Read this posting about a “news story” by the CBC’s Kaleigh Rogers and Andrea Bellemaire. See (a) how fundamentally dishonest Rogers is and (b) how they inserted deeply-personal, wildly-out-of-context private life stuff into their “story.” About private lives.
Then read this:
The moment he was.
It does.
This is a massive fine. This is a guilty plea to a serious crime.
This is justice.
If only they had listened to Jody Wilson-Raybould, they’d still have the Clerk of the Privy Council. They’d still have the Principal Secretary.
They’d still have a majority.
All of that could have been avoided – if they had resisted the temptation to obstruct justice. To interfere with prosecutorial independence.
Our system works. The Rule of Law is the best and only way.
This is vindication for Jody. This is a serious sentence for the company. And it is a valuable lesson for Trudeau et al.
Will they learn it? Who knows.
But I do know this: those 6,000 jobs Trudeau said over and over would be lost?
Not one will be.
And, tonight, SNC’s stock is way up.
…but it amuses me it still irritates the trolls.
There is no doubt, by any reasonable standard, that Trump abused the power of his office when he bribed a foreign power to investigate a political rival he feared. And there is no doubt that he obstructed the resulting investigation by Congress – by hiding evidence and blocking people from testifying.
He will be impeached by the House of Representatives today. That’s inevitable. He will not, however, be removed from office by the Senate, after a “trial” there. That, too, is inevitable.
Also inevitable: his legacy. He will be remembered as a crook.
Its been a long, long time since I wanted to do something as much as I want to do this.
I’ve been there. I loved it. I want to do this.
Among other things, this verdict suggests some of us (Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott in particular) were right when we said that crimes had indeed taken place – and that no politicians should be interfering in the resulting trials.
I wonder what they’re thinking in PMO right now? Do they ever say: “Hey, maybe we were wrong to do what we did.”
Kind of doubt it.
Former SNC-Lavalin executive vice-president Sami Bebawi has been found guilty on all counts at his fraud and corruption trial.
He will remain free until sentencing.
Bebawi, 73, was on trial over the last six weeks at the Montreal courthouse. The jury had been deliberating since Thursday.
Serving as the firm’s executive vice-president from 2000 to 2006, Bebawi faced five charges in all: fraud, bribing a foreign public official — former dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s son, Saadi Gadhafi — laundering the proceeds of crime, and two counts of possessing property obtained by crime.
Throughout the trial, the Crown positioned Bebawi as the man behind what it described as SNC-Lavalin’s “business model” in Libya: paying millions in kickbacks and bribes to keep obtaining lucrative contracts.
“The company adopted an unusual, unlawful and dishonest practice,” Crown prosecutor Anne-Marie Manoukian told jurors in her closing arguments, “by artificially inflating the prices of contracts, paying bribes and misappropriating money for personal gain.”
