, 12.18.2019 08:03 PM

The system works

It does.

This is a massive fine. This is a guilty plea to a serious crime.

This is justice.

If only they had listened to Jody Wilson-Raybould, they’d still have the Clerk of the Privy Council. They’d still have the Principal Secretary.

They’d still have a majority.

All of that could have been avoided – if they had resisted the temptation to obstruct justice. To interfere with prosecutorial independence.

Our system works. The Rule of Law is the best and only way.

This is vindication for Jody. This is a serious sentence for the company. And it is a valuable lesson for Trudeau et al.

Will they learn it? Who knows.

But I do know this: those 6,000 jobs Trudeau said over and over would be lost?

Not one will be.

And, tonight, SNC’s stock is way up.

21 Comments

  1. Pamela Ingold says:

    You said it – they’d have a majority now, if they had listened to Wilson-Raybould.

  2. joe says:

    In my opinion, Trudeau got what he wanted, a plea agreement. Now the details of who did what with whom will not see the light of day.

    However, it’s better than having the case thrown out because it took too long.

    The cynic in me wonders if we’ll see big overruns in SNC contracts with the Feds.

  3. Roger Clarke says:

    The devil is in the details which tells me that they will not be forthcoming…

  4. Mike says:

    280 million is chump change. Stock up 700 million. They can still get government contracts. Snc is laughing all the way to the bank.

  5. the real Sean says:

    Justin Trudeau = looser

    • Mike says:

      Justin Trudeau = winner, as in Prime Minister of Canada, as opposed to someone called the real Sean.

      • the real Sean says:

        balanced budget = lost
        electoral reform = lost
        SNC = lost
        popular vote = lost
        cell phone reductions = lost before it even started
        jobs = lost
        respect on national stage = lost
        Clerk of Privy Council = lost
        Minister of Health = lost
        AG= lost
        26.6 billion dollars this year = lost
        Aga Khan = lost
        Committee on China = lost
        keeping racist remarks and blackface a secret = lost

        need we continue?

        • Fred from BC says:

          …and the best one:

          Majority government=lost.

          Trudeau was in a position to pass any legislation he wanted, but now has to grovel for support from the NDP and the BQ. Looks good on him.

  6. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    I have a funny feeling that something isn’t Kosher about this process. Reminds me too much about Big Tobacco getting fines considerably reduced on appeal…

    Shouldn’t fines at least reflect profits made in Libya? Spidey sense sure is tingling.

  7. Douglas W says:

    I wonder how many people SNC-L will lay off in the next year?
    I hope someone is watching this company.

  8. Fred J Pertanson says:

    I disagree, Warren.

    SNC was awarded the Ottawa LRT contract at a significantly higher cost even though they failed the technical requirements. So the Ottawa taxpayer is paying their fine.

    Don’t forget the Caisse de Depot holds 20% of SNC’s shares. They just made billions.

    Graft and sleaze are alive and well in Canada and with the friends of the LPC.

    Sad.

  9. Nick M. says:

    I feel like the economic Interventionist attitude of this government is straight out of the 1970’s era. And this is another example.

    The system worked. But they want an outcome that they believe the system won’t deliver, so they go out of their way to ensure their outcome is achieved.

    Take example the Energy East pipeline, it was gonna get green lighted (or they assumed), so this administration worked behind the scenes to get the GHG emission calculation altered to achieve their anti-energy attitude. And they say the problem with the energy sector is low commodity prices when a barrel on a Tanker (Brent) is selling for $86 CAD right now.

  10. lyn says:

    Full steam a head for the Liberal pay backs will be coming sooner or later and we all know that! Trudeau Foundation donations!!!

  11. FM says:

    When they pleaded guilty, I thought it was great. Then I saw the corruption charges were dropped, and they were now eligible to bid on federal contracts. What a farce; SNC-Lavalin got exactly what they would have received with a DPA. Makes you cynical about our political and judicial systems. My question: what is happening about the RCMP criminal investigation into obstruction of justice against PM and those in his office? We Canadians are up in arms against Trump and the Ukrainian president breaking the rules; what about our PM pressuring our attorney general to intercede in a criminal court case? What has happened to this investigation?? I am going to write to CBC again about covering this

    • FM,

      IF we find out that any form of pressure has been applied or attempted on the RCMP, then it’s will summarily be curtains for this government. Surely, they are not that stupid? Surely?

    • Joseph says:

      This is how an investigation into highly placed government departments progresses.
      It’s given to someone that is set to retire that is extremely risk adverse.
      The investigation starts to suffer from bureaucratic oversight and delay to the point where the investigation can declare nothing to see here.
      It’s how “the system” works.
      And we can’t upset the system now can we.
      Related
      Anyone else not shocked that the Bloc was so quick to declare its support of the government in light of this descision?
      Yep, business as usual.

  12. Joseph says:

    What you call “the system” worked.
    So out of all the charges levied, they plead guilty to one and the court says okey dokey and let’s just forget about the other charges.
    Everyone goes about business as usual.
    Is that how the system works?
    We go on with business as usual, official Ottawa goes back to business as usual, and the awarding of federal contracts goes on “business as usual” and the lesson learned is just make sure the code of silence is maintained and those in charge don’t have to be bothered with those inconvenient rules.
    It’s apparent now that the reason the veil got lifted on this was because someone had to publicly declare what was going on and no one in Ottawa wanted to have their name attached to it, the act had to be part and parcel of “the system”.
    Trudeau isn’t the problem, he’s a symptom of the problem.

    What gives me comfort is that all the operatives that are now going back to “business as usual” are so obtuse about what the problem is that the odds the next time will occur have greatly increased due to their own ignorance and complacency.
    Weeks maybe days till the next major scandal explodes.

    • “What you call ‘the system’ worked.
      “So out of all the charges levied, they plead guilty to one and the court says okey dokey and let’s just forget about the other charges.”

      From my observations of cases big and small, that’s often how things end up.

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