In appointing a so-called ‘independent special rapporteur”, Prime Minister Trudeau does no more than buy time for himself. This individual will take weeks — months perhaps — investigating how to avoid foreign interference in Canadian elections. For the embattled prime minister, time is gold..If he sees the need, says the prime minister, that person will have the power to recommend an inquiry into the elections of 2019 and 2021 — something a parliamentary committee has already recommended in the last week..There is however no obligation upon the prime minister to even accept such a recommendation..In other words, there is no honesty at work, whatsoever..The prime minister’s announcement may therefore be compared to booting the ball back up the field when it’s getting uncomfortably close to your own goal. Yes, you might lose control of it, but if the opposition are brawling near the posts, you haven’t had much control for a while anyway..All this could have been anticipated when the prime minister tried to deflect attention from the Globe and Mail’s expose of Chinese meddling in Canadian elections, by rolling out Justice Rouleau’s report three days early. That, together with scattergun accusations of racism, is his default mode of damage control..That didn’t work however and for the past week, it’s been all China, all the time..Trudeau has also disingenuously asserted that whatever the Chinese might have done, it hadn’t affected the outcome of the elections. The opposition has not disputed this..However, saying that Chinese influence didn’t change the result, is not the same thing at all as saying that the government of China did not try. In fact, if the documents reviewed by the Globe were correct — and to be fair, Trudeau says they were not — China made considerable efforts to influence the elections..Should that be established beyond doubt, it would be highly damaging to the prime minister. It is therefore the last thing he would like to see investigated and to appoint an independent rapporteur — a person who reports on a situation — now allows him to defer questions for some time, by urging those demanding answers to wait for the results of the rapporteur’s investigation..How independent such a person appointed by this prime minister might be is hard to pre-judge. It is unlikely that the prime minister would appoint to that role anybody who would “experience the situation differently.”.But the rapporteur will have no mandate to specifically report on what happened during the 2019 or 2021 elections, anyway. In the equally unlikely eventuality that the rapporteur did recommend an inquiry, and the even more unlikely circumstance that the prime minister accepted it, that process could be dragged out as long as politically necessary..Let’s face it. They already know the truth — CSIS told them months ago..They just don’t want you to know the truth..By the way, don’t overlook the prime minister’s promise included in his rapporteur announcement, to ‘invest’ $5.5 million into civil society organizations that will ‘fight disinformation.’ That just means self-described fact-checkers will be paid to parrot government talking points, to be reported by an uncurious and unsuspicious mainstream media as independent experts..Nice work if you can get it..But, no honesty there, either.
In appointing a so-called ‘independent special rapporteur”, Prime Minister Trudeau does no more than buy time for himself. This individual will take weeks — months perhaps — investigating how to avoid foreign interference in Canadian elections. For the embattled prime minister, time is gold..If he sees the need, says the prime minister, that person will have the power to recommend an inquiry into the elections of 2019 and 2021 — something a parliamentary committee has already recommended in the last week..There is however no obligation upon the prime minister to even accept such a recommendation..In other words, there is no honesty at work, whatsoever..The prime minister’s announcement may therefore be compared to booting the ball back up the field when it’s getting uncomfortably close to your own goal. Yes, you might lose control of it, but if the opposition are brawling near the posts, you haven’t had much control for a while anyway..All this could have been anticipated when the prime minister tried to deflect attention from the Globe and Mail’s expose of Chinese meddling in Canadian elections, by rolling out Justice Rouleau’s report three days early. That, together with scattergun accusations of racism, is his default mode of damage control..That didn’t work however and for the past week, it’s been all China, all the time..Trudeau has also disingenuously asserted that whatever the Chinese might have done, it hadn’t affected the outcome of the elections. The opposition has not disputed this..However, saying that Chinese influence didn’t change the result, is not the same thing at all as saying that the government of China did not try. In fact, if the documents reviewed by the Globe were correct — and to be fair, Trudeau says they were not — China made considerable efforts to influence the elections..Should that be established beyond doubt, it would be highly damaging to the prime minister. It is therefore the last thing he would like to see investigated and to appoint an independent rapporteur — a person who reports on a situation — now allows him to defer questions for some time, by urging those demanding answers to wait for the results of the rapporteur’s investigation..How independent such a person appointed by this prime minister might be is hard to pre-judge. It is unlikely that the prime minister would appoint to that role anybody who would “experience the situation differently.”.But the rapporteur will have no mandate to specifically report on what happened during the 2019 or 2021 elections, anyway. In the equally unlikely eventuality that the rapporteur did recommend an inquiry, and the even more unlikely circumstance that the prime minister accepted it, that process could be dragged out as long as politically necessary..Let’s face it. They already know the truth — CSIS told them months ago..They just don’t want you to know the truth..By the way, don’t overlook the prime minister’s promise included in his rapporteur announcement, to ‘invest’ $5.5 million into civil society organizations that will ‘fight disinformation.’ That just means self-described fact-checkers will be paid to parrot government talking points, to be reported by an uncurious and unsuspicious mainstream media as independent experts..Nice work if you can get it..But, no honesty there, either.
