02.14.2019 02:44 PM

UPDATED TWICE: why the chair of the House Justice Committee thinks Jody was demoted

The male Cowardly Chair of the Justice Committee opining on the reason why Jody Wilson-Raybould was demoted.

Spoiler alert: the Cowardly Chair thinks it’s lack of French. Seriously. He says it, right at the 5:30 mark.

UPDATE: Anthony says I’m a liar, here. You decide. But I sense some folks are starting to get a bit, you know, nervous.

UPDATED AGAIN: He said it twice! Here he is saying the same crazy crap to Graham Richardson! Who’s the absolute liar now, pal?

21 Comments

  1. Matt says:

    So it wasn’t a problem when she was appointed Justice Minister.

    And it hasn’t been a problem for the three plus years she was Justice Minister.

    It only became a problem after she refused PMO pressure to interfere in a court case.

    Gotcha.

    • doconnor says:

      Chantal Hébert suggested the theory back when the cabinet shuffle happened that they needed a bilingual Minister of Justice. The new Quebec government is going to pushing the envelope on the constitution and a French speaking Minister was needed to respond.

      • Vancouverois says:

        That would be a lot more convincing if we’d heard more of that suggestion at the time. Particularly from the Prime Minister himself. And perhaps if he’d put her into a higher-profile portfolio instead of Veteran Affairs, or instead identified Veteran Affairs as a high priority for the future (as if he would…).

        As it is, it seems that the PMO brain trust decided instead to lay the groundwork for the rumours about her being an overrated diva:

        https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-cabinet-shuffle-says-little-about-jody-wilson-raybould-and/

        Reminds me of the rumours Harvey Weinstein of #MeToo fame would spread to undermine the careers of actresses who refused to have sex with him: “she’s difficult to work with – and not all that talented, really.”

    • Housevader says:

      @Matt, the Quebec election happened, AirTransat CEO turned premier has an aggressive agenda contra non-conformists like, you know, anyone not pure.

      “She doesn’t know why she was shuffled” – Housefather

      Oh she knows, she was shuffled because Trudeau felt all of the above; french fluency, indigenous pressure, Lavalin pressure, his PMO is a bunch of man bun wearing fart trappers. The Worst kind.

  2. Vancouverois says:

    Wow.

    It’s just amazing to me how they keep trying to spin this obvious stonewalling as some sort of exemplar of transparency. Who do they think they’re kidding?

  3. Matt says:

    UPDATE: Anthony says I’m a liar, here. You decide. But I sense some folks are starting to get a bit, you know, nervous.

    For the record, other journalists are saying he said the same thing to them.

  4. Karl Milton Marx Friedman says:

    Not being able to speak French is a major impediment in Federal politics. However, Justin Trudeau’s AIM was to negotiate reconciliation with a minister who understands indigenous needs (although not a monolithic group) so it would be appropriate that the minister speak one of the +10 language families of indigenous Canadians! Is that shelved?

    Anyway, a lot of people were complaining about duel roles. I just wonder how the AG can be non-partisan? Separate the roles out between Minister and AG. What hat was she wearing when the PMO applied pressure?

  5. billg says:

    A question for WK and maybe even Matt. John Robson had a great column today in the NP about what exactly happens to normally good people after they take their seats in Parliament.
    My question is, who exactly would make the tactical decision to stonewall and divert the Opposition, as well as go after JWR’s character with a well thought out whisper campaign.
    Would it be safe to assume the PM would have to be in on these meetings? I have a hard time believing that this sort of crap is limited to the Liberal party, so, just curious how this kind of sausage is made.

  6. John D. says:

    Why does he talk like teenage valley girl from the 1908s? Is that a thing among male Liberal MPs now?

  7. Nasty Bob says:

    I think some extrapolation is required- it’s not that she doesn’t speak french it’s that she doesn’t understand french meaning she doesn’t understand THE french, who, as far as I can tell, are fine with turning a blind eye to corruption since there’s a rule of lawy way to do that now and if this was any other province it would’ve been a done deal and thousands of jobs wouldn’t be at risk.

    Of course here in Alberta , where thousands of jobs have already been lost, there hasn’t even been an attempt to sneak some legislation in an omnibus bill that would provide for a rule of lawy way to get the shovels digging a pipeline – I guess that’s the oil patches bad for not funnelling large illegal campaign donations the liberals way

  8. John D. says:

    Why does he talk like teenage valley girl from the 1980s? Is that a thing among male Liberal MPs now?

  9. Dayton Funk says:

    Again the story has had 7 different spins in only 7 days. They just dreamt this one up today? Could have saved themselves 1/2 the suspicions had they brought this up last Friday. But they didn’t because it’s not true!

  10. J.H. says:

    Never was an issue before. There’s some say John Crosby couldn’t speak either official language.
    BTW Melanie Joly was on CJAD with Aaron Rand on CJAD around 5 pm. Caught parts of it online – brutal!
    Talk about getting rid of ministers!

    • Vancouverois says:

      To be fair, the Prime Minister in Crosbie’s time was more interested in supporting the separatist movement than in fighting it, so his not speaking French may even have been an asset.

      They are right that there are legal issues coming up in Quebec. But if that was a reason, why didn’t they just say so openly last month?

    • Fred from BC says:

      “There’s some say John Crosby couldn’t speak either official language”

      I think that was a different JC , but at least that one knew how (and when) to stonewall. What ever happened to politicians who utilized the tried and true “no comment” when they had to?

  11. Matt says:

    I can’t be the only one who see the annoying character Ross from Friends when I look at Housefather’s picture.

  12. Karl Milton Marx Friedman says:

    Housefather says there are many reasons and then proceeded to mention two reasons. Doesn’t speak French, and SNC lavalin. So which one is it Housefather?

  13. Jay Straith says:

    Honest to God I’m beginning to get the feeling that people in the prime minister’s office and LPC are doing tryouts to be staff in the Trump White House. When you combine the recent bullshit and the ability to tell blatant lies without blushing there’s some real strong candidates

  14. cN47 says:

    11 Feb 2019 – Former Ontario attorney general weighs in on SNC-Lavalin affair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkWd_3ShjQA

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