internal reactions to interference reports, Johnston has already delivered his findings. The “hearings will not focus on ‘who knew what and what did they do about it’. I have examined these issues, drawn conclusions, and provided as much information as possible to the public,” he declared.

And so, the stage is set for publicity seekers volunteering to appear before Johnston in circus-like hearings to rant their views for the cameras, be they somebodies or nobodies.

There will be no public inquiry so that invited and involved parties can take the stand with lawyers probing their testimony for insights, lies or loopholes.

The complete truth on Chinese meddling and manipulating in our elections and how the government confronted/ignored the problem will remain forever secret and elusive.

Johnston undoubtedly knows now he never should’ve accepted Trudeau’s invitation to come out of a cushy double-pensioned retirement for this cringe-worthy act of character self-assassination.

His reputation is but a smouldering ruin and the final chapter of his report will be ripe for immediate shredding upon publication in many minds outside the inner Liberal circle.

If he still possesses the wisdom and intellect we saw when he was governor general, Johnston should step aside from this thankless task immediately and return to spoiling his grandkids at the mountainside condo.

While its far from conventional thinking out there amid the fury directed at his conclusions, I feel something else for the once-distinguished, now-maligned David Johnston: Pity.

That’s the bottom line…

Can't see the embedded Special Rapporteur report above? Click here