Who is David Johnston, the new special rapporteur on alleged Chinese interference in Canadian elections?

As Canadians grapple with questions about what exactly China did to meddle with two most recent federal elections, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed David Johnston, the new special rapporteur on foreign interference, to advise on whether a full public inquiry into foreign elections meddling is necessary.

But many are left wondering who David Johnston is. Here’s what we know about him and his career, and why the prime minister created the role.

Why was David Johnston appointed as special rapporteur?

Johnston’s appointment comes after claims surfaced in Canadian news outlets that the Chinese government allegedly interfered in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. These reports cite sources from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and have not been independently verified by the Star.

One report, published by Global News, claimed that Chinese-Canadian seniors and international students were “bused” into ridings to sway an individual Toronto-area Liberal candidate’s 2019 nomination — allegations the candidate Han Dong and his riding association denied. Another story, published in the Globe and Mail, cited CSIS reports that falsehoods were spread in 2021 on social media to affect Chinese-language voters, and political donations were illegally refunded, in order to secure a Liberal minority government and suppress Conservative votes.

After public and political pressure to inform Canadians what happened in those elections — both from China and how Canada handled foreign election interference — the prime minister appointed Johnston as special rapporteur.

In this role, 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.

Who is David Johnston?

Johnston, who was named governor general by former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, serving from 2010 until 2017, was born near Sudbury in 1941.

A graduate of Harvard University, Johnston went on to earn bachelor of laws degrees at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and at Queen’s University in Kingston.

Johnston stayed in academia after, working with Queen’s law faculty and the University of Toronto’s law school. He served as the dean of Western University’s legal faculty, and was named principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in 1979. Johnston has also worked with the University of Waterloo, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec, and was the first non-American to chair Harvard’s Board of Overseers.

In his political life, Johnston moderated televised leaders’ debates for federal and provincial elections in the late ’70s and ’80s, and co-chaired Montreal’s “No” committee during the 1995 referendum. He also chaired various federal and provincial commissions, bodies and task forces, including the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy; the National Task Force on High Speed Broadband Access; the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research; the federal Information Highway Advisory Council; and Ontario’s Infertility and Adoption Review Panel.

In 2007, Harper’s Conservative government charged him with drafting the terms of reference of the Oliphant inquiry into former prime minister Brian Mulroney’s relationship with Karlheinz Schreiber — a scandal that brought its own allegations of foreign interference.

While serving as governor general, Johnston picked the motto contemplare meliora, meaning “to envisage a better world.” The phrase comes from a line from to a line from George Bernard Shaw’s play “Back to Methuselah.”

He led more than 50 international visits, including trips to China.

Johnston was rarely outspoken, but earned media attention for his criticism of the legal profession in a 2011 speech at the Canadian Bar Association’s annual meeting.

He also rarely waded into political matters while serving as governor general, but met with Indigenous protesters from the Idle No More movement and hosted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s closing ceremonies in 2015. Toward the end of his tenure in 2017, he was criticized for comparing Indigenous People to immigrants.

While not a stranger to politics, Johnston also served in a number of private sector roles, including on the boards of directors of Fairfax Financial Holdings, CGI Group, Dominion Textiles, Southam Incorporated, SPAR Aerospace, Seagram’s, Canada Trust and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

In recent years, Johnston joined Deloitte as an executive adviser. In 2018, Trudeau appointed him to the Leaders’ Debates Commission, where he oversaw recommendations for the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. He also became a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in 2018.

What are opposition members saying about Johnston’s appointment?

Some politicians are raising questions about Johnston’s political loyalties, and his appointment was met with immediate criticism by Conservatives who suggested Johnston is not impartial.

After Johnston was named, the NDP, which has called for a non-partisan and transparent inquiry to get to the bottom of allegations of foreign interference, said it was aware Johnston was among “many names” being floated, but Leader Jagmeet Singh — who spoke with Trudeau on the weekend — was not informed he was the choice, the Star’s Tonda MacCharles reported Wednesday. An NDP official told the Star it still wants the government to strike an inquiry that is independent and transparent, and soon.

However, Singh has not indicated if its demand for an inquiry is a deal-breaker for its support of the Liberals in a minority Parliament.

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