Saturday, August 17, 2019

The Lynch Mob Should Stand Down


I'm not inclined to race to the defence of Justin Trudeau but, really, this nonsense has to stop.

Neither the prime minister, nor Butts, nor Wernick committed anything approaching  a crime in trying to cajole Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene on behalf of SNC-Lavalin.

It was unethical, a result made somewhat more apt by the merger of the offices of solicitor-general and attorney-general. Anne McLennan may think that's just dandy because that's how our 'founding fathers' saw fit to merge them but that founding fathers business is meaningless. Look what it's done to the States.

The CBC's Aaron Wheery has a helpful analysis that dispels the silliness of Kinsella and the opposition parties.
That the RCMP spoke with Jody Wilson-Raybould is not evidence of a crime — Wilson-Raybould herself has said that she does not believe a crime occurred during the SNC-Lavalin affair. It is not even necessarily evidence of an active or official investigation. In fact, there is reason to believe an investigation was not pursued
But the news on Friday that the former minister of justice and attorney general spoke with someone from the national police force in the spring punctuates another difficult moment for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.

And it stirs echoes of the events, nearly 14 years ago, that doomed the last Liberal government. 
The fact that Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion proceeded with, and completed, his investigation would seem to suggest that the RCMP has not been actively pursuing the matter. The Conflict of Interest Act dictates that the commissioner "shall immediately suspend an examination" if it is discovered that the subject of his investigation is also the subject of a police investigation. 
In 2014, for instance, the ethics commissioner suspended an investigation into the Mike Duffy affair once it became clear that the RCMP was investigating the same people and events.
Still the story is out there. JWR could have defused it but instead merely confirmed the cops spoke to her. That, to me, was unfair.

It's funny how these RCMP investigations are handled. I explored that in a previous post. That old saying is that the fish rots from the head down. That might be true.

Zaccardelli's intervention in the 2006 election campaign with the tall tale that Ralph Goodale was under active investigation probably did a lot to swing Harper's minority win.

Then there was the curious trial of Mike Duffy. They smothered the Cavendish Cottager with a staggering 31 charges. He was convicted of none, not one. The learned judge, Justice Vaillancourt, said the evidence clearly demonstrated that crimes had been committed, just not by Duffy.

The evidence did demonstrate that crimes had been committed. In my opinion, it's likely that parties inside the prime minister's office and within the Tory Senate leadership were culpable. Only the RCMP never took all the evidence it had amassed and investigated them. Obviously, if not Duffy, then whom? The evidence speaks for itself rather powerfully.

When you're batting zero for 31 that suggests a stacked deck, a political prosecution. When a highly respected judge hears all the evidence and concludes that, yes, crimes were committed but the criminals do not stand before me, you might think that someone would be grateful for a chance to fix their own mistakes. Nothing happened. Nothing.

Zaccardelli refused to answer MPs' questions about the Ralph Goodale/Paul Martin setup. He subsequently retired after the RCMP pension scandal. Nobody from the RCMP has ever been called to task for the Duffy investigation/prosecution.

I don't like the RCMP meddling in our politics. And I really don't like those who exploit it to spread innuendo.



7 comments:

  1. Thank you, Mound. Good post.

    UU

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  2. This manufactured 'crisis' is just that and has anyone, other than the sceptics on this Board considered the motives of the people who are pushing this vendetta?

    Obviously the first person to mind is Kinsella a person who admits dislike of PMJT for various reasons. The others; Postmedia tools who have pundit status and of course the CONS. But let's not forget in all of this that the CONS are up to their necks in this as well. Chuckles and his henchmen have had meetings with SNC, but who wants talk about that definitely not the haters - Kinsella come on down!

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  3. A whole lot can be said about how Justin Trudeau and his inner circle handled this crisis, but the main takeaway I've had is with JWR and her "accomplice" Phillpot who have milked this ridiculous affair many times over. It seems nobody has got to the heart of her true agenda, which to me smells more like something to do with reconciliation than SNC, besides, the non-prosecution legislation was already on the books and Trudeau I believe, had the right to insist his caucus toe the party line, even if the jobs angle is not entirely believable.

    Alas, though, Chuckles will get a lot of mileage out of this by tarnishing Trudeau's reputation, which to a large degree he deserves as he stepped into this mess which could have been nipped with a single speech back in February. Getting out in front of a crisis/scandal is always the best approach.

    As for JWR, I don't trust her at all- she has an agenda and has played a huge role in throwing the upcoming election. We shall see.

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  4. To add, far be it for me to agree with Christy Clark, but her earlier statements are bang on about this. It is a battle of egos at the cabinet table that happened to be aired in public.

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  5. I always admire your perspective, Mound. I was thoroughly ticked off at what I viewed to be Harper throwing women under the bus, as the saying goes, but it looks to me as if there are women getting elected who are impatient to throw men under the bus in order to sit on the throne. We need to be patient, and trying to take down a leader is not the path to success. I worked in government at a management level, and there was a little joke that went around and it basically said "why try to be equal to men when we should strive to be so much better" or similar wording. One only has to look at the female premiers of Ontario and Alberta, and the criticisms they faced. It just proves that Canada is not yet ready for "prime time" and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that working within the system is by far the best way forward. Jody my have been right, but she went public and it eroded some of her credibility. I don't know if she can get that back. I sure hope that she didn't have an ulterior motive, because that would be even more destructive.

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  6. I've had problems with JWR from the start, Lulymay. Her principles do seem rather flexible according to the circumstances of the moment.

    Jane Philpott is another matter entirely. I've seen nothing to indicate she is less than honourable. Her extensive background of public service, in Canada and abroad, speaks to her integrity.

    Then there's JT, a frequent target of criticism from me. I believe there are several reasons to reject Justin Trudeau as untrustworthy and unprincipled but this innuendo about criminality is unwarranted and reflects more on those out to smear JT than on the prime minister himself.

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    ReplyDelete