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.