Trudeau in Trouble?
There are some very interesting things going on in Canada right now.
1. For my American and British friends: Canada's Justin Trudeau is done. He might try to fight on; I personally think he's too damaged. He's irreparably damaged. Here's what happened in a few short tweets. pic.twitter.com/E57BxWPKhK
— Ezra Levant đ (@ezralevant) February 28, 2019
In a stunning appearance before the House of Commons justice committee Wednesday, former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould accused the entire senior ranks of the federal government of making âveiled threatsâ against her while attempting to interfere politically in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
Sitting alone at a table in a packed basement room in Parliamentâs West Block, Wilson-Raybould told the committeeâs MPs that over a four-month period in late 2018 she was pressured by finance minister Bill Morneau and his staff, Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, senior aides in the Prime Ministerâs Office including former principal secretary Gerald Butts and chief of staff Katie Telford, and even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself â all of whom were eager for her to direct federal prosecutors to defer the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on corruption and fraud charges and negotiate a remediation agreement instead.
âFor a period of approximately four months between September and December of 2018 I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people in the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion,â Wilson-Raybould said.
"I was taught to always hold true to your core values, principles and to act with integrity. I come from a long line of matriarchs and I am a truth-teller in accordance with the laws and traditions of our big house. This is who I am and who I always will be." – @Puglaas #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/YLbqngXXXf
— Connie Walker (@connie_walker) February 27, 2019
more of an indepth story (a lot more negative toward Trudeau than it sounds from the headline) from boring, credible, mainstream news source CTV, here:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/trudeau-completely-disagrees-with-wilson-raybould-saying-she-was-pressured-on-snc-lavalin-1.4314776
My gut says it’s probably true, given that Liberal corruption is exactly what turfed them out of office last time. (To be replaced by Harper’s conservatives who were also extremely corrupt, in different ways….)
But my gut was a card-carrying member of the NDP until I left the country, so it may not be super trustworthy.Report
The general crux of the scandal is likely true. The weird thing about it is most of the principles at the time thought they were doing the right thing and so were caught completely wrong footed when it blew up in their faces. Worse, the ones most up to the neck in the issue were likely being incredibly dumb while they thought they were being clever.Report
The NDP card is accepted at all major worker owned co-ops and collectives. Don’t leave your home without it.Report
Thanks for the CTV link. I wouldn’t trust Ezra Levant’s summary of what he ate for breakfast.
I personally have no doubt that what Wilson-Raybould says is true. I just don’t know to what extent that degree of pressure is normal.
The ridiculous thing is that if the Liberals lose the election over this, we’ll get the Conservatives, who would definitely do this and worse.
The NDP are led by a man so apparently victory-averse that in the hour of his triumph, having just finally gained a seat in a by-election, he declined an invitation to appear on CBC’s The Current.
I’ll still vote NDP as I always have, because our local NDP candidate is awesome and whip-smart, and it won’t matter because my riding would elect An Actual Potato (CPC) (and is currently represented by a CPC MP only slightly smarter and thicker skinned, and considerably more cozy with white supremacism, than an actual potato.)Report
@dragonfrog Yeah, my immediate reaction, having been out of the news cycle for the last couple weeks was “hm, sounds like a thing, but whenever these kind of sources start talking about how MSM is going to IGNORRRRRRRRRE this VERY SERIOUS OFFFFFFFFFFENCE, there’s really only a 50 percent or less chance it’s a thing.”
And generally if it does turn out to be a thing, as this certainly is, there will be plenty of MSM coverage. Especially in Canada. (Will being interested in it of course tipped me in the other direction, toward it being reliable info.)Report
Does the National Post count? From what I understand they lean right, but I included them because I thought they were nonetheless credible.Report
Honestly, and this is definitely my error, so I apologize:
I failed to notice that Financial Post link among all the tweets etc, and would have been more careful to caveat what I said if I had. They’re not in the same league of dubiousness and outrage-twisting as Ezra Levant / Rebel Media and they weren’t among the sources I read, following on from your other links, which were talking about how the MSM was Not Going To Cover This. That was the thing that made me sniffy, how the sources themselves (again, excluding the Post) and/or their commenters were raving about the MSM. That’s usually a bad sign, the raving itself I mean. That’s why I started looking for MSM coverage that would be the sort of thing Ezra Levant would call MSM. (He doesn’t hate the Post and conveniently excludes them from his definitions, last I checked, which might be out of date, because I don’t pay that much attention to him because, well, I only have so much political space in my brain and I try to keep the frothing-at-the-mouth out of it, unless they’re really smart or really attractive to maribous.)
That said, since I’m answering the question due to my own lack of attention, I still wouldn’t trust them – too many years of shoddy reporting under their belts – but I’m also skeptical of the NY Times and the New Republic in this country, so I may be overly willing to look askance . My sister, who generally leans fairly hard to smaller-C conservative (which in Canada still means she can be feminist and pro-choice and pro-indigenous-rights, which I mention just in case there are folks who are overlaying US conservative onto Canadian conservative here) but is not a fan of the Conservative party as presently constituted, sees the Post as “worth investigating further” but not as credible.
The Toronto Sun is run by the same company as the Post, and leans further right on average than the Post does, but I generally find it to be significantly more factually reliable. Which is weird given that they share some content, but there it is. I dunno, I feel like somebody at the Sun still has their b-s meter functioning, or something, that the Post has lacked for as long as I can remember.
I except the Financial Post, which is a subsection of the National Post in the physical paper, but far more trustworthy in practice….Report
National Post is entirely credible, although their editorial line leans heavily to the right. Basically a Wall Street Journal situation.
Ezra Levant is such a joke that he tends to discredit any side he’s on merely by being on it. He’s more of a scare up donations from frightened old people grifter than legit commentator these days. He had a legit pundit career he pissed away through repeated acts of pointless and ill-conceived jackassery and being too cosy with obvious rather than veiled bigotry.Report
Oh it’s getting lots of coverage here in MSM. Every TV news network, both major national papers and every local paper with aspirations to a national news section.Report
@stephan-cooper It’s been a long time since I was exposed to the National Post regularly, but the not-joke we used to say about them vs the G&M when I lived on the Island was something like:
At least the Globe and Mail can collectively find PEI on a map that doesn’t have labels on it.
I mean, when I lived down East as a kid, the grown-ups used to say that at least the Eastern Graphic could collectively find the 48 road on a map of the Island *with* the labels on (when we were ragging on the Guardian, then the Charlottetown Guardian), so it’s just a saying we have in general about the crappiness of certain groups of people’s ability to look outside their own region, I guess.
And in the case of the national papers, it’s not exactly flattery, more of a “eejits vs. friggin’ eejits” type distinction.
All that to say, it’s entirely possible I’m unfairly biased against them.Report
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The forces of Neo-Fascism are being given a lot of help by the general ineptness of many of its’ opponents. NDP really doesn’t stand a chance to win. The Conservatives are going to get to govern with a minority in parliament.Report
The Conservatives very much have their own problems from their right flank right now, and have tended to stick their feet into it whenever they’re getting media attention. This is also a scandal that its hard to tell from the outset if it will end up resonating with the voters or not.
So while you might not be wrong, there’s so many moving parts to this that its hard to say much for sure right now.Report
This is the failure of politics. Or perhaps it’s the amazing success of it. Depends on if you are part of the machine or not, I guess.
When the other side is seen as so far beyond the pale that you have no choice but to openly tolerate bad behavior from your own side, behavior you would never tolerate from the other, it makes hypocrites of us all. And the only winners are the ethically, morally flexible politicians who retain power regardless of their behavior.Report
This doesn’t look good, I will say that much. But in the age of Trump, who can say what political scandal brings someone under….Report
Oh no! Actual media companies have noticed!Report
Yeah looks like Justin stepped in it though it’s a tch muddled as to if he was just doing normal business and stepped on a land mine or something nefarious. It’s going to throw the whole election up in the air.Report
Striking a blow against Fascism!Report
I am subscribed to a one-Mi’kmaq-word-a-day facebook page and today’s word is ….
ki’wajiaq (honest). Example sentence: Ki’wajiaq ta’n teluet (He/she is telling the truth).
Over a picture of Jody Wilson-Raybould.
Elegantly done, I thought, and indicative to me that this is more than a tempest in a teapot – it’s the first time I’ve ever seen them make a political comment in a few years’ worth of following the page.
(For those that don’t know, Mi’kmaq is the language of some First Nations people on the East Coast of Canada, Wilson-Raybould is an MP from the West Coast. First Nations solidarity alone is not why this page is suddenly taking a political stance….)Report
Is Crying Justin the new Crying Jordan?Report
I was disappointed when I read about this last night. Trudeau has one saving grace for himself-he islikable in liberal Canada but if voters continue excusing unethical and immoral behavior from our leaders, then weâre not asking for leadership-were just wanting to win at all costs. He should step down.Report