Wednesday May 31, 2023 | NATIONAL
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Click here for background editorial: “Trudeau missed the mark on this one” (May 29, 2023)
Update June 1, 2023: “With all due respect to the service of Mr Johnston and his previous public service, I believe that his response to the vote on our motion is tone-deaf.” ~ NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, upon learning that Johnston as Special Raaporteur aims to continue unfettered and uninterrupted.
It’s clear that the ground is shifting in Ottawa:
“The vote today on the NDP’s motion shows that the majority of the House of Common no longer has confidence in David Johnston as special rapporteur,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh after his party’s vote was passed in the House of Commons.
The motion is not binding, but is a clear sign that the Trudeau-appointed special rapporteur should think about stepping aside.
“The prime minister also needs to understand that this issue is not going away and that he is enabling the political games of Pierre Poilievre every day that he passes on a public inquiry,” said Singh in a news release this afternoon.
“This is too serious for partisan posturing,” said Singh.
The NDP feels that Canadians “deserve a responsible approach to defend our electoral system against foreign interference”.
The NDP will continue to push for “a transparent, independent, and public inquiry”.
The original motion asking Johnston to step aside was delivered in the House of Commons by NDP MP Rachel Blaney on May 25.
On May 29 Singh presented the motion asking the former governor general to step aside from the special rapporteur role.
The NDP motion offers a gracious way out for the former governor general and an escape hatch for the prime minister.
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends (and the previous publications MapleLine Magazine 2008-2010, Sooke Voice News 2011-2013, and West Shore Voice News 2014-2020) delivers socioeconomic news insights about life on the west shore of south Vancouver Island. All news is posted at IslandSocialTrends.ca.
Through these past 15 years Editor Mary P Brooke has been penning editorials that shed light in ways that provide leadership in sociopolitical understanding as well as the how journalism is faring amidst the landscape of the digital media onslaught.
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