Good morning,
The Globe and Mail dropped a bombshell investigation on Parliament Hill last week when we reported that the Prime Minister’s Office had put pressure on then-minister of justice Jody Wilson-Raybould to make her department go easy on Montreal construction giant SNC-Lavalin.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who last week denied “directing” Ms. Wilson-Raybould to do anything in particular, says he does now recall having talks with his minister about the criminal investigation against SNC-Lavalin. “She confirmed for me a conversation we had this fall where I told her directly that any decisions on matters involving the director of public prosecutions were hers alone,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters.
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion now says he’s looking into the case. The Globe reported last week that Ms. Wilson-Raybould had been under pressure to override the decision of the director of public prosecutions and direct it to reach a settlement with SNC-Lavalin over corruption charges, an outcome that would avoid a public trial.
Meanwhile, the relationship between the Prime Minister’s Office and the director of public prosecutions came up in an unrelated case yesterday: the pre-trial of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman. His defence lawyer alleged in court yesterday that the Privy Council Office (the office of government that works most closely with the Prime Minister) was collaborating with the crown prosecutor in the case against Vice-Adm. Norman. “So much for the independence of the PPSC,” Justice Heather Perkins-McVey interjected.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
The Liberals re-election strategy runs straight through Quebec, where the party holds half of the province’s 78 seats federally and hopes to win a lot more this fall. A new poll from Léger shows Mr. Trudeau is the most popular federal leader in the province, with nearly half of respondents having a positive impression of him. That’s about the same number as those who have negative view of him, though the anti-Trudeau vote is currently split among the Conservatives, Bloc Québécois, Greens, People’s Party and NDP.
Mr. Trudeau campaigned in Burnaby, B.C., yesterday and said he had no doubt that his Liberals would win the seat in an upcoming by-election – and that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh would not. “Nobody make any mistake: The Liberal party is going to win this riding of Burnaby South,” Mr. Trudeau told supporters.
The federal government is spending more and more of its advertising dollars on foreign-owned social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Troll accounts purported to be from Russia, Iran and Venezuela waded into Canadian debates on Twitter about such issues as pipelines, a CBC analysis shows.
And in Venezuela, embattled president Nicolas Maduro is threatening violence to prevent aid from Canada, the U.S. and other countries reaching Venezuelans who desperately need it.
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on Trudeau and SNC-Lavalin: “The SNC-Lavalin affair is potentially as big as the sponsorship or Senate expense scandals. Senior advisers to the Prime Minister might have put pressure on a justice minister to strike a plea deal with a Quebec firm that has historic ties to the Liberal Party, and might have demoted her within cabinet when she refused.”
Andrew Coyne (National Post) on the case against SNC-Lavalin: “The company claims it should be spared prosecution because it has changed personnel and overhauled its corporate culture since the days when it was notorious for bribing public officials to win contracts, around the world and in Canada. But it’s surely worth noting that it was under the bad old corporate culture that the company grew into the colossus it is today. The practices for which it now asks to avoid charges, on the grounds that it is too big to fail, are the very sorts of practices that helped make it so big. Is there a more literal application of the old joke about the kid who kills his parents, then asks for leniency on the grounds that he’s an orphan?”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Trudeau’s electoral prospects in Quebec: “At the moment, Mr. Trudeau’s big advantage is that he is up against three, or four or five opponents. ... If it stays that way, Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals will virtually run the table in Quebec, winning nearly all of its 78 seats. That would make them hard to beat nationally.”
Ihsaan Gardee (The Globe and Mail) on Islamophobia: “When I speak to Québec Muslims, they talk tensely about being accustomed to being talked down, to being vilified in the news media and to being viewed by the political class as useful foils and second-class citizens. In other words, the fertile ground upon which the deadly mosque attack was able to take shape continues to be watered.”
Daphne Bramham (Vancouver Sun) on the Burnaby by-election: “Yet, even if NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh weren’t running there, the Burnaby South byelection race is a crazy one. It’s a swirling stew of division over race, patriotism, sexuality and the decidedly less sexy issues of pipelines, housing affordability and the Liberals’ record.”
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Chris Hannay