#LavScam Toronto Star scoop: Trudeau’s cover-up begins

— 02.10.2019 09:26 AM

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.”

Here’s the Star story:

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.


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It’s never the break in. It’s always the cover up.

— 02.09.2019 09:52 AM

Even former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions understood he needed to recuse himself. Even Jeff Sessions understood he could not stand in judgment of himself.

Canada’s new Attorney General? He doesn’t understand any of that at all.

OTTAWA — Current Justice Minister and Attorney General David Lametti said there has been no evidence to justify a committee investigation into whether or not Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or anyone in his office tried to have former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould abandon the prosecution of a case against SNC-Lavalin.

“All we’ve heard are allegations in a newspaper,” Lametti, who replaced Wilson-Raybould when she was shuffled into the Veterans’ Affairs portfolio last month, told CTV’s Question Period host Evan Solomon.

“The prime minister has said that these allegations are false. We haven’t had any corroborating evidence there. There hasn’t been anything to my mind that justifies a committee investigation.”


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#LavScam by the numbers

— 02.08.2019 10:34 AM

Apropos of nothing, my Twitter metrics suggest that #LavScam is only just getting started – on my feed, at least, other stuff is still dominating. Early days.


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Trudeau denies “directing” his Attorney-General. What does that mean?

— 02.07.2019 01:08 PM

This what a ministerial directive looks like.  It’s from Global Affairs, but they all do it this way.

It’s formal. It’s done in writing.

A scared-looking Trudeau denies “directing” his Attorney-General to go easy on his cronies who were facing a criminal trial.

That’s true. He didn’t put it in writing.

But he fired the AG when she refused.


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Shocker: Why Jody Wilson-Raybould was knifed by Justin Trudeau

— 02.07.2019 07:07 AM

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.


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