, 04.30.2019 06:54 AM

#LavScam latest: illegal SNC donations to the LPC – and to Ignatieff, Dion, Rae and Trudeau’s candidate, Kennedy

Stunning, kick-ass scoop by CBC, this week.  (Oh, and for those conservative types who continually rail about how the CBC is part of a vast pro-Liberal conspiracy? Read this story before you pop off on social media, next time.)

All of the story is here. Key highlights here:

A confidential document sent to the Liberal Party of Canada in 2016, and obtained by CBC/Radio-Canada, reveals how top officials at the embattled engineering firm SNC-Lavalin were named in a scheme to illegally influence Canadian elections.

The list of names, compiled in 2016 by federal investigators probing political party donations and leaked to CBC’s The Fifth Estate and Radio-Canada’s Enquête, raises new questions about an agreement by the Commissioner of Canada Elections not to prosecute the company.

The federal Liberals were sent the list in a letter marked “confidential” from the Commissioner of Canada Elections — the investigative branch of Elections Canada — on Aug. 5, 2016. But for nearly three years, neither Elections Canada nor the Liberal Party shared that information publicly.

The investigation reveals that over a period of more than five years between 2004 and 2009, 18 former SNC-Lavalin employees, directors and some spouses contributed nearly $110,000 to the federal Liberals, including to four party leadership campaigns and four riding associations in Quebec.

According to the letter, the investigation found that SNC-Lavalin reimbursed all of those individual donations — a practice forbidden under the Canada Elections Act.

And, look! Another DPA-style deal that favoured these sleazebags:

The illicit SNC-Lavalin operation went undetected for nearly a decade. Despite the evidence collected by investigators, the Commissioner of Canada Elections decided not to bring charges against the company, which is headquartered in Montreal but operates around the world.

“We know that the decisions to take part in this scheme took place at the very highest levels of SNC-Lavalin,” said Ayotte. “‘[It] seems to all suggest to me that there should have been a prosecution.”

SNC-Lavalin avoided charges by signing what is known as a “compliance agreement” in 2016 with the Commissioner of Canada Elections after promising not to break the law in the future.

And:

The Liberal Party repeatedly refused to provide the names of those involved when asked by reporters for CBC/Radio-Canada…in his letter to the Liberal Party, the Commissioner of Canada Elections stated that all those donations listed were made, indirectly, by SNC-Lavalin itself. The commissioner stated that the SNC-Lavalin contributions were “ineligible” — meaning they violated the law — and had to be paid back.

The Liberal Party’s revenue chair, Stephen Bronfman, did not return voice messages left by CBC/Radio-Canada. Party spokesman Braeden Caley wrote in an email that “The Liberal Party of Canada fully complies with the Canada Elections Act and all Elections Canada regulations for fundraising and donations and expects all people donating to our party to do so lawfully and to follow the same rules.”

34 Comments

  1. ABB says:

    GOD BLESS THE CBC. Using public money (annual budgeted government subsidy) to expose public corruption. Just as any dutiful news organization should do — following the story! In the public interest! Thank you CBC.

    • Gord Tulk says:

      The exception proves the rule. Just as JWR standing up to pressure proved how unethical the LPC – as a rule – is corrupt and unethical.

  2. Jeanbatte says:

    So, please, someone tell me why the RCMP is not investigating this???

    • the real Sean says:

      Expect them to announce they are investigating in campaign week 3. Probably on the Weds morning.

      • Andrew Klinzmann says:

        The RCMP will announce that they are “investigating” so-called “white supremacists” and supposed “Nazis” and will be FAR TOO BUSY to look into the liberal party of Canada….

        • Those “so-called ‘white supremacists'” have killed a lot of people in the US, New Zealand and Canada.

          • Joseph Taylor says:

            A handful of radicals can kill people no doubt but the scale of the problem is greatly exaggerated by the MSM and used a boogie man by left wing parties to drum up support. Have you ever met someone who was an out of the closet white supremacist of Neo Nazi in your life because I haven’t.

          • Warren says:

            Well, that settles it then. You haven’t met any, so there aren’t any.

          • Joseph Taylor says:

            I actually live in Peterborough, Ontario where they keep holding up this crazy white supremacist as an existential threat to our civilization every time he threatens to hold a rally. When said rally occurs there are like 4 white supremacists and 200 counter protesters.

      • Zorro says:

        Where’s a Mueller investigation LOL in Canada.. SNC Lavalin committed criminal acts to tamper with elections…any difference to Russian interference in the US elections? SAME

  3. Joseph Taylor says:

    I didn’t realize Michael Wernick was running Elections Canada as well.

  4. ABB says:

    BREAKING NEWS: PMO official Katie Telford is added to a statement of claim filed by Canada’s former Ambassador to Israel. Court grants leave for plaintiff to amend the statement of claim to add Telford as defendant for alleged bad-faith actions in the matter: https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2019/2019onsc2610/2019onsc2610.html

  5. Bob Bailie says:

    The Commissioner of Canada Elections is quite clearly unfit for duty. Canadians could never have confidence in this highly partisan ‘public sector worker’.

  6. Joseph says:

    Curious, are any of those donors currently sitting as a judge?

    • Gord says:

      Not sure, but Kathleen Weil is a Liberal MNA for NDG and was Justice Minister under Charest and Immigration Minister under Couillard. Her hubby is the former President of SNC.

  7. Joseph Taylor says:

    I don’t think conservatives necessarily say the CBC is a organ of the liberal party so much as their point of view is almost unanimously left of centre, even more so than the private sector mainstream media which actually has to worry about keeping their customers happy.

    • PK says:

      That’s what’s different. It’s not realistic to suggest media that is solely reliant on advertising revenue to exist can be completely unbiased. Media is always biased – people have bias, it’s almost impossible not to have bias when your entire conception of the world around you is developed completely from your perspective – it’s why folks call each other “out of touch”, because from my eyes the world is a different place than from yours –

      • Joseph Taylor says:

        Absolutely everyone is biased. The problem is the media is almost entirely composed of people who share the same bias. It’s a mono culture of secular, university educated, big city urbanites whose views and values align very closely with the liberal party.

  8. Sean says:

    Must wonder how the puckish, thin skinned, Bob Rae will respond.

  9. Fred J Pertanson says:

    Hey, Warren, maybe you can get them to answer why not all of the contributor names are filled in. Maybe too embarrassing for certain people? Also, if SNC was doing this what about other firms, e.g. Bombardier? Push for a full investigation!

  10. Charles says:

    Like most of Media CBC, CTV, Global, The (red) Star, their left-leaning agenda is subtle: Instead of totally ignore the new; they report it, only to bury it in haste.

    On CBC website, this SNC Report has already been shadowed by AirBnb on the front-line. By tomorrow, it will be nowhere to be found. Like all other Trudeau`s numerous issues.

    CBC has been mostly reporting the SNC as an “affair” or “controversy”, not a scandal, by the way…

    In contrast, the Media have been talking 24/7 for 2 years about the “scandal-of-the century”: $90K Harper gave Duffy to pay for his expenses (which ended by being not illegal, after all): “What did he know”, “Explosive e-mails”, “Nigel this and Nigel that”. etc.

    Now try to imagine Harper -instead of Trudeau- been confronted by a resident wile showing for photo-up-flood: We would have this clip running non-stop for a couple of weeks on CBC, with related investigation about the miserable residents delayed by the evil Harper, their crying children, their sunken houses, the RCMP-police-state agents garbing honest citizen questioning their tyrant, etc.

    • Graham says:

      Then keep it alive by spreading https://lavscam.info/ on social media. When media bury the story dig it up again using that archive.

    • Steve T says:

      I must be watching and reading different media than you. I read the local newspaper daily; review online websites for CBC News and CTV News multiple times each day, and watch both networks’ evening newscasts each night. I have not seen or heard anything about the Harper/Duffy matter in quite some time.

      With respect to CBC specifically, I’d say they passed the poor-reporting torch to CTV a while back. CBC television news of late tends to be fairly objective, and delivered with a straight face. By contrast, CTV news reporters (and anchors) seem to be competing for Best Actor/Actress nominations – each trying to outdo the other with their quizzical or scornful looks, and emotional tone in their voices.

      • Charles says:

        Steve: Of course you do not hear anymore about the Duffy affair because it died the day Trudeau got elected. And when Duffy was cleared by the courts, nobody almost heard about it, since his case became irrelevant after Harper defeat.

        I do not care much if CTV or other news networks leans left or right, as long as they are not sucking my taxes like CBC, only to be Liberal cheerleaders. Have you noticed recently the increase in the Doom and Gloom climate studies and the “dirty” Albertan oil since Kenny got elected?

    • Joseph Taylor says:

      You’re being a bit hyperbolic but unfortunately you’re not too far off the mark.

  11. Angel Martin says:

    The CBC biased ?

    I won’t have that !

    The CBC is evenhanded, just like Elections Canada.

  12. Grigori Khaskin says:

    The deep rot had been exposed years after discovery, when it became politically savvy for the CBC to get a new lease on life after coming elections this fall. Rats abandon the Liberal ship!

  13. Pedant says:

    I don’t care if CBC chooses to either ignore or deride the views of the 35-40% of Canadians who lean right of centre. I just prefer that they not steal my wallet while insulting me.

    • Fred from BC says:

      That’s it, in a nutshell. If you’re going to be taxpayer funded, you must also be as impartial and unbiased as possible. If you’re privately funded, do what you want…

  14. Somewhere, en Ontario, Matt is smiling.

  15. What more can I say?

  16. Max says:

    At ease folks. Randy “Out for Justice” Boissonault and Anthony Housefather are on the case. Film at 11.

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