As if the WE Imbroglio couldn’t get any more ridiculous, Bill Morneau stepped up to the plate yesterday and drove it to an all new level of lunacy by declaring that he had just repaid some $40,100 in travel costs to WE after they sent him and his wife on tours of some of their operations, and he didn’t realize that they hadn’t been billed for the full costs. WE later said that they were ostensibly free trips because the pair are well-known philanthropists, and these kinds of trips help showcase their work to potential donors. It would also appear that these weren’t reported to the Ethics Commissioner, if I’m reading it correctly, so that means even more problems for Morneau coming at him. (And before you make the joke, no, Morneau did not previously “forget” about his French villa – he incorrectly reported its ownership structure).
Morneau was, of course, appearing at the Finance committee to answer questions on the WE Imbroglio, and this sent Pierre Poilievre and Charlie Angus in particular over the edge. Already there were more questions raised about the contract with WE over the student grant programme because they had signed it with one of the charity’s holding companies, but that may have been about limiting liabilities, so it could be explained away, but it has all become byzantine both from a lack of government candour (shocking, I know), and because the opposition has constructed conspiratorial narratives that have taken any facts and shaped them in the darkest way possible, so as to make it difficult to figure out what is going on.
And this is only going to spiral from here on out. While the Conservatives and Bloc are now howling for Bill Morneau to resign, both Justin Trudeau and his chief of staff, Katie Telford, have agreed to appear at committee at a future date to be negotiated, so that is going to be nothing shy of a circus. And because the circus did not have enough monkeys, conspiracy theorist Vivian Krause also appeared at committee yesterday, for some unknown reason, to assert – with no evidence – that WE was passing along information to the Liberal Party for their voter identification database (which was denied by both WE and the Liberals), and yet this was being brought up in the Commons, and in some irresponsible reporting.
https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1286029728982478848
Meanwhile, Justin Ling has a broad exploration of the bigger picture of what the whole Imbroglio says about this government and WE, particularly when it comes to the power of branding. Heather Scoffield lists the ways in which Bill Morneau has managed to be off-side because he’s blind to the ethics implications of his decisions. And to remind everyone about this column I wrote a couple of weeks ago about why it was time for Morneau to be shuffled from Cabinet before all of this WE business started up, which really starts to look like it’s untenable that he remain in the position much longer, not only because he can’t communicate, can’t deal with the business community, and now because it’s unavoidable that he is completely blind to his ethical obligations.
Good reads:
- The Federal Court ruled that the Safe Third Country Agreement with the US is unconstitutional, that the US is not a “safe country” to turn asylum seekers back to.
- The government is quietly letting it be known that they are “exploring all options” with regards to the situation at Rideau Hall, while the NDP demand an investigation.
- The Secretary to the Governor General doesn’t admit to the verbal harassment but says they’ll do better to make Rideau Hall a safe workplace. Sure, Jan.
- The Information Commissioner found possible offences under the Access to Information Act regarding requests about former VADM Mark Norman.
- The Manitoba government wasted months getting data to the federal government about the costs of grain drying, and farmers lost out in carbon price compensation.
- Former national security lawyer Leah West walks through the recent Federal Court decision on CSIS’ activities, and why things were able to reach that point.
- Kevin Carmichael explores how Canadian firms might just be able to benefit from the US’ economic malaise resulting from the pandemic and protectionism.
Odds and ends:
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I sadly agree that Morneau is going to have to be the sacrificial lamb in all of this. Arguably his “conflicts” are worse than the PM’s, and it does make me wonder why he didn’t tell Trudeau either. The paragraph in Scoffield’s piece about Katimavik made me sad, because it again reinforces the unfortunate reality that Trudeau has a tendency to get overenthusiastic and think with his heart. Which is why it’s going to be really painful for both men if he has to make the tough decision of asking Morneau to resign.
This doesn’t mean Morneau is guilty of any “wrongdoing” per se, and I don’t think he’s a bad person no matter what the populist pitchfork platoon thinks of wealthy people in general. Politically speaking, however, he will have to go for the government’s survival, and so they can hopefully staunch this nonsense before the second wave, the return of Parliament in September, and a possible spring election. Trudeau needs to get that majority back and stave off the Conservatives (who would be absolutely barbaric in their austerity-driven management of the recovery), so that if any more hiccups occur he can shut them down and get back to the business of actually governing, rather than be distracted by points-dunking BS.
Morneau’s departure won’t satisfy the howler monkeys calling for Trudeau to step down, and I really hope he doesn’t, but it may be enough to get this over and done with sooner rather than later, at least in the minds of the voting public. It might even be better for Morneau considering all the racist venom being spewed out towards his daughter. I’m sure Jesse Brown is proud of himself for the destruction he’s caused. I’m not surprised he shared a stage with Krause the kook. He’s the Ezra Levant of Joe Rogans, a textbook narcissist who’s loving the fact that he gets to be star attraction and ringmaster in the horror circus of his creation. Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends.
Oh, and I just read about the McCarthy “Ethics” Committee commencing their witch hunt into the past *12 years* of the Trudeau family’s personal life. This is absolute blackmail. I sincerely hope dragging a 71-year-old woman with mental health issues and her loved ones through the mud for a political dunking contest against her son the prime minister *during a pandemic* backfires and blows up in their face. How anyone can defend this is unfathomable, but that’s the incurable sickness of Trudeau derangement syndrome for you. After this shameless display of gleeful persecution, I hope to see the whole lot of them file massive lawsuits. If Trudeau resigns in protest to protect his family, the NDP and CPC should be sued into oblivion. This has nothing to do with CSSG. This is a witch hunt and nothing more.