“That act is not a criminal statute and carries no penalties.”
That’s a tiny quote from one of the early stories about the gas plant/email “scandal.” In the avalanche of hysterical, over-the-top coverage that has happened since, it would be easy to miss or forget that little bit of information, wouldn’t it?
I went to law school; I love the law. When you go to law school, you are taught to (a) look at a bunch of facts, and then (b) apply the accepted rules – case law, statute law – to those facts to (c) determine and/or analyze what kind of problem you’ve got, and what you should do about it.
The facts are these: political staff deleted some emails and stuff on their computers. They sought outside help in doing that. Happens all the time – even, I can assure you, in the offices of the OPP and the Opposition.
The law is this: nada. As per the headline to this post, there is no law, and nothing that carries any penalties. Nothing.
The analysis is this: lacking an actual law, the OPP – which has been giddily leaking to the Ottawa Citizen, Gomery-like, about their “investigation” for weeks – has decided there was a “breach of trust” here. Can’t find a law to charge someone with? Then say there’s been a “breach of trust.” It’s an all-purpose, catch-all. But no less than the Supremes have said that, to make it stick, there has to have been “corruption, partiality (or) oppression.” I don’t see that here. Not even close.
This affair is a load of bollocks. “That act is not a criminal statute and carries no penalties.” That’s what you need to know about this “scandal” – namely, there isn’t one.
Oh, and the geniuses who sent out the Premier of Ontario no less than three times, yesterday, to deny any and all knowledge of this gas plant/email stuff?
They’re the Paul Martin crew (one presently a Newstalk 1010 host), who piloted the Liberal Party of Canada into the ditch in 2004-2005. They sent Martin out multiple times to deny any and all knowledge of the sponsorship stuff, too. Remember that?
Didn’t work, as I recall.
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