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2019-09

Saturday March 9, 2019

March 16, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 9, 2019

Trudeau expresses regret over scandal, but does not apologise

Justin Trudeau has expressed regret for his handling of a political scandal that has cost him two cabinet ministers and a close adviser – but stopped short of apologising, insisting no laws had been broken and that neither he nor his staff had taken any unethical actions.

October 31, 2018

“This has been a tough few weeks,” the Canadian prime minister said on Thursday. “Canadians expect and deserve to have faith in their institutions and the people who act within them … I have taken – and will continue to take – many lessons from these recent days and few weeks.”

Trudeau and his close aides are accused of improperly pressuring the country’s former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to abandon the prosecution of the engineering company SNC-Lavalin, which is alleged to have bribed the Libyan government to secure lucrative construction contracts. He said: “There are conversations that were experienced differently. I regret that.”

March 8, 2019

The firm, which employs 9,000 people in Canada, is based in the province of Québec, where Trudeau’s Liberals need to pick up seats to win a federal election set for October. The scandal has cast a shadow over Trudeau’s domestic image as someone who is committed to transparent government.

His conciliatory remarks in front of reporters on Thursday were an attempt to shift public attention away from the scandal.

Justin Trudeau has expressed regret for his handling of a political scandal that has cost him two cabinet ministers and a close adviser – but stopped short of apologising, insisting no laws had been broken and that neither he nor his staff had taken any unethical actions.

“This has been a tough few weeks,” the Canadian prime minister said on Thursday. “Canadians expect and deserve to have faith in their institutions and the people who act within them … I have taken – and will continue to take – many lessons from these recent days and few weeks.”

January 12, 2019

Trudeau and his close aides are accused of improperly pressuring the country’s former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to abandon the prosecution of the engineering company SNC-Lavalin, which is alleged to have bribed the Libyan government to secure lucrative construction contracts. He said: “There are conversations that were experienced differently. I regret that.”

The firm, which employs 9,000 people in Canada, is based in the province of Québec, where Trudeau’s Liberals need to pick up seats to win a federal election set for October. The scandal has cast a shadow over Trudeau’s domestic image as someone who is committed to transparent government.

His conciliatory remarks in front of reporters on Thursday were an attempt to shift public attention away from the scandal. (Source: The Guardian, UK) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2019-09, Canada, Donald Trump, Dumpster Fire, ethics, GIF, Justin Trudeau, Ontario, politics, scandal, USA

Friday March 8, 2019

March 15, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 8, 2019

Tories won’t rule out another friend of Premier Doug Ford as OPP head

An unrepentant Community Safety Minister Sylvia Jones is refusing to rule out hiring another pal of Premier Doug Ford as head of the Ontario Provincial Police despite the controversy that derailed the Ron Taverner appointment.

March 6, 2019

Her comments came Thursday as the lawyer for former deputy OPP commissioner Brad Blair — who was fired after blowing the whistle over possible conflicts in the Taverner appointment and a customized van sought by Ford — threatened to sue the province for wrongful dismissal.

An unrepentant Community Safety Minister Sylvia Jones is refusing to rule out hiring another pal of Premier Doug Ford as head of the Ontario Provincial Police despite the controversy that derailed the Ron Taverner appointment.

February 28, 2019

Her comments came Thursday as the lawyer for former deputy OPP commissioner Brad Blair — who was fired after blowing the whistle over possible conflicts in the Taverner appointment and a customized van sought by Ford — threatened to sue the province for wrongful dismissal.

“If the government hasn’t learned that yet then we are in big trouble. That’s why a public inquiry is necessary,” Horwath said of her push for Wake to broaden his probe, which has seen Ford and others interviewed privately.

Wake’s report is due in the “near future” and will be posted on the integrity commissioner’s website, said spokeswoman Cathryn Motherwell.

December 5, 2018

Ford, who showed up in the legislature’s question period for the first time this week, has been “tone deaf” to the concerns about police independence, charged Green Leader Mike Schreiner.

“Twenty seven people applied for the job,” Schreiner said. “Surely we can find an OPP commissioner who’s qualified to do the job who’s not friends with the premier, creating an unacceptable conflict of interest.” (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Posted in: Ontario Tagged: 2019-09, Boss Hogg, cronyism, Doug Ford, Dukes of Hazzard, Ontario, OPP, parody, police, Ron Taverner

Thursday March 7, 2019

March 14, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 7, 2019

Gerald Butts’ testimony couldn’t save Trudeau’s skin, but the rest of us will be fine

The flag is still flying on government buildings. There are no troops in the streets. The CBC is still broadcasting and the House of Commons committees are still functioning. Mail is still being delivered, and all those other little things Canadians take for granted are still being attended to. They carry on in their delightfully banal ways despite an Ipsos-Reid poll’s troubling finding that two-thirds of Canadians say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has lost the moral authority to govern.

February 28, 2019

That Canadian democracy is still functioning is worth pointing out, given the lightning strikes and the rolling thunder accompanying the SNC-Lavalin bribery-case revelations. It is more than worrisome that despite their loudest protests to the contrary, the bigshots in Trudeau’s inner circle do not hold the foundational democratic principle of the rule of law to be especially sacrosanct after all. With all the cabinet resignations and committee-hearing drama, and the public astonishment with the creepiness of the whole thing, 73 per cent of Liberal voters, even, say the RCMP should be brought in to sort things out.

Blame the mainstream media generally, or even specifically The Globe and Mail, which broke the story a month ago, all you like. Recite as accurately and loudly as you please from the Liberal party handbook’s provisions on “jobs for the middle class and people working hard to join it.” The slightest hint that this thematic talking point is being deployed as a justification for monkeying around with judicial independence will be seen by reasonable people as fatally self-incriminating. But go right ahead.

March 2, 2019

These prevarications were not what the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights heard on Wednesday morning from Gerald Butts, the principal secretary to Justin Trudeau, and Trudeau’s dear friend for three decades, who resigned three weeks ago after having found himself a central character in the whole drama. In his long-awaited testimony, Butts insisted there was no improper pressure applied to attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, at least not intentionally, and that all that was being asked of her was that a “second opinion” might be sought on the propriety of a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin, instead of a criminal prosecution. An eminent jurist might be consulted. Or perhaps a panel of jurists.

When Butts talked about the 9,000 SNC-Lavalin jobs that may or may not be at stake in the case, he spoke as a Cape Bretoner, from a family of miners. He spoke with his heart and his guts. As for his account of his interactions with Wilson-Raybould, and his take on the various communications and encounters the Prime Minister’s Office had with Wilson-Raybould on the SNC-Lavalin file, the most generous reading would be that it’s all been one big horrible misunderstanding.

August 20, 2016

Whether this repairs any of the damage done to Team Trudeau cannot yet be known, but that Ipsos-Reid poll was concluded even before Treasury Board president Jane Philpott resigned from cabinet on Monday. Her explanation: “Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised.” Set your hair on fire if you must, but Philpott’s view is in complete agreement with the opinion Ipsos-Reid attributes to the overwhelming majority of Canadians. (Continued: National Post) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2019-09, Canada, captain, Gerald Butts, Justin Trudeau, scandal sinking, ship, SNC-Lavalin, storm

Wednesday March 6, 2019

March 13, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 6, 2019

Doug Ford’s role in OPP turmoil raises questions of political interference

February 28, 2019

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are political opposites who right now share something: both face allegations of political interference in the justice system.

Partisans will no doubt disagree on whose alleged political interference is worse: the federal Liberals’ handling of the SNC-Lavalin corruption case or the provincial Progressive Conservatives’ alleged meddling with the upper echelons of the Ontario Provincial Police.

February 15, 2019

You can read plenty of analysis throughout cbc.ca of why the SNC-Lavalin affair matters, why the testimony of former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould is resonating, and why the Trudeau Liberals are engulfed in a deepening crisis about just how much political pressure they exerted over a criminal case.

Why are Ford’s PCs being accused of interfering with the OPP? The government appointed a close friend of Ford to head the provincial police force, and fired a veteran officer who had produced evidence that Ford tried to influence police operations.

January 12, 2019

Why does it matter?

“The OPP can be called in to investigate provincial politicians, and the citizens of Ontario need to have faith that the OPP is truly independent, above political interference, and free from abuses of power,” said Brad Blair, the deputy commissioner who was fired on Monday  after a spotless 32-year career with the OPP.

Animated!

In a written statement Tuesday, Blair said he went public with his concerns about “real and/or perceived political interference” in the force because “the cost of a compromised OPP is too great a price to pay.”  (Continued: CBC)  

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2019-09, Canada, circus, Doug Ford, interference, media, mob, Ontario, OPP, police, SNC-Lavalin

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