Special rapporteur David Johnston defended his impartiality and that of his top counsel as he faced opposition MPs who’ve requested he step down from his role around concerns of conflict of interest.
“I don’t believe I have a conflict of interest and I would not have undertaken this responsibility had I had a conflict of interest,” Johnston told the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs committee on June 6.
Johnston said when he tabled his first report on May 23 that he had consulted his lifelong friend, former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci, who told him no conflict of interest existed.
The Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois have questioned Johnston’s appointment from the outset, given his ties to the Trudeau family and his membership with the Trudeau Foundation, itself embroiled in a scandal due to receiving a donation from Chinese regime-linked entities.
The NDP was behind the House of Commons motion asking Johnston to resign. “Serious questions have been raised about the special rapporteur process, the counsel he retained in support of this work, his findings, and his conclusions,” it said.
“This appearance of bias to a reasonable person would undermine the work that you’re hoping to do,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told Johnston at committee.
“I don’t see Ms. Block’s providing contributions to political parties as a conflict of interest,” Johnston replied, defending Block as a “thoughtful, impartial person of great integrity.”
“I just have every confidence in her, and that’s shared widely across the land regarding her as one of the preeminent councils that we have in this country.”
He said that Block, from the law firm Torys LLP, had served him “faithfully” when he was appointed by Stephen Harper in 2007 as an adviser to review the Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber affair.
Along with being supported by a legal team from Torys, committee proceedings revealed that Johnston is receiving advice from public affairs firm GT and Company’s founding partners.