The Trudeau government’s Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu signed off on recommendations allowing eight southwestern Ontario corporations to not face punishment for incorrectly hiring approximately 615 Mexican and Jamaican migrants under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program’s farmworker classification for five years — in contravention of labour regulations.
The TFWP caused an uproar with the Canadian public back in 2013 when it was revealed RBC was replacing dozens of its Canadian employees with temporary foreign workers.
British activist Tommy Robinson might be headed back to jail now that the United Kingdom attorney general has ordered a new contempt of court hearing.
Despite Robinson’s controversial past, his case is one to which Canadians should pay attention.
True North’s Andrew Lawton, who exposed British media conspiring to lie about Robinson when in the United Kingdom last year to cover the case, explains where things are and what lies ahead.
As controversy mounts about alleged interference by the Prime Minister’s Office into former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould’s handling of the SNC-Lavalin file, five former attorneys general have called on the RCMP to investigate the allegations.
The letter, addressed to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, highlights the “disturbing pattern of events” Wilson-Raybould, who was demoted within cabinet in January and ultimately resigned last month, claims to have experienced at the hands of Liberal officials.
Former federal attorneys general Peter MacKay and Douglas Grinslade Lewis signed the letter, as well as Jonathan Denis of Alberta, Cecil Clarke of Nova Scotia, and British Columbia’s Colin Gabelmann. Gabelmann served in BC’s NDP government in the early 90s, while the other signatories were all a part of conservative administrations.
All five cite their legal knowledge in saying this must be an RCMP matter.
“As the Honourable Wilson-Raybould said in her testimony, ‘I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion,’” the letter reads.
“Per section 139(2) of the Criminal Code, it is prohibited to attempt to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice. We believe that there are reasonable and probable grounds to suspect that the conduct of the Prime Minister’s Office has crossed that threshold.”
Wilson-Raybould alleged in her testimony to the Justice Committee that high ranking government officials pressured her for many months to give a beneficial deferred prosecution agreement to engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, superseding the independent director of public prosecutions’ refusal to do so.
“We believe that there are reasonable and probable grounds to suspect that the conduct of the Prime Minister’s Office has crossed that threshold,” the letter says.
“In our shared view, ordinary Canadians, who do not benefit from political connections, have been charged under these sections with much less evidence.”
Wilson-Raybould said last week before the justice committee that the interference was unsuccessful because she refused to capitulate to the PMO’s demands, though MacKay said that doesn’t mean the situation doesn’t warrant a criminal probe.
“It seems to me quite obvious what was being attempted here,” he says.
“Did obstruction occur? It’s not ‘Did it occur?’, it’s ’Were there attempts?’ And the attempts, in my opinion, and these are my words, were persistent and pernicious and willful.”
Two-thirds of Canadians believe there is a “deeper scandal” in the Prime Minister’s Office regarding SNC-Lavalin and that the firm should receive criminal prosecution rather than a deferred prosecution agreement.
The five ended by requesting that the RCMP do more to address this scandal.
“We write today to urge you to ensure that you use all resources at your disposal to fully and fairly investigate any potential criminality and provide Canadians with the truth in this crucial matter, as it strikes at the core of the rule of law and independence of our justice system.”
“What’s the big deal?” That’s what some people out there are asking about Lavscam, those who have been swept up in the arguments Liberal voices have put forward to muddy the waters.
Arguments such as: We had to protect the jobs. Or, it was nothing but a bit of “lawful advocacy”, as Michael Wernick put it. Or, Jody Wilson-Raybould just experienced things differently than the three powerful men who have so far testified.
None of that is the issue though. The question isn’t whether SNC-Lavalin was about to go bankrupt (they were not), or whether they were about to leave the country (they were not), or even whether they were actually eligible for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement in the first place (they were not, it seems – ironic, given that the law seems to have been tailored directly for them).
No, those arguments are all red-herrings. They are distractions to send us all down a different rabbit hole and talk about secondary issues. Likewise all of the conversations about the politics of this – whether Trudeau can “turn a page” on this and whether or not he will lose the election because of this scandal. Valid topics of conversation, for sure. But not the main event.
What is the main event? Simple: Did the persistent and aggressive lobbying that Jody Wilson-Raybould received constitute obstruction of justice? Yes or no. Right now, we don’t know. If you take her testimony as the most credible – which it certainly was – then don’t be surprised if the RCMP issue charges in the coming weeks.
It is tough to overstate how bad it is for the integrity of our country if an elected politician wades into a criminal prosecution to save a corporation from prosecution. This is just not the sort of thing that happens in Canada. This is what happens in those Eastern European and South American countries where politicians are routinely sent to the slammer for their political misdeeds.
Maybe you’re willing to cut Trudeau some slack on this one. Maybe you’re willing to give him a pass because this is just one time, right? It’s not like he’s doing this regularly. It’s not like he’s telling prosecutors to go after specific individuals for political reasons, right? Don’t be so sure.
What compounds Lavscam is the Mark Norman trial, also before the courts right now. The former head of the Navy is facing one charge of breach of trust. But his lawyer Marie Henein is trying to get it dismissed on the grounds of political interference. They believe the PMO pushed for these charges and are currently subpoenaing documents to prove their case.
If true, we have a very troubling trend. We have Canada slipping away, undergoing a phenomenon that academics call “democratic backsliding”. We’ve been an example of how things should be done for other countries for years. Instead, we’re now picking up some of the bad habits of those countries.
This is why Lavscam matters so much, why it is a test case for what sort of country Canada wants to be in the decades to come.
A British member of parliament says the Canadian government had a plan to smuggle a former ISIS fighter with dual citizenship from Syria to Canada, but was stopped by a third party.
Jack Letts, 23, better known as “Jihadi Jack,” has been in prison since he was arrested by Kurdish authorities two years ago.
The accusation comes from comments made by British Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle to U.K. media.
Letts, who was born in the United Kingdom, left his hometown of Oxford for Syria in 2014 after converting to Islam.
While he was reported to have joined ISIS, both Letts and his parents deny that’s why he went to the Middle East.
Russell-Moyle told the media that Letts, who has Canadian citizenship through his father, was going to be moved out of Kurdish jail and brought to Canada, but that the plan was foiled by the UK’s home department, though this isn’t confirmed.
“My understanding is that hesitant agreement had been reached with them and the Canadians,” Russell-Moyle said.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has denied that Canada was planning on bringing Letts to Canada, saying that they had no obligation to reach an agreement and claims that the reports of any plan are “categorically false.”
“There is no legal obligation on the government of Canada to repatriate in these circumstances. No offer of repatriation has been made and there’s certainly no deal with the Kurds,” he said.
It’s unclear why Canada would be working to bring Letts to the country when the UK, his birth country, decided against it.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer questioned last October why Canada would be involved at all.
“British terrorist Jihadi Jack, a UK citizen, who may or may not have ever set foot in Canada, reportedly received help from a government representative,” Scheer said in Question Period.
“The Liberals proactively reached out to him to help him come to Canada. Why?”
Canada’s standoff with the Chinese tech giant Huawei deepened Wednesday when the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, appeared at the British Columbia Supreme Court as part of her ongoing extradition trial.
The United States is requesting Meng be extradited from Canada for fraud allegations and circumventing American sanctions on Iran. Meng is currently living in her Vancouver home after being released on $10 million bail.
China apparently retaliated for Meng’s Dec. 1 arrest by detaining two Canadian nationals living in China, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
During Wednesday’s appearance, Meng’s lawyers argued the case’s political implications make it extremely complex, citing President Donald Trump’s comments about using charges against the Huawei CFO as a means to secure a trade deal with China.
Huawei has been at the centre of trade and political disagreements between the United States and China for some time now.
Canada has faced pressure from its own intelligence agency as well as the United States to drop the company from working on its 5G network, citing the espionage risk associated with a company that has suspected ties with the Chinese government.
Meng’s arrest has led to Canada becoming directly involved in an ongoing trade war between the two superpowers.
“There are issues arising out of the treatment of Ms. Meng on her arrival at the Vancouver International Airport and her detention and subsequent arrest. It’s a complex case. I don’t say that lightly,” said one of Meng’s attorney’s, Richard Peck.
The Canadian government has claimed it is following the rule of law on the case and that simply complying with an extradition agreement with its neighbour, the United States.
Peck claims his defence team has made access to information requests to both the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) as it delays setting an extradition hearing date.
In retaliation for her detainment, Meng has filed a civil suit against the federal government, the RCMP superintendent and several CBSA agents for allegedly infringing on her Charter rights by not telling her the reason for her arrest.
Attorney General and Minister of Justice David Lametti says “it depends on the context” when asked whether or not a government should interfere with a criminal prosecution.
The comment was in response to a question from Global News’ Mercedes Stephenson, who asked Lametti on Sunday, “If someone approached you and said an election is at stake, would that be a persuasive argument to you?”
Lametti added that he cannot comment on whether alleged interference from high-ranking Liberals in the SNC-Lavalin case was appropriate because he was not there to observe it.
When asked further, he would not answer whether or not an election would justify interference.
Jody Wilson-Raybould claims to have been harassed with “potential for consequences, and veiled threats” for months to take over prosecution of the Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin to order a deferred prosecution agreement, rather than subject the company to a trial.
One alleged reason for interfering was that by protecting SNC-Lavalin, the Liberals may save jobs and help their reelection bid in the Montreal-area.
In the same interview, Lametti claimed such a deal is a still option for SNC-Lavalin, but refused to say whether or not he’s considering it.
He did say, however, that the government would consider any new information that comes to light.
“I can’t speak to the actual facts [of the SNC-Lavalin affair] but I know that in principle, an attorney general has to remain open so, in that sense, no decision is ever final,” he said.
Lametti, from Montreal, replaced Wilson-Raybould as attorney general and justice minister in a cabinet shuffle which saw her demoted to veterans affairs.
In his first weeks on the job, Lametti argued that the Justice Committee has no need to probe the SNC-Lavalin debacle to determine whether the Justin Trudeau or the Prime Minister’s Office interfered improperly in the SNC-Lavalin case.
This is directly opposed to what Wilson-Raybould alleged last week. As more Canadians and more MPs turn against the Liberals in wake of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Trudeau has continued to claim nothing improper happened.
Less than five months after a United Kingdom judge referred Tommy Robinson’s contempt of court case to the attorney general, a new hearing has been ordered for the English activist.
United Kingdom Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said Thursday that there are “strong grounds” to bring new proceedings against Robinson. The case will be re-heard in London on March 22.
The question of whether Robinson was in contempt of court stems from a live stream he hosted last May outside the Leeds courthouse where a number of now-convicted sex groomers were appearing. Robinson, whose sentence on an earlier contempt finding was suspended, was arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced to 13 months behind bars within a matter of five hours. He was hauled off to prison that very day despite the administrative nature of his offense.
He appealed the conviction in August, prompting a judge to acknowledge numerous errors made by the Leeds judge who prosecuted him. A new hearing was ordered for October at the Old Bailey.
In October, Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard found that Robinson’s statement raised enough doubts about the case that it should be referred to the attorney general, who has been tight-lipped on his plans until issuing his decision Thursday.
I was in the courthouse for that hearing, during which you may remember I overheard British Press Association journalists conspiring to manipulate their coverage of Robinson and his legal ordeal.
Robinson has long maintained that he will end up behind bars regardless, citing the prosecutorial witchhunt that he says has dogged him to this point.
If scheduling permits, I hope to be back in London to cover the case’s latest developments.
Jody Wilson-Raybould accused Justin Trudeau, Gerald Butts and Michael Wernick of putting political considerations ahead of the law in their interactions with her on SNC-Lavalin. When Trudeau, Butts and Wernick each spoke out about this, they pretty well confirmed it. Except to them, protecting Quebec jobs isn’t a matter of politics, but “public policy.”
True North’s Andrew Lawton breaks down the double-speak.
Despite the protestations to the contrary from the Prime Minister, his Principal Secretary Gerald Butts and the Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, whatever else the SNC-Lavalin scandal may be about, the interference by the PMO and the PCO was not about jobs.
No matter how many times they said it, it had nothing to do with 9,000 jobs at SNC-Lavalin or anywhere else. It is nothing more than Liberal spin to try to hide their interference with the corruption prosecution of friends, donors and lobbyists.
SNC-Lavalin was charged in 2015 with corruption charges and fraud charges over allegations of bribery in Libya. Later that year Justin Trudeau got elected and the lobbying began, barely before he got his fancy socks under the desk in the PMO.
The lobbying continued over a couple of years and culminated with the SNC-Lavalin CEO Neil Bruce sending a letter to Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough and copied it to seven other cabinet ministers.
The letter was written on Oct. 13, 2017. He was requesting changes to “the integrity regime” and the creation of a plea-bargain tool known as a “deferred prosecution agreement” or DPA. It is also known as a remediation agreement.
In July of 2018 the Trudeau government included a Criminal Code amendment creating the law for DPA’s buried in a 582 page omnibus budget bill. It became law in early September shortly before Trudeau, Butts et al began pressuring the Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to abandon the criminal corruption prosecution in favour of a DPA with SNC-Lavalin.
Once the scandal broke in a Globe & Mail report last month, at every opportunity the government and the Prime Minister said it was their responsibility to defend jobs. Trying an “ends justifies the means” type of argument to explain why the PMO tried to influence the Attorney General to change the mind of the Director of Public Prosecutions or else SNC-Lavalin might leave and those 9,000 jobs would be lost.
It’s specious logic at best and it turns out it may have been an outright lie to the House of Commons and the Canadian people.
In June of 2017, several months before Bruce’s letter, SNC-Lavalin announced they had sold their Montreal headquarters but had leased the 21-storey building in Downtown Montreal for 20 years. They also announced a substantial renovation on the building and plans to bring together employees scattered in other locations in the city into one main headquarters.
This announcement was made two years after they were charged with corruption and while lobbying the Trudeau government for the DPA amendment to the Criminal Code. I’m guessing they must have believed they would have gotten their criminal prosecution dropped and entered into a remediation agreement. So much so they signed a 20 year lease with GWL, the purchasers of the building.
This whole debacle reeks of the Liberal government doing favours for good friends and significant donors.
Sound familiar?
Indeed, that’s what the Sponsorship Scandal was all about and that gave us the Gomery Inquiry into Liberal corruption, which ultimately reduced the Liberals to third party status.
