Johnston Says the Fact His Counsel Is a Liberal Party Donor Is Not a Conflict of Interest

David Johnston, special rapporteur on foreign interference, presents his first report in Ottawa on May 23, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

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 had initially supported Johnston’s appointment. Leader Jagmeet Singh said Johnston was a man of integrity well fit for the job assigned to him by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in mid-March amid calls for a public inquiry into foreign interference.

That changed when it was reported that Johnston’s top adviser for his probe, lawyer Sheila Block, had given $7,593.38 to the Liberal Party since 2006. The Globe and Mail reported she also attended a 2021 private online fundraiser where Trudeau was the guest of honour.

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.

The motion was adopted on May 31. Johnston, however, said he would not heed it.

“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.

Iacobucci is also currently associated with Torys as a senior counsel and is a past mentor at the Trudeau Foundation, which provides scholarships to post-graduate students.

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.

Johnston said he’s receiving pro bono advice from Don Guy, a Liberal strategist who served as chief of staff under former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, as well as from Brian Topp, a former chief of staff to former Alberta premier Rachel Notley.

It was previously reported that Johnston had retained at the beginning of his mandate the services of communications firm Navigator, which specializes in crisis management.