Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday committed to new steps his government will take to combat foreign interference, including additional independent investigations and further steps toward establishing a foreign agents registry.
But none of the steps in Trudeau’s multipronged approach included a public inquiry, which Opposition leaders had signalled earlier in the day was the only method of investigation they would support.
Read more: Anything less than a public inquiry on foreign interference is not enough: Poilievre, Singh Instead, the decision on whether or not to call such an inquiry will be made by an independent, special rapporteur who will have a “wide mandate” to oversee the new probes and make recommendations on how Ottawa can better combat foreign interference and inform the public about such attempts.
The determination will be one of the first tasks of the rapporteur’s mandate, Trudeau said. “We will abide by their recommendation,” he told reporters at a news conference on Parliament Hill Monday evening, adding “an eminent Canadian” will be appointed to the position in the coming days. “I know there are people out there who don’t believe this is enough.