Thursday, September 12, 2019

Elections and Mounties Creep Me Out


I don't like riding to Justin Trudeau's defence but this business about the RCMP investigating supposed wrongdoing in the midst of an election campaign smacks of political interference by the national police agency and not for the first time.

Are the RCMP brass trying to meddle in this election? I can't say they're not and, face it, they do have a dodgy track record.  This sudden interest in questioning the prime minister and his PMO as well as headlines about interviewing Jody Wilson-Raybould about possible obstruction of justice in the SNC-Lavalin business couldn't be better timed if someone wanted to give the Tories a leg up in mid-campaign.

It's in all the papers. Mainly inference. Trudeau isn't talking. Must have something really sinister to hide. How dare he campaign for re-election when the embers of this scandal are rekindled?

The thing is, it's too easy a set-up. All you have to do is muddy the waters. The press will do the rest and what a bunch of saps they are.

They've got very short memories. You never read any reference to the role then commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli played in giving Stephen Harper a leg up to defeat prime minister Paul Martin. Out of nowhere Zaccardelli delivered a letter to the NDP suggesting that Ralph Goodale was under investigation for some sort of wrongdoing. Ralph Goodale FFS!

It was an investigation that wasn't. There was nothing to it. It was a drive-by smear job on Goodale and the Martin government. In the aftermath Zaccardelli was summoned to appear before a Commons committee and refused to answer MPs questions.

And who can forget how the RCMP twisted itself and its integrity into knots to invent the "immaculate bribe" case against Duffy. 33 criminal counts. Enough to bury anyone. It was corrupt. Everybody in the PMO was off the hook. Everyone in the Tory Senate leadership was off the hook. Even the Tory legal office was off the hook.  At trial, the veteran judge found plenty of evidence of criminal wrongdoing, loads of it. He then acquitted Duffy of every charge, all 33 of them. Justice Vaillancourt sent a withering message - next time you want to prosecute such crimes, try charging the criminals.

Once again the head of the state police agency was never called to account. The file was closed. The culprits were never brought to justice.

Cops, whether the RCMP or the FBI, should not intervene in elections. Comey's meddling with 2 weeks to go by re-opening and then quickly re-closing the investigation into Hillary's emails was enough to saddle America and the world with the worst US president in that nation's existence. The mere hint of wrongdoing can be as devastating as a trial and conviction in a court of law.

Now we have this business. Was there obstruction of justice? Hell, I don't know. Jody Wilson-Raybould said there was nothing rising to the level of a crime. She should have known. She was there. She was the attorney-general, the country's top law enforcement official. The boss.

I don't want to see another false majority this time around, Liberal or Conservative. Majority governments have been a dismal failure at responding to the grave threats of the day. Chretien was a dud. Harper was a dud. Junior has proved to be a dud. They have not done right by this country.

However the predicament Canada, like every other nation, faces today demands elections that aren't skewed by scandals and innuendo. And the last thing we need is the Mounties' thumb on the scales again.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sot on again. Couldn't agree more.

BM

Anonymous said...

Er, that was meant to be "Spot on again". I really must trim my fingernails before the election.

BM

rumleyfips said...

It should be shocking to see the RCMP once again acting as part of a Conservative Party. There is a new commissioner who ,supposedly, was going to get rid of the horsemen's rot. She is proving to be unwilling or unable to do anything about the corruption in both her upper ranks and the reformatories back rooms.

Sadly, this type of theatre noir is effective. Ask Clark; Ask Goodale; ask Duffy; ask Hillary.

All we can hope for is a good ass kicking for Sheer. The right wing nut jobs need to be shown to fail this time.

the salamander said...

.. good on you !

I wondered who would bring back or bring up Zaccardelli.. and to this point, no mainstream media has bothered, to my knowlege.. and I do read and follow a ton.. (probably more than most mainstream pretend journalists a la Licia Corbella or pretend public servants such as Jason Kenney)

What afflicts these pricks ? Yes, I can call a woman or man 'pricks' .. or 'dicks' quite fearlessly if well deserved. I can also rattle off name after name of distorted scumbags that in my view are essentially diseased parasites contributing NOTHING but a fevered raggedy ass mouthflapping to Canada and Canadians.. and getting paid handsomely to do so.. some even getting multiple collections of pensions (Hello Jason !)

I guess one of the burning question for me these days.. is how we rid ourselves of such idiocy .. or at least subdue them down to the occasional mouth or brain fart. Certainly, Andrew Scheer and Jason having become millionaire ego obsessed control freaks schooled by Stephen Harper and Ray Novak.. are classic examples.. and Doug Ford no slouch either.. Smartest Guy In The Room Syndrome for sure..

The Boss maintains all three are on a collision course with a severe ass kicking.. or as an old Quebecois bud of mine maintains 'one half of a collision looking for the other half' .. I certainly hope so. We need to rid or purge such ideological unethical trash from OUR public service. We should allow no breathings space for such failure - in what field of endeavor could such nonsence be tolerated.. in a public library ? No. In a bank? No. In a hospital? ? No. So why is it so acceptable in 'politics' ?

Its far beyond 'tiresome' .. its ventured far afield into 'dangerous' .. these are sellouts.. and they've either lost the picture, never had it or are incapable of finding it.. would we let them pilot a 4 seater aircraft ? Laughable to conceive they would be allowed in the cockpit of a commercial airline with 200 passengers.. but we will let them set policy for millions or govern society ? Oh c'mon !

rumleyfips said...

Karma on horseback and pretty quick too. A very bad mountie arrested for being a very bad mountie. The stables do need cleaning out, don't they.

Lulymay said...

Oh, Mound, you do have a way with words and paint a pretty stark (but spot on) picture of how things are in our country these days.

Even though I come from a long line of NWMP & RCMP members (first one was Special Constable #64 or some such low number) and have always been proud of this heritage, I have come to believe more recent members have gone to the school of J. Edgar Hoover - get every dirty bit of innuendo you can gather on all politicians, then your control is complete.

Seems to have worked exceptionally well since Zacardelli came on the scene. He did get a nice gig with Interpol did he not? Since the media is more than a willing accomplice, where does it leave voters? especially those who believe their vote doesn't count anyhow?

The Mound of Sound said...


Rumley, the stables do need cleaning out and it is a Herculean labour, Augean. The state police must be insulated from political interference but that demands they be excluded from the political realm. It's the old "justice must not only be done but be seen to be done."

The Mound of Sound said...

Lulymay, I guess it's the result of leapfrogging from journalism to the practice of litigation. Oh, trust me, I've shown little of what I once was. Whether if was judge alone or judge and jury there was huge advantage in a deep, strong yet dulcet voice to convey powerful thoughts. That's why I got the moniker, The Mound of Sound. The students at the firm called me 'Leo.' It was a couple of years before I learned it was an acronym for 'Large Evil One'.

For most of my life I was a believer in the RCMP, even after the Quebec barn burning business. The last decade has changed all that. It's a truism that trust lost is very difficult to regain and, sparing the rank and file, the RCMP brass have done nothing to restore my trust.