, 09.16.2019 07:56 AM

My latest: Trudeau has the power to let her speak

Let her speak.

That was the headline on an iconic Toronto Sun headline way back in February: let her speak.

Let Jody Wilson-Raybould – then still a cabinet minister, then still a member of the Liberal caucus – tell Canadians what she knew about Justin Trudeau’s attempts to influence the prosecution of the corruption trial of Quebec’s SNC-Lavalin, a big donor to his party.

It was important. In early February, the Globe and Mail had revealed that Trudeau and ten of his most-senior advisors had attempted to short-circuit SNC-Lavalin’s prosecution no less than 22 times over a four-month period. Wilson-Raybould said no, 22 times.

It would be wrong, she said. It was obstruction of justice, others would say.

Enraged by this proud Indigenous woman who didn’t know her place, Justin Trudeau demoted Jody Wilson-Raybould to Veteran’s Affairs. But the LavScam story wouldn’t go away. The scandal grew. There was a cancer on the Office of the Prime Minister, and everyone knew it.

Desperate, Trudeau relented somewhat. He issued a cabinet decision permitting Wilson-Raybould to speak about some – but not all – of what she knew. She testified before a Commons committee, and what she had to say plunged the Trudeau regime into one of the biggest scandals in recent Canadian political history.

When she testified, however, Jody Wilson-Raybould made one thing clear: she had more to say. She knew things Canadians needed to know.

But still, Trudeau would not let her tell all. And, even now, with the election campaign underway, Justin Trudeau refuses to let Jody Wilson-Raybould speak.

How long the RCMP have been investigating LavScam is unknown. Trudeau and his senior staff lawyered up months ago, so perhaps it’s been that long. But the Mounties are on the case – and Justin Trudeau is doing his utmost to stymie their investigation. He’s adamantly refused to waive the cabinet confidentiality that would let Wilson-Raybould speak to the police.

Reached by the Sun on Friday, Wilson-Raybould said that she has spoken to the police, and more than once. But she says there’s not much she can say to them, or me.

Said Wilson-Raybould to the Sun: “Thanks for your inquiry. I can confirm that I was interviewed by the RCMP on Tuesday of this week. I am not going to comment any further on the nature of those discussions.”

Not because she doesn’t want to, of course. But because Justin Trudeau – the guy who solemnly promised in 2015 to return ethics to Canadian public life – won’t let her. He says the Clerk of the Privy Council – his personal bureaucrat – makes that decision, not him.

It’s unknown if lie detectors beeped to life across Canada, when the Prime Minister said that on day one of the election campaign. They could have. They should have.

The Clerk serves at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, not the other way around. Trudeau is the boss. That’s not all: decisions of the Prime Minister and his cabinet have the force of law; the Clerk’s doesn’t. Trudeau has true power, not some unelected bureaucrat.

His prevarications are cowardly and craven and dishonest. But they’re not the main reason Justin Trudeau shouldn’t be believed.

The main reason is this: Justin Trudeau, personally, was the one who authorized the February 25, 2019 cabinet decision – number 2019-0105 – to waive confidentiality and permit Jody Wilson-Raybould to appear before the Justice Committee. Right in the very first line, it said the decision had been made “on the recommendation of the Prime Minister,” quote unquote.

Him, Justin Trudeau. Not some bureaucrat. Not a member of his cabinet. Him.

Justin Trudeau had the power then to let Jody Wilson-Raybould speak. Now he claims he doesn’t.

He’s lying.

And he needs to let her speak – because she knows the truth.

8 Comments

  1. joe says:

    Justin’s two biggest accomplishments of the last 4 years?
    1. legalizing pot
    2. learning that he can lie with impunity

    So if he is re-elected to what level of corruption will he and his Liberals sink?

  2. whyshouldIsellyourwheat says:

    Trudeau is not only gagging Wilson-Raybould. He has decided to gag himself. He took ZERO media questions for two days on the weekend (even Harper never did that), and today refused to commit to daily media questions during the campaign.

  3. Stephen Sinclair says:

    What are the legal repercussions to her if she just spills the beans before the election?

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Stephen,

      She simply can’t do that. At the very least JWR would have law society problems were she to seek bar re-admission. JWR cannot violate SCP and CC either. She needs an all-encompassing waiver and Trudeau will never, ever, give her that because he knows full well that it would be his government’s Waterloo. Some people are really not as good a liar as they think they are. Playing Canadians for fools is hardly a winning electoral strategy.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        More particularly, Section 70 of the Privacy Act exempts The Queen’s Privy Council for Canada (Federal Cabinet) from the law’s application. However, you can complain to the Privacy Commissioner, or go to Federal Court but your chances are practically zero as courts defer to the well entrenched principle of Cabinet Confidence.

    • Fred from BC says:

      “Spill what beans? She’s already said on more than one occasion that she saw nothing criminal in what Justin and the PMO gang did with/to her.”

      She’s not the only person who gets to determine what is or is not ‘criminal’. Also, she has more to say but is unable to say it because she is being prevented from doing so by Justin Trudeau…what if that information being withheld is evidence of ‘criminal’ behavior? Or even more unethical acts that could spell defeat for the Liberals if revealed?

      You just may end up being the one to need those “galloping unicorns” yourself, Bill…

    • Vancouverois says:

      She’s only been allowed to discuss developments up to a certain point, however.

      Personally, I think she was being politic rather than completely truthful when she said she thought he hadn’t done anything illegal. At this point we know that’s not true anyway – the Ethics Commissioner made it quite clear that Trudeau *did* violate section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act.

      But even if that weren’t true, she was only referring to the pressure put on her to stop the SNC-Lavalin prosecution during the period of the waiver. It doesn’t cover anything after that, and Trudeau is very deliberately keeping her – and everyone else with pertinent information – muzzled.

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