OTTAWA—Canada’s two main opposition parties say their lost confidence in the country’s top bureaucrat means he can’t be trusted to warn voters about foreign interference in the 2019 election, the Star has learned.

Michael Wernick is the most senior member of a five-person panel tasked with alerting Canadians to the kind of foreign meddling seen in recent elections in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

The panel is one of the Liberal government’s central safeguards against foreign meddling in the upcoming fall federal election.

While detecting that interference would fall to Canada’s security and intelligence community, Wernick’s panel would be responsible for assessing the intelligence and deciding whether or not to notify the public.

“I cannot believe that he is capable of being non-partisan when it comes to assessing whether or not something is harming one party versus another,” said Conservative deputy leader Lisa Raitt in an interview Thursday.

“I have grave concerns … I think it makes sense for the clerk of the Privy Council to be on this committee. I don’t think Michael Wernick should be the clerk of the Privy Council.”

“He has to be replaced from that position,” said Charlie Angus, the New Democrats’ ethics critic.

“He does not have the credibility … So much about what’s going to happen in this election is going to happen online. And the ability to discern real threats, real unacceptable monkey wrenching of the democratic process (from) the rough and tumble of public commentary. And Mr. Wernick showed really bad judgment on this.”

The clerk of the Privy Council is supposed to be above that “rough and tumble” of partisan politics. But after two tumultuous appearances before the House of Commons justice committee over his role in the SNC-Lavalin affair, opposition parties have called for Wernick’s resignation.

They have accused him of partisanship — a charge that he denies — and suggested he played a key role in the allegedly inappropriate pressure put on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to give SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement.

In a statement, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould’s office said they remain confident Wernick can be a neutral arbiter on foreign election interference — despite the opposition parties’ mistrust.

“With respect to the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol panel, it is made up of five senior officials. It’s expected to come to a decision jointly, based on consensus. If there is no consensus, there will not be an announcement,” wrote Amy Butcher, Gould’s director of communications, in a statement.

“It’s important to point (out) that this is the reason for a panel of five senior officials. It will not be one person deciding what Canadians should know.”

While the other four officials are formidable in their own right — National Security Adviser Greta Bossenmaier, as well as the deputy ministers of Global Affairs, Public Safety, and Justice Canada — Wernick is the head of the public service.

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The panel is made up of public servants meant to be unimpeachable. If the panel decides that a foreign power is making a concerted effort to disrupt Canada’s federal election, scheduled for this October, it is crucial for the legitimacy of the election that all political parties accept that determination.

But the two main opposition parties are already refusing to do so, setting Canadian voters up for a potential crisis should the panel sound the alarm on foreign interference.

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