Tag Archive: Gerald Butts

#LavScam latest: first Butts, now Telford

— 02.23.2019 12:11 PM

…and the Clerk of the Privy Council applying raw muscle, too. I’m sure it’s all nothing. Here.

Oh, and all the rich white people from Toronto didn’t like how the Indian girl had opinions about what should happen to her own people. How dare she! Here.


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#LavScam latest: Canada’s top bureaucrat assassinates his reputation – and Trudeau’s, too

— 02.22.2019 11:02 AM

A must-read Tom Brodbeck column here.

Key bits:

“The most mind-boggling thing Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick said Thursday didn’t occur during his testimony at the House of Commons justice committee.

Granted, the federal government’s top bureaucrat said some pretty shocking things there, including his bizarre comments about how Canada is essentially going to hell in a hand basket and that someone may even get shot in the next federal election.

But more to the point of what the committee was trying to examine – whether former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or any senior federal officials tried to interfere in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin – Wernick’s most outrageous comment came during a scrum with reporters following his testimony.

The privy council clerk admitted at committee that not only was he in a meeting with Wilson-Raybould and Trudeau on Sept. 17 when the three discussed the SNC-Lavalin case – even though a decision to prosecute had already been made – but that Wernick also contacted Wilson-Raybould three months later on Dec. 18 to discuss whether giving SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution was “still an option.”

Wernick was asked by reporters following his testimony why he would contact the attorney general over three months after a decision had been made on the SNC-Lavalin case.

“Because the decision had not already been made,” Wernick said.

The decision had not already been made? Pardon?

The director of public prosecutions Kathleen Roussel made the decision on Sept. 4.”

This is shocking. It means one of two things.

  1. Wernick was as bizarre following his testimony as he was during his testimony – and he got some big facts wrong.
  2. Wernick told the truth – he and the Prime Minister plainly did attempt to push for a sweetheart deal for a huge Liberal Party donor facing a criminal trial.

Did anyone at PMO review tho guy’s speech before he gave it? Did they not think it was a good idea to take out the stuff where Wernick seems to suggest that critics of Justin Trudeau are vomitous murderers?

And did they not realize that the Clerk of the Privy Council planned to confirm the key allegation against Trudeau et al. – that they obstructed justice to benefit SNC-Lavalin?

Pro tip, Justin: when in a hole, stop digging.


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#LavScam Globe stunner: what JWR told cabinet

— 02.21.2019 10:43 AM

…and, as she almost certainly expected, they’re leaking it. They’re waiving the privilege all on their own. And thereby helping her to get her story out.

Man, she is smart. They’re playing checkers – and she always plays chess.

Story here.

Former attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould told federal cabinet ministers she believed it was improper for officials in the Prime Minister’s Office to press her to help SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. out of its legal difficulties, sources say…

On Tuesday, Ms. Wilson-Raybould privately outlined her concerns about the handling of the SNC-Lavalin prosecution to her former colleagues within the confidentiality of cabinet, freed from the bounds of solicitor-client privilege that have restricted her public statements so far.

According to a source with knowledge of the cabinet discussions, Ms. Wilson-Raybould said the director of the prosecution service rejected a negotiated settlement with SNC-Lavalin based on how the law applies to the company’s case. The Liberal government had changed the Criminal Code to allow for deferred prosecutions in which a company admits wrongdoing and pays a fine, but avoids a trial. Under Canada’s new deferred-prosecution agreement law, prosecutors are not allowed to consider national economic interests when deciding whether to settle with a company.

Once prosecutors decided in early September to move to trial, Ms. Wilson-Raybould told cabinet she felt it was wrong for anyone – including the Prime Minister, members of his staff and other government officials – to raise the issue with her, the source said. Another source added that Ms. Wilson-Raybould would not budge from her position at the cabinet meeting.

The Liberal source said government officials had also proposed an outside panel of legal experts to recommend a solution to the SNC-Lavalin issue, but Ms. Wilson-Raybould rejected the suggestion.


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What #LavScam means, in five points

— 02.15.2019 08:22 AM

It’s been going on for more than a week, now, and the outlines of it are already seen.  Five ways in which it is leaving, and will leave, an impact:

  1.  Indigenous people.  I am the proud father to an amazing indigenous young woman; I work with First Nations across Canada.  I am disgusted by what Justin Trudeau did, and is doing, to the amazing indigenous leader named Jody Wilson-Raybould.  Indigenous people do not trust Trudeau, now, and they’re saying so.
  2. Women.  The sexist and condescending way in which Jody has been treated – and still continues to be, as seen in this morning’s Star, and last week in the Canadian Press and Global News – is repellant.  It is noteworthy that the Liberals who are paying tribute to Jody are almost all women – include ones in Trudeau’s cabinet.
  3. The Liberal Party.  This web site attracts four million visitors a year.  On social media, like Twitter, I get about a half-million “impressions” daily.  That’s a fair number of people – and I can tell you that many of my readers are Liberals.  They are telling me they are disgusted by Trudeau and his PMO – and shocked by how badly they have handled this mess (eg. sending out the clueless Justice Committee chair to say Jody didn’t deserve to be in cabinet because she didn’t speak French – which will be a big hit in English Canada).
  4. The Conservatives.  Andrew Scheer knows this is his moment, and he has seized it.  The Tory leader hasn’t looked this determined, this focussed – and frankly this Prime Ministerial – since he became his party’s leader.  Gone is the smirk, and there’s an undeniable gravitas to the guy, now.  For his party, PMO’s attempts to destroy Jody Wilson-Raybould represents an opportunity, too – it allows them to address the allegation that they are indifferent to women and indigenous people.
  5. The New Democrats.  Jagmeet Singh is going to win that by-election in B.C. – because B.C. is sickened by what has been done to Jody.  Meanwhile, his colleague Nathan Cullen has been simply extraordinary in prosecuting the case against the Liberal government – and it will reveal itself in the polls, soon enough. And a rise in NDP fortunes means a drop in Liberal support, always.

Will Justin Trudeau lose the election? It’s too soon to tell.  But the poll I’ve heard about suggests strongly the answer is this:

Yes.

 


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#LavScam shocker coming

— 02.14.2019 04:03 PM

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.


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#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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