Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Jody Resigns, Lawyers Up


This won't calm Trudeau's waters. ex-Justice Minister Jody has resigned from cabinet.

In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Wilson-Raybould announced she submitted her resignation as Minister of Veterans Affairs and said she has retained legal counsel to determine what she can and cannot talk about within the confines of solicitor-client privilege over the SNC-Lavalin affair. 
Her decision comes after a bombshell report by the Globe and Mail last week alleged senior officials with the Prime Minister’s Office pressured her to intervene and urge prosecutors to cut a deal to save SNC-Lavalin from going to trial over corruption and fraud charges.

She refused, the report said, and was subsequently demoted from the position of attorney general to Minister of Veterans Affairs.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So if Jody Wilson-Raybould has resigned, do you think that she did it so that she could speak openly? If that is the case, then I would surmise that JT has a lot to worry about.

The Mound of Sound said...


I think that's a reasonable assumption, Anon. I read her resignation letter posted on her web site and it wasn't at all gracious to the prime minister.

rumleyfips said...

Isn't she still bound by both cabinet confidentiality and solicitor client privilege ? Can she waive these unilaterally ?

The Mound of Sound said...


I suspect that's why she's looking for some solid legal advice, Rumley.

Anonymous said...

Lavelin is an awful company....it has accepted bribes galore while operating in Africa. Gaddafi and all that....what a piece of stink and so is Lavelin...something big going down here.

Anonymous said...

I'm beginning to think that JWR was willing to go along for the most part with what in my company were called "suggestions" (Pressure? Oh no, no, no!) until she got demoted after three years for being somewhat cantankerous and independent with the PMO staffers who feel themselves invincibly mighty.

When someone is whispered about in the halls as being, shall we say, difficult, well, it means that they take up too much of the bureaucracy's time inducing obedience, so they act to diminish the "problem".

Demotion was not on JWR's personal agenda for her self-confident career path, with the result that she has put the cat among the pigeons out of annoyance, perhaps even spite, with her loss of rank in the cabinet. Some of these politicians, as we all well know, think very highly of themselves. No way was she going to accept demotion without a squawk. That's how I read it at the moment. The sudden resignation after a "chat" or two with the boss while out west, with no Trudeau backing down on the Butts decision of demotion and hence no reassignment to a higher position, meant she quit and lawyered up.

Amazing how the PMO type of pond scum have surfaced running everything under harper and now Trudeau. harper was of course a nasty enough piece of work that the PMO brigade were merely errand boys for his darker side, and if they ever came up with an even more nefarious scheme than he had dreamt up, well he was happy. Twinkletoes Trudeau is such a weak and waffly fellow, content to barker for cheers from any crowd by telling them what he thinks they want to hear, that the PMO brigade can run amok implementing their corporate agenda with impunity. Until they run into someone as determined as they are, that is. So here we are with a minister feeling scorned as she sees it and her worth not recognized , so she's willing to toss a wrench in the works. That'll teach 'em, she believes. We shall see.

BM

The Mound of Sound said...

Well, BM, this is turning into a political soap opera with the extra, election-year dynamic. We're all casting bones and reading entrails which is predictably reflecting our individual preferences for the main players.

Me, I don't like either of them. My concern is this "not ready for prime time" prime minister will bungle this as he did the Creston groping business. The Liberals, and Canada, don't need Trudeau scoring an "own goal" to help Scheer.