Hearing a poll is coming.
Hearing that the pollster started fielding before #LavScam erupted.
Hearing the pollster was also in the field for two days afterwards – and caught plenty of the negative reactions Canadians are feeling.
Hearing that there has been a significant shift – and not in a good way for Justin Trudeau.
At all.
A bit of next week’s Hill Times column:
The cowards included the House of Commons committee that professes to be all about “justice and human rights,” but doesn’t espouse either. Last week, the Liberal members of that committee actually voted to deny you the opportunity to testify about what you know in the metastasizing SNC-Lavalin obstruction of justice scandal. They did that, right out in the open. They voted, instead, to shield their political masters in Justin Trudeau’s office, and convene secret meetings.
These are their names: Anthony Housefather, the obsequious, sycophantic weakling who leads the committee. Ali Ehsassi, who is alleged to be a lawyer, and said this of the alleged obstruction of justice: “there is nothing to be concerned about.” Colin Fraser, who is thankfully quitting politics, and who also claims to have once practiced criminal law. A nonentity named Ron McKinnon, who actually said the committee shouldn’t invite any “random people” from PMO to testify – even though the Opposition had a decidedly non-random list, ready to go.
Oh, and Randy Boissonnault and Iqra Khalid. Those two, in particular, distinguished themselves as Nixonian exemplars. When this sordid, sickening affair grinds to its inevitable end, in a courtroom somewhere, it is Boissonnault and Khalid who will receive special commendations for unalloyed dishonesty and cowardice. Boissonnault, for saying out loud – like Donald Trump, who says it all the time and in what lawyers call “similar fact-situations” – that the whole affair is “a witch hunt.”
He said that, with a straight face.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
Let her speak. Let her speak.
LET HER SPEAK.
Jody Wilson-Raybould is a decent, honest, honourable person.
Unlike many of the little creeps we’ve been hearing from, anonymously, for the past few days.
She spoke truth to power. She advocated for women, for indigenous people, for ethical government.
They – the ones who came into power claiming to be on the side of the women, and indigenous people, and ethics – didn’t like that. They, the little boys in PMO, don’t like it when women like Jody Wilson-Raybould talk back. So they punished her. They demoted her and marginalized her.
Well, the tables have turned. She’s quit cabinet, she’s retained respected legal counsel, and she’s signalled that she has things to say. She’s fighting back.
What will she say? I don’t know.
But I know her, a little bit – and know that she will be decent, honourable and ethical when she says what she has to say.
I have questions.
We know, from the Globe and Mail, that it was the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada, one Gerald Butts, who met with the Attorney-General of Canada in December to have a “robust discussion,” quote unquote, about perhaps giving the oleaginous SNC-Lavalin a sweetheart deal, and a free pass on those pesky corruption and bribery charges it was facing. You know: the SNC-Lavalin who had just earlier given the Liberal Party of Canada lots of illegal donations.
So: the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary met with the Attorney General, and possibly other PMO fart-catchers, too. They say they all had lots of good-natured “robust discussions.” The Globe and Mail says some of them may have “obstructed justice.”
Anyway. That brings us to yesterday, when the Prime Minister of All Of Canada had a press avail thing in Vancouver. He was announcing something, but none of us can even remember what it was. We wanted to hear from him on the metastasizing scandal that some say is increasingly likely to lead to his defeat in October.
And here’s what he said. Read it carefully.
“I have met with Minister Wilson-Raybould a couple of times already since arriving in B.C. yesterday. We spoke about our shared goals for our country and for this government. She confirmed for me a conversation we had this Fall where I told her directly that any decisions on matters involving the director of public prosecutions were hers alone.”
See that? “A conversation we had this Fall where I told her directly that any decisions on matters involving the director of public prosecutions were hers alone.”
How interesting. I started shouting questions at the screen, when I heard that, but none of the reporters out in B.C. could hear me. So I will try again with you, gentle reader.
But we do know that Trudeau raised SNC-Lavalin’s criminal predicament with Jody in October 2018. He admitted that yesterday. He said that, for the first time.
Why did he? Why would he even need to say that he didn’t want to interfere with her prosecutorial role? Why would any Prime Minister ever need to say to a Minister: “Hey, don’t break the law.” Why do that? And why would his most senior advisor then show up a few weeks later, in December, to “robustly” talk about the very same thing, if everyone had already agreed in October to not, you know, break the law?
This part isn’t a question. It’s a statement. The Nixonian children’s crusade in PMO don’t want to relieve Jody Wilson-Raybouild of her lawyer’s obligation to maintain solicitor-client privilege for one reason: they don’t want the truth to come out. They are covering up.
But the truth, like water, always seeps out, kiddies. It does. And, yesterday, some of it oozed out of our unctuous, baby-faced Prime Minister.
And it raised even more questions.
You came here looking for some more #LavScam stuff, didn’t you?
Well, we’ve got something better: the world premiere of the newest SFH video, Kinda Sucks!
It’s catchier than a drawer full of fish hooks!
It rocks! It rolls! It’s a hit, and the kids will like to dance to it!
Share it with your friends and family, sing along with wild abandon, and download it often!
Who needs tawdry obstruction of justice scandals when you’ve got a new SFH video!
If Justin Trudeau won’t relieve Jody Wilson-Raybould of her lawyer’s obligation to maintain confidentiality – and if he plans to fight any inquiry into the #LavScam obstruction of justice scandal – we all know what that means.
It means the Nixonian coverup has started.
The Star has the story today, and they’re leading with it. It’s important. And it calls to mind what Howard Baker said about Watergate-style cover-ups, and he’d know: “It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble.”
OTTAWA—The Liberal government appears likely to block opposition efforts to probe allegations of political interference in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, while insisting that discussions on the matter with former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould were above board.
Justin Trudeau’s government will not yet waive solicitor-client privilege, which would give Wilson-Raybould latitude to speak about the allegation, nor will it permit a parliamentary committee to proceed with its own investigation, the Star has learned.
Wilson-Raybould has remained silent since the Globe and Mail reported Thursday that senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office pressed her to seek mediation instead of pursuing criminal charges against SNC-Lavalin.
The former justice minister — who was moved from her post in January — has refused to confirm or deny the allegations, saying she is bound by solicitor-client privilege.
A senior government official, speaking to the Star on the condition they not be named, said Saturday that the government will not waive the privilege — as demanded by opposition MPs — because SNC-Lavalin’s potential criminal trial remains before the courts. A second government source confirmed that the potential criminal trial, as well as SNC-Lavalin’s appeal of prosecutors’ denial of a mediation deal, makes waiving privilege unlikely.
Nor will the government agree to demands by the Conservatives and New Democrats for an emergency meeting of the Commons justice committee to summon Wilson-Raybould and Trudeau’s top political aides to testify publicly on the affair, the senior source said.
Is Justin Trudeau’s PMO corrupt?
And did they punish the first female indigenous leader for refusing to go along with a dirty deal for their cronies?
This Globe and Mail story strongly suggests the answer is yes, to both questions. If true, this is corruption at the very highest levels of the federal government.
I’ve known this story was coming, but didn’t know it would be this bad. It’s bad.
It’s now clear that Justin Trudeau knifed Jody Wilson-Raybould because she refused to protect friends of Justin Trudeau. Friends enmeshed in multiple corruption scandals.
This one has it all: racism, cronyism, corruption. More shocking highlights below. Link here.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office attempted to press Jody Wilson-Raybould when she was justice minister to intervene in the corruption and fraud prosecution of Montreal engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., sources say, but she refused to ask federal prosecutors to make a deal with the company that could prevent a costly trial.
SNC-Lavalin has sought to avoid a criminal trial on fraud and corruption charges stemming from an RCMP investigation into its business dealings in Libya…
Sources say Ms. Wilson-Raybould, who was justice minister and attorney-general until she was shuffled to Veterans Affairs early this year, came under heavy pressure to persuade the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to change its mind.
Sources say officials from Mr. Trudeau’s office, whom they did not identify, had urged Ms. Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first Indigenous justice minister, to press the public prosecution office to abandon the court proceedings.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould trusted the judgment of the public prosecutor and did not believe it was proper for the attorney-general to intervene, especially if there could be any suggestion of political interference, sources say…
Since the beginning of 2017, representatives of SNC-Lavalin met with federal government officials and parliamentarians more than 50 times on the topic of “justice” and “law enforcement,” according to the federal lobbyists registry. This includes 14 visits with people in the PMO. Those they met included Gerald Butts, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, and Mathieu Bouchard, Mr. Trudeau’s senior adviser on Quebec – whom they met 12 times. Mr. Trudeau’s senior policy adviser, Elder Marques, also met with company representatives.
This revelation, if true, is a clear violation of section 139(2) of the Criminal Code. Will the Conservatives, who have been lobbied just as aggressively by SNC Lavalin, do the right thing, and shut down Parliament until there is a Mueller-type independent inquiry? Will they, at the very least, swear a complaint with the RCMP? I’m not holding my breath.
If any of you wish to do so, however, you can here.
Social media and politicians. Lets do a roundup,shall we?
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, was apparently watching TV before Christmas. A charity thing came on. It was raising money to help teach kids in the Third World. Noble cause.
Justin was in a good mood. He picked up his iPhone, and thumbed out a message to the host of the event, a comedian named Trevor Noah.
“Hey Trevor Noah – thanks for everything you’re doing…Sorry I can’t be with you – but how about Canada pledges $50 Million to support education for women and girls around the world?” Trudeau wrote. “Work for you? Let’s do it!”
Work for you? Not really. Didn’t “work” for many other Canadians, either.
In just a single tweet, Trudeau captured everything Canadian dislike about him, pretty much. You know: a preference for American celebrities over ordinary Canadians. A willingness to toss around other people’s money, in a manner that would shame the drunkest drunken sailor. A glib, cloying, puerile approach that is in no way Prime Ministerial.
Oh, and a false belief that he is the master of all social media. That too.
He isn’t.
In that regard, Justin Trudeau is like his principal antagonist, Andrew Scheer. Andrew thinks he’s good at this Internet stuff, too.
He isn’t.
Take, for instance, the Conservative leader’s apparent belief that Google is run by a gaggle of Bolsheviks in a boiler-room somewhere, maliciously manipulating search results to create the impression that terrorists are military heroes.
Seriously, he believes that. Last week, Andrew did a Google search for “Canadian soldiers.” That returned pictures of actual Canadian military heroes. So far so good.
But then the Google elflords offered up a photo of Omar Khadr. Omar, as you may recall, is the youthful al-Qaeda and Taliban enthusiast who killed a U.S. medic while the medic was tending to wounded people during a battle in Afghanistan.
Andrew was outraged by that. He tweeted his outrage to Google, along with a screencap that helpfully pointed to “Canadian soldiers” and “Omar Khadr.”
Scheer huffed that Omar Khadr “is not a victim, nor should he be portrayed in this way alongside real Canadian heroes.” Conservative trolls and pundits, often interchangeable, were similarly outraged. How dare Google do such a thing!
Except: Google didn’t. Google’s algorithim did.
It’s amazing, really, that it needs to be said to a guy who could actually become Prime Minister of Canada and all that, but here goes: that’s not how the Internet works, Andrew. There are no youngsters in a dark subterranean lair at Google’s headquarters, drinking fizzy pop and giddily coming up with search results designed to outrage the perpetually-outraged.
The Omar Khadr result comes from Wikidata, which came from a Wikipedia entry, which came from a troll who lives in – wait for it! – Russia.
Yes, the man who would be Prime Minister was tricked by an Internet troll named “Ghuron” in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Oh, and those mysterious “algorithms,” Andrew? Despite the presence of his name in that word, they were not invented by Al Gore.)
Scheer’s tweet illustrated, pithily, why so many Canadians believe the dimpled Tory leader is unworthy of high office: he is terrified that his base will disapprove of him, and remove him.
So he comes up with juvenile, frat-boy memes that appeal to his meat-eating base, and no one else at all. He remains focused, laser-like, on the trivial stuff. He can work at Rebel Media or Breitbart when he loses the next election, one supposes.
His fellow Opposition leader Jagmeet Singh is going to lose, too.
Why? Because the mere suggestion that the New Democratic Party leader makes dumb mistakes is no longer news, sadly. It happens a lot. It is accepted truth.
Like Justin and Andrew, Jagmeet’s mistake was captured in cyber-amber for all to see. A little while ago, Jagmeet tweeted that Canada should side with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Here’s what he said: “The question of who is to lead Venezuela should be in the hands of Venezuelans. All countries should be free to make their own democratic decisions through free and fair elections, independent of authoritative pressure.”
All well and good, except for this: Nicolas Maduro is venal, vicious, human-rights-violating thug. He is a monster who has intimidated, persecuted and prosecuted any Venezuelan who dares to criticize him. His election was a fraud.
Independent human rights bodies have accused him of torturing dissidents, and starving his own people. Amnesty International has reported that 75 per cent of Venezuelans suffer from weight loss and malnutrition due to lack of food.
Why would Jagmeet defend such a creep? Why would he say Canada should support a cruel dictator? God knows. But that single tweet, once again, makes clear that Jagmeet Singh lacks judgment, lacks insight, and lacks what it takes to be a Member of Parliament, let alone Prime Minister.
At the end of all this cyber-stupidity, Canadians might reasonably ask: are any of these men fit to be Prime Minister? And why, pray tell, do they all continue to use social media?
Good questions. Canadians themselves will determine who is fit, and who is not, soon enough.
But should they all stop using social media, given how completely – and how regularly – it proves how unworthy they are?
No. We should be grateful to social media.
Better that we know how unfit they all are, so we can choose better when next given the chance.