There were always doubts whether David Johnston would be able to keep his Conservative ties out of his proposed enquiry into Brian Mulroney’s dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber and those doubts have now been confirmed.

The Globe & Mail reports that Johnston, who was supposed to advise Harper on the terms and scope of such an enquiry, has instead gone straight for the political levers, informing Harper that he need not stage – or stagemanage – the promised enquiry if he (Harper) is satisfied with the Commons ethics committee enquiry.

If that’s Johnston’s attitude before an enquiry can even be commenced, it’s pretty clear he’s more than willing to carry water for Stephen Harper’s political agenda should the hearings go ahead. You can’t pretend to be objective and unbiased if you launch yourself into this proceeding with political jockeying of this sort.