Article content continued

“This is about preserving free speech in a democracy and about the non-partisan nature of our federal public servants,” she told MPs.

Unsurprisingly, the Liberal majority on the committee rejected Alleslev’s proposal. The rare summer hearing devolved into mud-slinging over which politicians in the room were acting the most partisan before government MPs defeated the motion five to four.

However, it transpired that Freehand has been making conciliatory moves towards the diplomats.

Saint-Jacques told the Post the minister personally called him after reports first appeared in the Globe and Mail, one of two calls from Global Affairs that seemed intended to “try to reassure me that nobody was trying to muzzle me.” The former diplomat said these more recent chats made him conclude there had been a miscommunication in the original call.

“She said she was very sorry about the impression I got from this conversation, that as a former journalist herself, she was all in favour of freedom of expression,” Saint-Jacques said of the call with Freeland. “And that in fact, it was important to maintain this, and it was out of the question to try to prevent anyone from talking publicly about this. And she told me that she had appreciated working with me when I was ambassador, that she had appreciated benefiting from my views since I retired and therefore she said, ‘I’m very sorry about all this.’ So again, for me, that confirms that there was miscommunication somewhere.”