— Feature, Musings —10.18.2023 03:22 PM
My latest: obstruction of justice to cover up obstruction of justice
If you’re going to finally confirm that justice was obstructed to hide obstruction of justice, when would you do that?
When voters are focussed on a bloody war in the Middle East, probably.
There are lot of moving parts in that lede. Let us explain.
And here’s one truism, which is eternal: if you’re in government, and you’ve got bad news coming out – “taking out the trash,” as they say – then you need to come up with something else to distract readers/viewers/listeners. You need to “change the channel.”
The Justin Trudeau government are masters at it. They may not be very good at actually governing. But at changing the channel? They’re without equal.
Trudeau was dropping in the polls, so he announced a shiny new cabinet. He was getting hammered on the Chinese election interference story, so he picked a fight with some Premiers on health care funding. And, of course, whenever any unhelpful issue raises its head, Team Trudeau will haul out that hoary old chestnut, abortion, to distract. And so on.
This week, they did it again. For four years or so, the RCMP had wanted to investigate allegations that Trudeau and his circle obstructed justice. That is, that they tried to get former Attorney General Jody Wilson Raybould to stop a prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, a big Liberal Party donor, for corruption.
Eleven people in and around Trudeau’s PMO did that, we now know, at least 44 times in 2018. Each time, Wilson Raybould refused – and she ultimately was driven out of government, and the Liberal Party, for refusing to do what would almost certainly be obstruction of justice.
And, now, we have learned that the RCMP wanted to investigate whether crimes had been committed. But they couldn’t – because Trudeau and his cabinet refused to cooperate.
In 2021, as the Mounties were nearing of a months-long probe into obstruction of justice in the SNC-Lavalin scandal, they hit a roadblock: Trudeau et al. wouldn’t give them access to cabinet documents about what went on. The RCMP commissioner personally made the request, no less, and was rebuffed.
Documents finally released this week – while war was raging in Israel and Gaza – revealed that the RCMP had “pushed as hard as possible,” and “exhausted all avenues” to get the evidence they needed to justify prosecution. But, in true Tricky Dick Nixon fashion, the Trudeau cabal said no.
The RCMP needed Trudeau’s gang to waive cabinet confidence and show them the evidence.
But Trudeau wouldn’t. As result, the damning documents declared, the RCMP concluded it had “insufficient evidence” to purse the case any further.
To some folks, this seems outrageous (it is) and shocking evidence of the Mounties’ ineffectiveness (it isn’t). Here’s why: section 39 of the Canada Evidence Act prevents cabinet secrets from becoming public from as long as 20 years. The bar is absolute. If the cabinet says no, the police can’t overrule them.
(That’s not all: if a police force wants to serve a search warrant or conduct an interview with an MP on Parliament Hill, they can’t. The Speaker can stop them – and, in the past, has done so more than once.)
So, Canada is a democracy, yes. But, in this democracy, some of us are more equal than others.
The rest of us can’t stonewall a police criminal investigation indefinitely. But Prime Ministers and cabinet ministers can. And, as we saw this week, they did.
It’s like obstruction of justice to cover up an obstruction of justice, you might say.
And, what better time to finally admit it, than when Canadians’ are paying attention to the war in the Middle East?
Disturbing, on so many levels:
The obstruction of justice.
The treatment of Jody Wilson Raybould.
The smugness of the Prime Minister.
But worst of all: the indifference of many Canadians and their zero outrage.
Indeed.
He campaigned on the notion of doing politics better.
Instead Justin has shown us that politics in Canada can be far worse than any of us could have imagined.
His one and only legacy will have been to show the world how far Canada can sink.
Doubtful. That’s not how History works. He’ll be remembered for steering Canada through Covid with a minority government. Singh will be the big loser in the history anals…
Warren,
Am I stupid or what? Since SNC-Lavalin is headquartered in Montreal, why hasn’t the RCMP gone before either Federal Court, Trial Division, or Quebec Superior Court?
Ronald, Bravo.
My understanding is that Cabinet privilege / confidence is above all that. The public interest is just crumbs on Gerald and Katie’s breakfast table.
Warren,
The more I think about this, isn’t it like the lawyer-client privilege: you can’t hide behind privilege if you’re a person who has committed a crime, are aware of a crime committed by others or if the life of a person has been threatened or is in danger. In my book, this is akin to that.
Since that moment in Feb 2019, Justin has lost the popular vote twice consecutively. Canada has been treated to Blackface x 3 (that we know about), We Scam, an unapparelled economic mess, the Axis of Weasels, countless disgraces both domestically and abroad, a drugs crisis, a homelessness crisis, a military that can’t recruit, a generation that will never buy homes, a country in absolute shambles.
Pierre Poilievre’s trajectory towards forming a majority is now unstoppable.
All of this. Every single bit of it…. could have been avoided if the Cabinet / Caucus had been responsible and demanded Justin’s resignation in Feb 2019. Instead they chose filthy construction gangsters over Canada’s first Indigenous Attorney General, who wanted nothing more than to follow the law.
Their reputations will forever be scarred by that moment of shame.
And Jagmeet Singh has supported Trudeau all the way.
Hands up everyone who doesn’t think for a second that the “independent” Fergus wouldn’t stop that search warrant or interview request if it were for one of his peeps.
Fergus’ primary role: protect the Boss.
Gets his dream job and turns into yet another guy whose career gets turned into shit(like Rota, Johnson, WE, JWR, Morneau, etc.) because of his association with Justin. ALMOST feel bad for the guy but after 1o years of this nonsense, these people should know better. The literal definition of insanity. He is now a punchline and this is what he reminded me of in the House yesterday when he said he would NAME NAMES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCLp7zodUiI
The allegations made in this story and those of various contributors below ARE FALSE!!
Lol. Business as usual in Trudeau’s Ottawa. Reeling on the ropes from one disaster to the next, yesterday his channel changer was to release his open letter to his Alberta punching bag, Danielle Smith. It was so courageous he even lifted her favourite talking point: “We won’t stand…”
Hopefully if Mr Poilievre becomes the Prime Minister after the next election, he can waive the privilege attached to the cabinet documents and have the RCMP complete their investigation. I’m still not sure that the Crown would be willing to take the matter to court though. I suspect the Provincial AG would be responsible for the prosecution, but I am sure there are others more knowledgeable about this matters who would know for sure.
EHWAL,
Only the feds can take a reference to the SCOC. Ditto for a provincial AG, as you’ve said, for a provincial reference to their highest court. In Quebec, it’s our Court of Appeals. References are usually centred around constitutional law questions.
Does the ball bounce back into the court of Kathleen Roussel, the DPP? Remains to be seen.
I thought only the PM at the time the cabinet document was created, can decide to release a cabinet document.
So Team Trudeau’s cabinet documents will not see the light of day for at least 20 years.
Once a precedent is set it can and will be used to leverage the next demand for a waiver of privilege, and then another, and another.
The next PM will be aware of this, or be made aware of this. Thus it is unlikely that PP, if he becomes PM, will waive cabinet privilege, for fear of it being used against him and his cabinet.
No Justin for QP today-finger still up in the air trying to figure out how to respond to the hospital explosion. He actually said that in a presser.
I voted for Mulcair but, being happy to see Harper gone, was content enough when JT won in 2015. The full-on lie that electoral reform turned out to be got me pissed, and then with SNC that was the last straw, I’ve wanted him out since then. I can’t believe he squeeked in two more times.
There are some very strange Tru-anon bots and others saying that “the knives are out for Pierre”. Lots of dumb-ass stuff has been going on the last 48 hours but I think that one wins.
Martin,
What a bunch of POS losers. They’re way beyond desperate now, not to mention idiotically pathetic. I can’t wait for all of them to lose their cabinet seats. I’ll be in seventh heaven when it happens.