I am not, in any way, a fan of Justin Trudeau. I believe he is ill-qualified to lead anything, never mind our country. He has seduced the gullible, thoughtless voters of Canada into supporting him and his Liberal party by trading on the name of his father who, as a leader, was only slightly better than his son. So, I am never disappointed when young Trudeau does or says something really stupid, because I am hopeful that the people who voted for this totally inept person will, finally wake up.
By the way, Thomas Jefferson said that democracy, as a form of government, only works when the electorate are educated and informed. It is clear to me that too many voters are neither.
All of the above having been said, I have some sympathy for what the Prime Minister is now enduring as he tries to tread through the so-called SNC scandal. We are told by our left-wing media that SNC’s crimes were that it paid bribes to government officials in what President Trump accurately described as “shit-hole countries” in order to get government contracts. I realize doing something like that in the developed Western world would be a crime, but we are not talking about “developed Western countries.” We are, actually, talking about countries where bribery and corruption are second nature and the way business is carried on. If you want the business, you have to juice the government official who has the authority to grant the contract. If you don’t grease the guy’s palm, you can bet your boots that SNC’s competitors will. The alternative is to not play by the “rules,” lose the contracts, and put people in Canada on the unemployment line. The wienies among us would choose the latter course. Except that these folks are not politicians, seized with the responsibility of looking out for the well-being of all Canadians, including SNC employees
SNC is a world-class engineering company that does work around the world and employs a large number of people in Canada, primarily in the province of Quebec. If SNC did something to get foreign contracts that offends the sensibilities of the holier-than-though folks in Canada, it may be that the right thing to do is to levy a fine of some sort so SNC’s critics can be placated. However, to inflict a “death sentence” form of punishment for doing what every other foreign company does when competing in these SH Countries, is just a little hard for any reasonable thinking person to take.
Now we come to Trudeau’s politically correct Attorney General whose claim to fame, as far as I can tell, is that she is first and foremost, an aboriginal woman. I know, I know, as an aboriginal, she is celebrated for going to university and ultimately getting a law degree. But putting three coherent sentences together is not a qualification for a cabinet job. Her qualifications really were the fact she was a woman and a native. I acknowledge the fact she received all kind of awards and honours but I cannot help but wonder about the legitimacy of the accolades. Had Ms. Wilson-Raybould any business acumen, Trudeau and/or Butts or Morneau would not have had to point out the obvious and that is: “Yes, SNC had done a bad thing but let’s not, as they say, “throw the baby out with the bath water.” A person with just a modicum of business sense and political savvy would have suggested a common sense solution to this problem to Trudeau, Butts and Morneau, and not the other way around. This rather dopy woman, by her so-called principled actions, has not only given the creeps in the press fodder to sell newspapers and attract viewers, but she has put at risk the livelihoods of literally thousands of people.
Were I Trudeau, I would say to the press, “Yes, I told her that the crime committed by SNC was, technically speaking, wrong, but that we had to agree on a realistic punishment, a punishment that did not decimate one of Canada’s premier corporate employers at home and around the world.” Instead of this Minister of the Crown, this captain of industry, understanding what the PM was saying, and working toward an acceptable solution to the problem, she got her nose out of joint and has turned on her mentor causing him untold, and perhaps politically fatal problems. And today, she has been joined in this political assignation by the President of The Treasury Board, one of her buddies.
As I said at the outset of this blog, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a supporter of this poor excuse of a PM. That said, I completely understand why he and some of his senior advisors, did what he is accused of doing, and I have no doubt in my mind that I would have done exactly the same thing. The PM has a duty to the citizens of this country, and if executives of one of Canada’s major companies make a decision or decisions that are illegal in Canada, but common in countries where the company carries on business then, by all means, punish the company and the executives who made the illegal decisions. However, do so in a reasonable fashion, keeping all the circumstances in mind, and do so in a way that does not adversely affect the thousands of innocent employees who may be harmed by an ill-conceived, holier than thou, punishment decision.
I hope young Trudeau has learned the lesson that political correctness in the naming of a cabinet based on gender and ethnicity is usually not the best path to follow. Finding the very best from an often sorry lot of elected MPs is the better policy and may avoid unqualified ingrates causing you grief.
Great reads!
Not sure exactly what the phrase “speak truth to justice” really means or why Jody Wilson Raybold used to so much.
But I believe she was pressured. I also believe that she shouldn’t have been pressured to ‘save jobs’ for SNC, a company that has a history of bad behaviour in Canada.
Our judicial system is supposed to be free from political interference. It’s a tenet of all democracies.
I think young Justin tried to get his way and was caught.
I hope he pays for it.
Come on Corey! Our Judicial system is, for the most part, politicized by the very judicial appointment process. Virtually all decisions made in our prosecutorial process have some political implications. This is not as it should be but is reality.
As I said in my blog, young Trudeau is an incompetent but as a realist, I can understand why he did what he did in the face of Wilson-Raybould’s intransigence. Hopefully, she has written her own political obituary, and we have heard the last of this silly woman.
Regards,
Rod
So, in light of the recently released ethics commissioner report on this sordid SNC-Lavalin affair (albeit still incomplete from a factual standpoint as Trudeau et al continue to hide behind the confidentially loop-hole), are you now able to see how far you have misssec the point Rod?
Did you miss those ethics classes when you were a law student?
Hmmmmm…
I seem to recall that I saw a couple of comments on this topic, one in particular cited several comments by Andrew Coyne, but that seems to have disappeared.
Other than this observation, I was going to add my thought, but why bother?
Your call Adel, but I do not know what you were referring to when you make reference Mr. Coyne, and I doubt you do either.
Cheers,
Rod
Another excellent point (and one that seems to have eluded you) from Mr. Coyne’s March 29 column:
But all of this is mere detail. What is at stake in this affair remains, as Wilson-Raybould reminds the committee, nothing less than “the core principle of prosecutorial independence — a principle that at times appears to have been obscured by layers of commentary, hyperbole, and spin.” It is not, she says, “about how things are ‘experienced’, caucus dynamics, political ambitions, poll numbers, ‘erosion of trust’ or the role of social media.”
Worse yet are the facile rationalizations for interfering the prime minister’s officials have offered — among them, that “prosecutorial decisions are never final” (that’s true, as a prerogative of prosecutors, not as a pretext for endless importuning of them by political staff) or that the attorney general is entitled to seek advice (to seek it, not to have it imposed upon her), or that there were “new facts or evidence” that somehow justified their actions (there was none, Wilson-Raybould says).
There is no “middle ground” on prosecutorial independence, no room for argument on the right of the attorney general to make decisions on criminal prosecutions, free of pressure from other government officials: it is settled constitutional law, absolute and inviolable. It doesn’t matter what good reasons the prime minister might think he has.
Dear Ms. Ethier:
Thank you for taking the time to send me your two comments. I am impressed that you did so after 10 PM on a Saturday night.
You seem to be under the misapprehension that I give one hoot what people like Andrew Coyne think about virtually anything. I think the guy is a hack who has enjoyed the benefits of being the darling of the left and has prospered from being a passenger on that particular gravy train. Have you ever wondered how much this lad gets paid to be a regular guest on the people’s television network, a network which champions a particular political philosophy?
I acknowledge that in this instance Coyne, completely out of character, is being critical of his party, but in a most general way, while writing platitudes about the evils of alleged prosecutorial interference. If you, and he, think for one minute that what Wilson-Raybould was complaining about does not occur on a regular basis across this land, you are, with respect, naïve.
The allegation in this particular case was that certain executives of SNC violated Canadian law and, of course, were that true, those executives should be prosecuted. But, to prosecute the corporate entity to an extent that its very existence would be threatened, is another thing and a decision of that magnitude should never be left up to the likes of Ms. Wilson-Raybould (see Conrad Black’s column on this particular Minister).
I do not consider it prosecutorial interference for the Prime Minister, or his Chief of Staff, to ask the Attorney General questions about her intended course of action, regarding any matter, and if they disagreed with her answer, ask her to, at the very least, re-think the practical ramifications of what she was intending to do. If she was hell bent on following through with her plan, that would be fine but it is also the Prime Minister’s prerogative to shuffle his cabinet.
As I stated in my blog, I believe Justin Trudeau is incompetent and I would like nothing better than to see him and his party defeated in the next election, a wish I doubt you share. However, in this instance, I have absolutely no sympathy for Wilson-Raybould. She purports to be a politician but acts like a petulant child when she does not get her way. I am hopeful we have heard the last of this over-rated woman.
By the way, if you really want to sink your teeth into political interference, look no further than judicial appointments and the political interference that runs rampant in that process. Take a hard look at judicial appointments in general and those recently made in New Brunswick in particular. This is where a real scandal lies but any investigation will uncover too many politically correct rocks that you and Andrew would, I predict, rather not see.
Even though we disagree, I am glad you took the time to read my blog and respond.
Regards,
Rod
Here is an excerpt from Mr. Coyne’s Nayional Post article of April 6th….
Because the arguments the government has used to justify its conduct in this affair could just as well be used in other cases. If it was all normal and above-board this time, it would surely all be normal the next. That is what makes all this so dangerous. Lying about it, covering up, at least acknowledges that something wrong was done. Whereas shrugging it off, in the prime minister’s airy fashion, clouds our very ability to tell right from wrong.
That is where the scandal is, here: less in the scandal itself, than in the attempts to pretend it is not a scandal.
Why is prosecutorial independence such a big deal? Simply, because power, unchecked, tends to be abused.
Contrary to your assessment, Mr. MacLeod, I do know what I am referring to.
Just to set the record straight Mr. McLeod, my gender is male, and I hope that the Liberals DO NOT get re-elected.
But I predict that the Liberals will end up as a minority government propped up by the Greens.
What could possibly go wrong?
Adel: No you don’t!
In fact, you can’t even spell my name correctly.
You live in a fantasy world. Ms. Wilson-Raybould acted like a petulant child when others had the audacity to question a decision she was hell bent on making even though there were better alternatives. She was an over rated, politically correct, incompetent choice as Attorney General and Justice Minister. By trying to be all things to all people the incompetent Trudeau got what he deserved from Wilson-Raybould et al.
Goodbye Adel.
What happened to the “As you can see, I have opinions on myriad topics and I would like to share them with visitors to my website. If you disagree, let me know. Do so in a civil way and I will be respectful in my response.”
I’m not getting any warm and fuzzies from your ‘respectful responses’ yet Roderick.
What gives?
Seems to me that whenever somebody posts a response to a blog that questions your perspective or disagrees with some of your viewpoints, that they are attacked by you as dim witted, uneducated, naive cretins.
Can you not ponder a different perspective and come up with a civil response?