It's time, Susan Delacourt writes, to know the full story behind the SNC-Lavalin Affair. It has sucked all of the air out of the room:
The saga of former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and SNC-Lavalin has now consumed six full weeks of federal politics. It has eclipsed the federal budget and pretty much anything else that may be on the Trudeau government’s agenda.
Remember those Canadians being held in China, including one facing the death penalty? The international panel warning that the world has 12 years to get its act together on climate change or face environmental catastrophe?
And yet everyone -- even Jane Philpott -- is playing coy:
Philpott’s interview with Maclean’s, with no disrespect to interviewer or interviewee, was baffling in many parts. She confirms that she knew a full month before the SNC-Lavalin story broke — and warned the prime minister — that Wilson-Raybould would see this as the cause for bouncing her out of her job as justice minister.
“I think Canadians might want to know why I would have raised that with the prime minister a month before the public knew about it,” Philpott said.
However, there are things that Philpott has chosen not to talk about -- for instance, her meeting with Mr. Trudeau over the shuffling Wilson-Raybould out of Justice:
Trudeau waived solicitor-client privilege for the period of time during which Wilson-Raybould was justice minister. She was still justice minister when Philpott spoke to him. Trudeau has spoken freely about this meeting, and did again on Thursday, in the hours after the Maclean’s story was published.
He said, intriguingly, that Philpott herself had offered to help him soften the career blow to Wilson-Raybould in moving from justice to the Indigenous services portfolio, which was the original idea of the now-infamous cabinet shuffle.
“She then mentioned it might be a challenge for Jody Wilson-Raybould to take on the role of Indigenous services and I asked her for her help, which she gladly offered to give,” Trudeau said.
From that account, it doesn’t sound like Philpott left the meeting with an urgent need to tell Canadians of what she knew about SNC-Lavalin, or call the police or some parliamentary authority. She still hasn’t said what she knows. Why not?
All of this is self-destructive. And the Liberals have a history of forming circular firing squads. Sour grapes could destroy the Trudeau government.
Image: moralmatters.org
8 comments:
I doubt that there are many Canadians, other than those supporting the Conservatives, Owen, who want this tawdry saga to continue much longer. I was watching the At Issue panel last night on the National, and their frustration and impatience with this political strip-tease was very evident. Time for Philpott to either put up or shut up.
I agree, Lorne. Playing peek-a-boo is in no one's interest.
I've diverted my attention from SNC-L to more scintillating events across the pond in Westminster. I continue to criticize the government but mainly for something that really matters, its pathetic indifference to climate change.
It's time to withdraw from this hyper-partisanship that is now morphing into toxic tribalism. Politics in Canada has turned rancid just as it did in the US, a contagion that has also spread to Australia.
A thoughtful guy recently raised that old saw about how you can only change politics from within. I replied that might have been valid 20 years ago but no longer. We don't have time left for slow-motion change. We should be packing up the petro-state but, instead, we're focused on expanding it rapidly.
And so I'm giving up on the Liberal versus Tory contest. I'm working on ways to back those young people in their climate strike movement. I see nothing to be had in traditional politics any more. A pox on all their houses.
This ongoing saga has gone on long enough,. Perhaps Warren Kinsella is enjoying this, but the rest of us, not so much. The Conservatives need to move on. They looked down right silly voting against the RCMP and the Military budget. In case they didn't know, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Kelowna and a host of other cities and town are policed by the RCMP in B.C.
If the Liberal Government had fallen during the Budget, they would have gone into an election, for which they may not have been prepared. As it was Scheer didn't seem to be there all that much, seeing as it was his party, he ought to have stayed.
As to JWR and Philpot, what ever is going on, please don't sink the party while you're at it. Even those of us who aren't federal Liberals have no interest in seeing a Conservative Party in office. We're still getting over having them in office for 9 years, or have some of them forgotten how awful those times were.
As I recall one of the first things Harper did was defund all women's organizations in Canada, which were in receipt of federal monies. that didn't turn out so well. Scheer is just as nasty as Harper, just not as smart.
It was interesting to watch Chantal Hebert last night on CBC.
I hope the kids can gain some traction, Mound. The folks in office these days are just spinning their wheels.
Chantal has lost patience with both Philpott and JWR, e.a.f. It's clear she thinks Trudeau should escort them to the door.
What I'd like to know Owen is who suggested this law in the first place, and that it be placed in that omnibus bill. They'll say it was a team effort but one person thought of it first. BM?
TheDude
Apparently, it came from the Liberal Brain Trust, Dude. But the EU has such arrangements. And, after Canada signed the EU Trade Deal, we had to get in line and come up with something similar.
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