Roundup: Independence and intense discussions

Posted on by

As we’re still discussing the SNC-Lavalin/Jody Wilson-Raybould issue, we’ll start off with an interview with the Director of Public Prosecutions on her independence from political pressure, and why she opted not to enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin, as well as why their quest for judicial review is foolhardy. Elsewhere, “senior officials” say that intense discussions with Wilson-Raybould on the SNC-Lavalin issue did take place, but that there’s nothing wrong with that. David Lametti took to television to say that he doesn’t see any evidence to warrant the justice committee’s investigation, but it’s up to them to decide. It also sounds like the Liberals on the justice committee are going to turn down the motion to launch an investigation, so expect more howling about this over the week to come.

While we wait for the committee, Andrew Scheer has written to the PM to demand that he waive solicitor-client privilege with Wilson-Raybould, under the ham-handed threat that failure to do so means that he has something to hide. Scheer, it has also been noted, also met with SNC-Lavalin lobbyists on their criminal charge issues and deferred prosecution agreements, but Scheer won’t say what his positions on them are.

Amidst this, there are a few more anonymous Liberal voices grousing about Wilson-Raybould in the media now, saying that she was more about herself than the team, and that she only ever showed up to Indigenous caucus once.

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1094736733609095168

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1094738844275097600

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1094750943793442816

Meanwhile, University of Ottawa law professor Craig Forcese walks through the public law principles at stake, and the fact that we don’t really know just what is being implied because the terms used interchangeably in the original Globe story all mean different things, which makes the nuance of this situation inherently tricky. Keeping Forcese’s analysis in mind, Susan Delacourt hears from her “senior officials” that the PM still has confidence in Wilson-Raybould and that he plans to meet with her before the next Cabinet meeting, and they continue to dispute the account in the Globe and Mail, citing that if they had attempted undue influence that she would have resigned out of principle, and she did not.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Burnaby South to campaign for his candidate there.
  • Navdeep Bains talks to the Financial Post about the government’s innovation agenda.
  • The US has started giving more exemptions to China for steel and aluminium tariffs, and not Canada, which makes no sense to anybody.
  • The US Ambassador to Canada, Kelly Craft, is speaking out about the concerns around the Canadians detained in China, calling the detentions “unacceptable.”
  • The Royal Canadian Air Force is looking for ways to stop haemorrhaging experienced pilots (amidst a global shortage).
  • The Saskatchewan court case against the carbon tax gets underway this week.
  • Andrew Scheer’s wife, Jill, is looking forward to the life of campaigning on the road across the country with her husband.
  • The NDP’s campaign co-chair says that money woes mean that the party may have to focus on ridings they think they can win in the next election.
  • Brian Pallister has accomplished the social media miracle of being on vacation in Costa Rica while tweeting about the snow in Winnipeg. (Yes, he has staff).
  • Blaine Higgs is joining Doug Ford to claim that a carbon tax will cause a recession, in defiance of all logic, history, or research.
  • Kevin Carmichael looks at the subsidies to the video game industry in Quebec at a time of labour shortages, and what the longer-term implications are.
  • My weekend column wondered just how much of Trudeau’s agenda will be able to survive a Senate whose Order Paper crisis doesn’t look to be abating.

Odds and ends:

Vibrations in the new Senate building are wreaking havoc on some of the new cameras, as the Chamber gets set to broadcast next month.

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

4 thoughts on “Roundup: Independence and intense discussions”

  1. Hi – there’s a small typo in the first line of your last full paragraph. You have Frocese instead of Forcese.

  2. If ever, this SNC kerfuffle is a prime example of “fake news.”
    No names, no emails, no interviews, no corroboration and no evidence. The Globe sells its papers, reporters get paid and the other networks and media jump like fleas to a skunks back to put their spin on a non issue. Of course, policy bereft Scheer tries as always to make a mountain out of a molehill. A whole lot of nothing for nothing, just like making sure that you get chided for a spelling mistake. Like a lot of things today, instant crisis, quicker reaction, no thought.

    • I’m pretty sure this isn’t actually a case of “fake news,” but it does raise a lot of questions, and not the ones that I think many journalists are looking for. That’s why we need to be a bit more critical in how we are thinking about the journalism being employed here.

Comments are closed.