scandal

Tuesday September 24, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 24, 2019

Premier Doug Ford blasts Trudeau’s ‘unacceptable’ donning of racist blackface

Premier Doug Ford has strongly denounced Justin Trudeau’s penchant for donning blackface and charged there’s a “double standard” over how the Liberal leader’s past misdeeds are being reported.

September 20, 2019

“It was unacceptable back in 2001, it’s unacceptable now,” said the Progressive Conservative premier, who has emerged as a favourite target of the federal Liberals during this election.

“The people are going to decide. They’re going to have the opportunity to decide if they want the prime minister to continue being prime minister or they want a change,” he said Friday.

Last Wednesday, Time magazine published a 2001 photo of Trudeau dressed as Aladdin at a gala when he was a 29-year-old private school teacher at Vancouver’s West Point Grey Academy.

In the wake of that, other photos have surface of him in blackface and brown face.

February 22, 2018

While Trudeau has repeatedly apologized for his transgressions, on Sunday he ducked reporters’ questions when asked if he could recall the last time he wore racist makeup.

Ford took a swipe at the media, saying there’s a “double standard right across the board” in how the controversy is being covered.

“If it was a Conservative, I think it would have been a different story,” the premier told CTV.

In a separate interview with AM640’s Alex Pierson, Ford was asked if he had ever donned blackface.

“No. I wouldn’t be that stupid,” he said to Pierson.

July 10, 2018

Last Wednesday, Time magazine published a 2001 photo of Trudeau dressed as Aladdin at a gala when he was a 29-year-old private school teacher at Vancouver’s West Point Grey Academy.

In the wake of that, other photos have surface of him in blackface and brown face.

While Trudeau has repeatedly apologized for his transgressions, on Sunday he ducked reporters’ questions when asked if he could recall the last time he wore racist makeup.

Ford took a swipe at the media, saying there’s a “double standard right across the board” in how the controversy is being covered.

Series: Young Doug Ford

The premier has been a lightning rod in the Oct. 21 federal election campaign with the Liberals mocking his “for the people” slogan in their advertising and Grit candidates in Ontario attacking his government’s policies.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer refused to utter the name “Ford” even when campaigning 700 metres from his Etobicoke home last week.

A new batch of Tory ads tie Trudeau to former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne, whom Ford’s Tories trounced in the 2018 provincial election, but they do not mention the current premier. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

 

Thursday March 14, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 14, 2019

‘Trudeau? Scandal? I don’t believe it’: As controversy rocks Canada’s PM, the world winces — then shrugs

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political crisis has shaken Ottawa — and now, the tremors are starting to register abroad.

December 21, 2017

Outside the white-marble Newseum building in Washington on Thursday, the morning’s copy of the Globe and Mail sat behind glass, displayed alongside the front pages of newspapers from all 50 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia.

Janet McCarty, a retired civil servant living in Washington, perused the headlines. Only one publication — the Globe — led with the latest on the SNC-Lavalin scandal, in which the Prime Minister’s Office stands accused of meddling in a criminal prosecution case against the Quebec engineering giant.

McCarty grimaced. Like many others on the political left, she’s always considered Trudeau an unimpeachable moral authority and darling of the international left.

“If this is true, then Justin is not the person that we thought he was,” she said.

McCarty lamented that another world leader with a global outlook, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has decided not to seek re-election. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May, a Conservative, has faced at least eight cabinet resignations in less than two years over her controversial Brexit deal.

January 18, 2019

“Justin. I mean, they’re all — Angela Merkel, Theresa May — everybody’s going down the toilet,” McCarty said.

Trudeau’s brand as a global liberal icon is strong in some parts of the U.S., which might explain why Manuel Macias, 36, was so shocked to hear about the SNC-Lavalin affair when he stopped to scan the Newseum headlines this week.

“Trudeau? A scandal? I don’t believe it.

“In this day and age, we don’t really have a lot of shining light all across the world,” said Macias, who identifies as a liberal. “Unless something really comes out that’s proven facts, why throw dirt on him when we’ve got such a good positive role model?”

March 2, 2019

If the SNC-Lavalin debacle has been slow to gain traction outside of Canada, it may also have to do with domestic-scandal fatigue, at least in Britain and the U.S.

In London, John Prideaux, the U.S. editor for The Economist, cited Washington’s woes, as well as Britain’s mismanagement of a plan to withdraw from the European Union, as reasons why some Britons and Americans might not be tuning in.

“What’s happening in Canada looks to me like a more conventional political scandal that you get in a healthy political culture, where people are really held accountable for what they’ve done,” Prideaux said.

That said, the SNC-Lavalin affair has “broken through” the British press — no easy feat. (Continued: CBC) 

 

Saturday March 9, 2019

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) 

 

Tuesday February 26, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 26, 2019

PM waives attorney-client privilege in SNC-Lavalin affair

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has waived attorney-client privilege and cabinet confidence to allow Jody Wilson-Raybould to speak openly when she appears before the House Justice Committee as part of its study into the SNC-Lavalin affair.

February 15, 2019

The government made the directive in an Order in Council posted Monday evening. The order authorizes her, as well as “any person who directly participated in discussions with her,” to speak to the committee and ethics commissioner, about the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.  

“We obviously take very seriously the right of everyone to share their perspectives in various ways,” Trudeau told reporters on his way to the Commons Monday, before first signalling that Wilson-Raybould would be able to “address relevant matters at the committee while ensuring that the two active court cases are not jeopardized.”

The order relates to any information or communications that have to do with Wilson-Raybould’s time as the attorney general and exercising her authority under the Director of Public Prosecutions Act, and only in regards to the two ongoing probes of the matter, and not a blanket permission for Wilson-Raybould to speak.

February 13, 2019

As well, the order states that Director of Public Prosecutions Kathleen Roussel is exempted from this waiving of privilege and any information or conversations between Wilson-Raybould and Roussel cannot be disclosed, “in order to uphold the integrity of any criminal or civil proceedings,” the prime minister’s office states in the Order in Council.

The prime minister has faced calls to waive solicitor-client privilege in the matter to allow Wilson-Raybould to speak publicly about allegations of political pressure being placed on her by members of the PMO in regards to an ongoing criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

Citing unnamed sources, The Globe and Mail reported on Feb. 7 that Trudeau’s office pressed Wilson-Raybould to drop a criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin when she was attorney general. It was alleged that the PMO wanted Wilson-Raybould to instruct federal prosecutors to change course and pursue a remediation agreement rather than criminal prosecution in the corruption and fraud case against the Quebec engineering and construction giant. CTV News has not independently verified the story.

Animated!

When she was attorney general, Wilson-Raybould had the ability to direct federal prosecutors to take a different route with the charges against SNC-Lavalin but she did not, despite several meetings and conversations on the matter before and after federal prosecutors decided to carry on with the criminal case in the fall.

In January, Wilson-Raybould was shuffled into the veterans affairs portfolio, and was replaced as attorney general and justice minister by David Lametti, a Quebec MP. Wilson-Raybould accepted her new position, but then resigned from cabinet days after the Globe story broke. So far, she’s maintained solicitor-client privilege as the reason she’s yet to speak out publicly about the allegations, though she’s signaled a desire to “speak my truth,” and reportedly told cabinet members when she met with them last week at her request, that the pressure was improper. (Source: CTV News) 

 

Friday February 22, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday February 22, 2019

‘Just tell them it has beavers’: Montana might sell itself to Canada.

It was brought up a joke. But some politicians are seriously in favour

Montana’s politicians have failed to rule out the possibility of selling the state to Canada for $1 trillion.

May 27, 2014

The purported benefits would include having Justin Trudeau as leader.

“My pages, at special request, wanted to let everyone know that they’re strongly in support of having Justin Trudeau as president of the country,” Jessica Karjala told her fellow legislators at the Montana House of Representatives on Wednesday.

An online petition posted last week to Change.org is calling for the sale of the state to Canada. “We have too much debt and Montana is useless. Just tell them it has beavers or something,” the petition says.

As of Thursday, nearly 13,000 people — it’s unknown how many of them were actually Montanans — had signed the petition.

The tongue-in-cheek proposal has received some attention locally. In the Great Falls Tribune, the daily newspaper in Great Falls, reporter Kristen Inbody asked: “Would Montana still be named Montana or would we be Southern Alberta? Better Saskatchewan?”

February 13, 2019

There were other big questions standing before Montanans, too.

“Would we have to drop our speed limits to match the achingly slow pace of Canadian travel? Because that might be a deal-breaker …” the column asked.

Good question. And, of course, the French issue: “Bilingual, blah, blah. Do we have to learn French?”

At a vote on Wednesday, the House State Administration committee considered the petition (albeit jokingly). But it failed to receive the 75 per cent vote needed to draft a bill to reject the proposal. (Source: The National Post) 

Meanwhile in Ottawa, the SNC-Lavavin affair which prevents former Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould from speaking on allegations of political interference, due to solicitor-client privilege, rages on in the form of a headline grabbing scandal.