At a press event yesterday morning, Justin Trudeau tried to offer some reassurances around Jody Wilson-Raybould, and only seemed to complicate matters – which didn’t help that everyone seemed to read meaning into what he said that I don’t think was at all was intended. To recap, Trudeau said that back in September, at a time when there was a lot of discussion about the SNC-Lavalin, and the jobs and economic repercussions, Wilson-Raybould asked him if he intended to direct her on how to deal with the issue, and he said no, it was her call; in October, the Public Prosecution Service rejected the notion of giving SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement. He also said that if Scott Brison hadn’t resigned that she would still be in justice, but things get moved around when you start shuffling Cabinet pieces around (which is fair – there are a lot of considerations). This of course turned into a childish game over Twitter about “blame Scott Brison,” which is not only ridiculous, but completely misrepresents what he said. (Note that regarding her poor performance managing her department, Brison’s departure may have been the opportunity to deal with it, but that it was considered manageable until the next election, but I can’t say that I’m privy to those determinations). Oh, and Trudeau also said it was unacceptable for people to be taking shots at Wilson-Raybould, but this was also about eight days after the anonymous grousing started appearing in media reports.

https://twitter.com/InklessPW/status/1096465016100777986

Amidst this, people have started taking a look back at the deferred prosecution portion of the budget implementation bill when it was being debated and studied back in the spring (*coughs*my story once again*coughs*), perhaps to prove that this was something the government snuck through to the benefit of all of that SNC-Lavalin lobbying. While Aaron Wherry finds a voluminous paper trail here, and the chair of the Commons finance committee, Wayne Easter, told Power & Politics that he personally questioned why that section wasn’t being sent to the justice committee, where things get really interesting is before the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee, where those provisions were sent for study. It becomes exceedingly interesting that Wilson-Raybould refused to make herself available to testify on the issue – which is a very bad thing for a minister – and while Senator Serge Joyal, who heads the committee, says that in hindsight she may not have been comfortable with the subject matter if there was pressure (if that is indeed what was happening), we also need to remember that she refused to appear on other bills, which was holding them up because the committee (quite rightly) said no minister, no bill. Since she was shuffled, Lametti has agreed to appear before the committee on those bills. This kind of truculent behaviour should be taken into consideration when people think that she was doing a “great” job (she wasn’t), but even when she did appear to answer questions, the only thing she’d ever say was how proud she was of the job she was doing (another strike on her record).

Former BC premier Christy Clark affirmed Trudeau’s line that if Wilson-Raybould had a problem and was feeling unduly pressured that she had a duty to say something and resign, which she didn’t. And as a related note, here’s a closer look at the principles of Cabinet secrecy that Trudeau has noted are a consideration in what’s going on here, and how Trudeau has the prerogative to invoke it or not.

In other related news, a former SNC-Lavalin executive had his obstruction of justice charge stayed because it “timed out” under the Jordan principles outlined by the Supreme Court of Canada. As for SNC-Lavalin’s pursuit of a deferred prosecution agreement, here is an explainer of what kind of process a company would need to go through for a prosecutor to consider granting them one, and why it’s not simply paying a fine.

Meanwhile, Andrew Coyne insists that because SNC-Lavalin couldn’t meet the tests necessary to even qualify for a DPA that there shouldn’t have been any reason for Trudeau and Wilson-Raybould to talk about one, while Paul Wells looks at the polling numbers on the issue, and finds Trudeau’s credibility lagging Wilson-Raybould’s on the issue.

Good reads:

• Veterans Affairs is letting disability claims be suspended until April 1^st, which allows veterans to get the new pension-for-life option (and helps with their backlog).
• More complaints about conduct by CBSA officers reiterates that we still have no independent oversight for the agency, and Goodale says they’re “working on it.”
• The first of the used Australian F-18s we purchased will arrive on Sunday, and begin refurbishment.
• In the VADM Mark Norman pre-trail, the Crown turned over unredacted documents to prove there was no collusion with PCO on trial strategy.
• Here’s a look at that convoy headed for Ottawa, with their incoherent messages and “Yellow Vesters” spouting racist conspiracy theories.
• Liberal MP Bill Casey says that the RCMP won’t release a report on their moving one of their emergency call centres from his riding to an hour away.
• Andrew Scheer is warning that there will be consequences if the justice committee doesn’t accede to Conservative demands for witnesses next week.
• NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau claims that the Liberals approached her to run for them instead, but she refused. (Call me dubious, and nobody verified this tale).
• The NDP’s director of communications is leaving the job after less than a year, amidst other staff departures.
• The leader of the one of the largest labour unions in the country says the NDP isn’t connecting with unions or Canadians these days.
• Newspaper reports in the UK say that former Canadian High Commissioner Gordon Campbell is being investigated for sexual assault during his time in office.
• Susan Delacourt writes about the trust divide that is widening in Canada, and how that may play out in the coming election.

Odds and ends:

The Senate is completing their move, and will sit on Tuesday.

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