Canada’s conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, Mario Dion, found that Justin Trudeau’s pressuring of Jody Wilson-Raybould to interfere in the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin broke federal ethics rules.
Yes, the Prime Minister of Canada broke the law again. And he probably won’t get punished for it.
This is where the Liberals and the media want the story to end. They want this story to simply be a minor gaffe on Trudeau’s part.
Justin messed up again. Move along! Nothing to see here, folks.
But this scandal is much bigger than Canadians realize.
Under Trudeau’s watch, the Canadian government became an arm of SNC-Lavalin, Canada’s biggest engineering firm. The Canadian government worked for SNC-Lavalin.
As Jonathan Kay explains in a series of tweets, SNC-Lavalin was essentially able to turn the entire PMO and major ministries into its personal lobbying operation.
SNC-Lavalin successfully changed Canada’s constitutional system so it could get off the hook for alleged crimes it committed.
Those crimes?
SNC-Lavalin is facing federal corruption charges associated with its business dealings in Libya. SNC-Lavalin had a “cozy relationship” with the son of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The company allegedly hired prostitutes for him during a visit to Canada a decade ago.
In the ethics commissioner’s report, it was revealed that it was SNC-Lavalin that originally suggested to the government a budget implementation bill should be used to introduce deferred prosecution agreements to Canada. As a result, in 2018, the Trudeau government quietly introduced legislation to provide for deferred prosecution agreements in Canada in the government’s 582-page budget legislation.
In contrast, when SNC-Lavalin approached the Harper government, they were turned away.
Trudeau’s defence is that he was trying to “save jobs”. But this was never about saving jobs – SNC-Lavalin admitted such.
The fact is that Justin Trudeau was willing to change our constitutional system for his friends at SNC-Lavalin.
The Canadian government has been corrupted.
This is why Canadians should pay attention to this scandal.
The federal government should operate in the best interests of Canadians, not in the interests of large corporations.
