Feature, Musings —04.24.2019 07:36 AM
—#LavScam #LawScam #LibScam: thanks for your donation
Jody Wilson-Raybould worked to clean up the legal system. Justin Trudeau and his PMO cabal work to dirty it.
Have these guys learned nothing from Lavscam? Have they not considered the implications of dragging our system of justice through the muck? Do any of them understand why the law needs to above grubby, secretive partisan deal-making?
Apparently not. Check out this blockbuster in the Globe and Mail:
The Prime Minister’s Office is using a private party database called Liberalist in its background checks on candidates for judicial appointments, a tool that allows them to see whether would-be judges have supported the Liberal Party in recent years, records show.
The Liberal Party designed the database to be used for partisan purposes, such as helping Liberal candidates track and reach their supporters during election campaigns.
However, confidential documents obtained by The Globe and Mail show the PMO’s appointments branch is also using it to look into the partisan background of applicants for judicial positions. The documents, which were provided by a source, were produced by the PMO and show the results of database checks on judicial applicants. Liberalist is the only one of the databases that is not accessible to the public.
As justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould modified the process under which the federal government appoints judges to superior and federal courts in 2016, promising to increase the “openness, transparency, accountability and diversity of Canada’s judiciary.” In particular, the reforms gave greater independence to the seven-member judicial advisory committees (JAC) that evaluate the candidates for appointments.
However, sources said the process still includes a role for the PMO in vetting candidates further. The records show the PMO used Liberalist to evaluate candidates who had gone through the JAC process.
Of the donations made by these judges, $321,650.58, or 90.9 per cent of the total amount, was directed to the Liberal Party.
This is outrageous!! Lawyers bribing the Liberals to become judges!! Is there any fairness or transparency in any thing PMJT or the PMO touches. Checked the moral compass at the door 3.5 years ago.
What is surprising is that SpongeBob and Patrick probably died in their first movie and that the dumber versions we see now are probably young immature versions of there former selves. Oh and the sky is blue.
Good God. This has got to be the end. JT is the most corrupt PM in our lifetime.
Wow. The hits just keep coming with these people.
Whatever happened to “change the channel” and “keep a low profile” and “when you’re in a hole, stop digging”, and all the other conventional wisdom when dealing with a scandal like this? Just when you think they have reached peak ineptitude, they surpass it. They just don’t deserve re-election, period. Not with this level of incompetence…
Fred,
They might as well change the party symbol to a giant-sized rat, cause they’ve got one for sure holed up in the party. But I digress.
I’ve seen everything in my time: law firms donating to both sides and then lobbying for partners to be named to a superior or federal court; potential nominees and/or their families lobbying party bag-men, you name it.
And who can forget those thankful donations à la SNC. So, all of this should be news to no one in the legal community.
I tried to tell people after Lavscam broke to get a Globe and Mail subscription because they are going to be releasing some fascinating must read stuff about Trudeau and the Liberals over the next 6 months at least.
Matt,
Fife has the mother-of-all-sourcing. Need I say more?
I actually started subscribing to give them credit for the work they have been doing lately.
There is a common belief that the Canadian system of determining judges is superior to the U.S. version. This latest revelation is further proof of how wrong that belief is.
In the U.S., it is unabashedly political – but at least you know exactly who you’re getting. Each candidate’s views are aired for all to see. In Canada, it is equally political, but much less is subject to public scrutiny. In Canada we have this (incorrect) view that judges are appointed based on their merits, whereas in reality it is who they know and whose palms they grease. I know a number of lawyers who have, for years, decried the back-door aspect of the Canadian judicial appointment system.
Steve,
Our provincial procedure for the Court of Quebec (Cour du Québec) bench is a bit more transparent and open-ended but by how much in reality?
Who in the govt hates JT so much that they continue to leak this stuff? Whoever they are, give ’em a raise and pass the popcorn!
Suzanne,
Undoubtedly, it has got to be someone practically untraceable — à la Mark Felt. But it’s definitely someone with almost unlimited access to PMO, PCO and Party docs. (That ain’t me!) LOL.
Someone feels aggrieved.
“Someone feels aggrieved.”
You know what this reminds me of, Ronald?
The Chretien/Martin debacle, all over again. History repeats itself.
If you want to read an interesting article on the Liberalist database, go here: https://freethepresscanada.org/2018/03/22/pm-trudeaus-cousin-exposes-metoo-scandal-involving-liberalist-data/
An interesting timeline on SNC-Lavalin on that page as well
Cheers
It’s beyond do or die time for the party to have ditched him & chosen a new leader. They’re toast.
Derek,
In their heart of hearts, they all know it and are basically simply going through the motions. It dawned on most, if not all of them, after JWR and JP were unceremoniously given the caucus boot.
Thinking things through…not necessarily a caucus strong point. The collective was probably blindsided by its singular focus on entitled pension access. So, what else is new?
Considering how overwhelmingly left wing lawyers are I don’t know why they even needed to bother. You could play pin the tail on the donkey with the names and probably end up with a candidate who endorses the Laurentian consensus and everything else the ivory tower urban elite support.
Something doesn’t add up about this story. All you need to do is go to the Elections Canada website and you can do a name search of the donation history of anyone who has donated more than $200 in the last 15 years. Why do you need a “Liberalist” data base for something publicly available?
Because when you do a search on the Elections Canada website the government, and leaky officials in government, have a record of what you were searching for. And we can’t have people knowing what the Liberals are up to!
Gee, I wonder why Canadian conservatives (small-c and big-C) don’t trust judges?
I’m surprised that nobody has really run with the fact that Butts apparently suggested that JWR get an ‘outside’ opinion from retired CJC Beverly McLachlin about the decision to refuse a DPA for SNC-Lava, and when JWR’s chief of staff asked him what would happen if the opinion said the AG couldn’t review the decision, Butts apparently told her “It wouldn’t say that.”
Sure sounds to me like the fix was in.
Just imagine what stunts our Dear Leader will pull if he gets re-elected.
Perhaps we’ll all get a Liberal-credit score somewhat like the have in China. Criticize our Dear Leader and there goes your carbon tax rebate.
Warren, you shouldn’t make us look at that plastic JT photo from Macleans every time we log in to your website. Painful.
But Justin is our Dear Leader and soon his picture will be mandatory on all screen savers. This will promote peace and love and you too will love our Dear Leader. DHP
I know someone who became a judge back in the 90s. He was very open about how it worked. He volunteered for the CPs, went door to door during elections, attended events, donated, did whatever the party wanted, and in return expected a judgeship. He was very angry when there was a delay and it looked like he might not get it before the CPs lost power, and then he would have to wait a decade or more until they got back in. Luckily for him, they did manage to get him that judgeship before they were voted out.
Make that PCs, not CPs