And it’s a brutal one.
PMJT first PM in history to violate a federal statute while in office: "Mr. Trudeau did contravene sections 5, 11, 12 and 21 of the [Conflict of Interest] Act but that he did not contravene subsection 14(1) of the Members' Code, or subsection 6(1) or section 7 of the Act. "
— David Akin 🇨🇦 (@davidakin) December 20, 2017
Yes. So says the Ethics commissioner:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke multiple federal ethics rules when he accepted a ride on the Aga Khan’s private helicopter and stayed on his private island over the holidays in 2016, the ethics commissioner has ruled.
In a ruling posted on the website of the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Wednesday morning, Commissioner Mary Dawson said that her investigation into two complaints about the trip found that Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act when he and his family accepted the trip but also dismissed several of the specific violations brought within those complaints.
Well.
I have previously defended Trudeau on this “controversy,” but that doesn’t matter anymore. While the penalty is puny, this decision is something we will be hearing about for years. I don’t think this has ever happened to a Prime Minister before. Ever.
Trudeau has no option but to accept the report, apologize, and promise never to do it again. And staff heads need to roll at PMO, I think. Who let this happen?
Anyway. Those year-end interviews aren’t going to be a lot of fun, now.
Nope.
Fuck you, you anti-Semitic piece of shit. https://t.co/dyAnv01oAG
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) December 19, 2017
I don’t put much stock in Angus Reid’s little Premier’s popularity poll thing, and neither should you. I think the Reid folks do it mainly for fun, and to get some free publicity, and it unfailingly it provides both. Their release is here.
That said, a few observations:
What does it all mean, O Smart Readers? Comments are open!
That didn’t take long.
Last Monday Monday morning, this space wondered why the #MeToo movement had yet to alight in Ottawa. Seventy-two hours later – and just as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was about to take the stage at his annual Christmas party – TVA broke a major story: a senior staff person in Trudeau’s own office was under investigation.
TVA was the first to disclose that Trudeau’s deputy director of operations, Claude-Éric Gagné, was being investigated for “inappropriate behavior.” Gagné has been on leave since November, TVA reported.While Gagné’s name is known, Trudeau actually refuses to name him. The Prime Minister is also refusing to provide any details about the allegations, but CBC News has confirmed what TVA first revealed – that the alleged wrongdoer was Gagné, and that the allegations involved “inappropriate behaviour.”
Problematic, here, is this: (a) we don’t know who the investigator is (b) we don’t know his or her mandate (c) we don’t know who is paying him or her and (d) we don’t know what powers the independent investigator actually has. We need to.
A principle of natural law is that you cannot investigate yourself. For this probe to be meaningful, the independent investigator needs to truly investigate – and truly be independent.
That said, Gagné – who is innocent until proven otherwise, of course – is perhaps the tip of the proverbial iceberg. For days, Ottawa’s corridors of power having been buzzing about a coming media bombshell. A major news organization has been probing sexual misconduct by elected and unelected officials. And the expectation is that the revelations will bring to a speedy (and deserved) end to many political careers.
That, too, is one of the most positive outcomes of the #MeToo cultural revolution: since the Harvey Weinstein story broke, many victims have felt that they can finally step forward, and name names. They have finally felt that they will be believed. They need to be.
Case in point: after the Hill Times published my column, this writer received multiple calls, emails and direct messages about the two men I’d written about. Two women stated that they, too, had been harassed by the nameless former journalist, and provided new details about what had happened to them. And one individual – with intimate knowledge of Ottawa’s journalistic and political heavy-hitters – confirmed that statements about the other man, apparently in the form of affidavits, exist.
Hollywood, major media organizations, Capitol Hill in Washington: in recent weeks, all of these places have seen harassers, abusers and rapists driven out. It was highly unlikely, then, that Ottawa would continue to be immune. During this writer’s days on the Hill – working as a Special Assistant to Jean Chretien and then as a Chief of Staff – stories about sexual misconduct were endemic. It is highly unlikely, in the intervening years, that the problem has disappeared. The names of these “men” were known.
Why not name names, then? Because it is up to the victims to decide that, and not anyone else. One of the women I heard from told me a horrible story about a man still working on Parliament Hill. She provided a great deal of detail. But she made clear that she did not want her name used, or the story told now. Her wishes need to be respected.
But, for the many other women who have endured in silence, and who are now considering whether it is time to tell their story, we say: it is also your decision. It can only be your decision. But you are not without options.
Here is a list of places you can turn to:
For those who have heard or experienced something, there is always the news media – who, in Canada and the United States, have been at the forefront of exposing sexual harassment and sexual violence cases. And, in official Ottawa, a good media listener is never hard to find.
Whatever route you choose – and however much you wish to keep confidential – is up to you. And only you can now if it is time to tell your story.
But if this man can provide two pieces of advice, it is this: if you do not act, the abuser will almost certainly continue to abuse other women.
And, of course, there has never been a better time than now.
Because #MeToo is working.
Here’s today’s front page:
And here’s the interview Laura Ryckewaert did with me:
Dave Breakenridge – managing editor at the Journal – says the book is “excellent…an entertaining punk rock thriller by Warren Kinsella. Great page-turner. Nicely done.”
Thank you, sir!
You can’t shine Shinola, Ramona. Nice Ford Nation bumpersticker, BTW.
A poll suggesting Doug Ford trails Mayor John Tory by single digits ahead of next fall’s election is “flawed” and could misguide Toronto voters, an experienced pollster warns.
The Firm Digital, a new polling agency, released the results of a poll it claims reached 15,576 Torontonians. In addition to showing a far tighter race for mayor than established pollsters suggest, it also put out ward-by-ward lists in early December purporting to show the re-election chances of local councillors.
CBC Toronto is not publishing the full polling results because of a number of concerns raised by its internal research department, primarily that the poll lacks a randomized sample.
However, Doug Ford and at least one city councillor have trumpeted the results, while the Toronto Sun also ran an article on the research — although unlike the politicians the newspaper noted the results are controversial.
…Ramona Benson heads The Firm Digital, a new polling company that says it’s completed the largest poll on Toronto’s mayoral race to date. (Submitted by Ramona Benson)
Benson is not your typical pollster. Using her full name, Ramona Benson Singh, she ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in Richmond Hill in 2014, and also hosts a community-level television show on Rogers.
Recently, Benson has appeared in Facebook videos for Ontario Proud, a social media group devoted to attacking Premier Kathleen Wynne and the provincial Liberals.
Not, really, but this is what it would be like if we did a political gig.
A few days ago, I wrote a column – which the Hill Times published, but HuffPo refused to, because they didn’t want to do anything that might identify the sexual harasser – about why #MeToo hadn’t hit Ottawa yet. Because, God knows, there’s plenty of wrongdoing taking place up there, too.
Well, last night – as Justin Trudeau was about to speak at his annual Christmas party – this hit:
A staff member in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office is on leave from his position as deputy director of operations and a third-party investigation has been launched after allegations of inappropriate behaviour were made against him.
TVA, a French-language television network, first reported that Claude-Éric Gagné, the deputy director of operations in the PMO, is being investigated for inappropriate behaviour and has been on forced leave since early November while the investigation takes place.
The PMO is refusing to identify the staffer involved or provide any details of the allegations being made against them but a source confirmed to CBC News that the allegations are against Gagné and involve inappropriate behaviour.
So, there you go: the highest office in the land has apparently got this problem, too.
If you read on in the story, a PMO spokesperson says an “independent investigator” is looking into this.
Forgive me for being a lawyer and all that, but (a) we don’t know who the investigator is (b) we don’t know his or her mandate (c) we don’t know who is paying him or her and (d) we don’t know what powers the independent investigator actually has. We need to.
A principle of natural law is that you cannot investigate yourself. For this probe to be meaningful, the independent investigator needs to truly investigate – and truly be independent. That is particularly the case when the office being investigated has virtually unlimited power.
P.S. There were two men referred to in my column. Many people seemed to figure out who the journalist was. But I only heard from one person who knew who the other guy was.