fbpx
Tuesday, May 6, 2025

KNIGHT: Testimony only adds fuel to the dumpster fire in the PMO

By
Leo Knight
-

Appearances in front of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights today by former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Gerald Butts and the Clerk of the Privy Council  Michael Wernick threw more fuel on the dumpster fire in the PMO.

Butts started off with a formal statement. Bizarrely, the first words out of his mouth was an admission that they “were on Algonquin land.” Why Butts would inject his opinion or conclusion into something that has been subject to a land claims negotiation that has been going on for years is puzzling.

He then went on to describe how he perceived the interactions between him and the former Attorney General. He said he was just trying to “inform” the AG that there were options and that he was very concerned about the existing 9,000 jobs in Quebec at SNC-Lavalin.

This isn’t the first time the government has used the “jobs” excuse in light of the recent scandal. The Prime Minister has reiterated this numerous times – it should always be the priority of the government to protect and create jobs.

But I have to ask, while Trudeau’s Liberals are willing to change the law to protect 9,000 jobs in Quebec, why didn’t they lift a finger to save the jobs of GM workers in Oshawa? What about the 180,000 jobs lost in the oil and energy sector?

Their “jobs” spin is nothing but fluff.

In Butts’ testimony, he claimed the first he had heard that she had made up her mind in September was when she testified before the same committee last week. This, despite the fact she told the Prime Minister that the decision was made in September. Butts would have us believe that he and his BFF of 30 years didn’t talk about this once that information had been conveyed. It defies credulity.

But then, since the Liberal dominated committee turned down the Conservative motion to have Butts testify under oath, he was free to spout whatever nonsense he wanted without fear of a perjury prosecution.

Butts actually said that people perceive interactions differently, echoing  the same language Justin Trudeau used being accused of groping a local B.C. reporter named Rose Knight in the year 2000.  After the allegations of the Kokanee Grope emerged, Trudeau said this in his defence, “I’m confident that I did not act inappropriately but I think the essence of this is that people can experience interactions differently.”

And there was the smug, pompous sanctimony of Wernick who took umbrage and outrage at folks calling him out on social media after his last testimony before the committee two weeks ago.

Well boo hoo!

He has spent a career living behind the cloak of bureaucratic invisibility while suckling the public teat and whining about it when he gets called on it. Welcome to the real world.

The real problem in all of this is the amendment to the Criminal Code the Liberals brought about as an add-on to their budget legislation last summer allowing for Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPA) or remediation agreements. These are a Liberal dreamed-up scheme seemingly brought into existence, hidden in budget legislation specifically for SNC-Lavalin which was charged with corruption in 2015 over issues on their business in Libya.

SNC-Lavalin CEO Neil Bruce wrote a letter to Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough on October 13, 2017 arguing for just that. He also copied seven other cabinet ministers. He was trying to avoid the requisite 10-year ban on getting government contracts introduced by the Harper government for corporations convicted criminally.

Butts, Trudeau and Wernick all tried to invoke the potential 9,000 job losses in Quebec if SNC-Lavalin was convicted and prevented from getting contacts in Canada. It’s specious logic at best.

SNC-Lavalin does only about 15% of its business in Canada. And even if they were no longer able to compete in Canada, other engineering companies who were awarded those contracts would pick up the available employees to fulfill their commitments.

Secondly, in and of itself it seems to fly in the face of their own law. Section 715.32 (2) of the Criminal Code – the section added in the budget omnibus bill by the Liberals – says, “The prosecutor must not consider the national economic interest, the potential effect on relations with a state other than Canada or the identity of the organization or individual involved.”

Had Jody Wilson-Raybould acquiesced to the reasoning and pressure from the PMO and the PCO, she might well have been in breach of their own hastily-brought legislation.

The dumpster fire has grown larger.


LAWTON: Is Canada’s top “non-partisan” official shilling for Trudeau?

By
Andrew Lawton
-

Privy Council chief Michael Wernick and former principal secretary to the prime minister Gerald Butts testified before the House of Commons’ justice committee today, defending themselves against allegations made last week by Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Except despite their denials, their comments indicate the Prime Minister’s Office did want Wilson-Raybould to reconsider her refusal to interfere in the SNC-Lavalin case.

True North’s Andrew Lawton weighs in following the testimonies.

GORDON: Trudeau government allows companies violating the Temporary Foreign Workers Program go unpunished

By
True North Wire
-

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 foreign workers were hired to work in food processing plants, but were paid a farmworker’s wage of $14 an hour, four dollars less than the standard rate in food processing industry.

Subscriber-only Ottawa news outlet Blacklock’s Reporter obtained — through an access to information request — the memorandum Labour Minister Hajdu signed, and first broke the story at the end of last month.

The names of the companies that hired foreign farm workers for food processing jobs were redacted from the document (along with several other sections of the ten-page document).

“These eight employers have been using [Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program] workers for major food processing or packaging and, since 2013, have benefitted from an exception to the [Labour Market Impact Assessments] processing fee contrary to the [Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations],” says part of the memorandum addressed to Minister Hajdu back in February of 2018.

According to the labour department, the “employers were transparent” in their applications that they were hiring agricultural workers to do food processing work since 2013, and were incorrectly granted hundreds of foreign workers for five years by labour department bureaucrats anyway, despite it being “contrary to the program rules and regulatory requirements.”

“As these employers did not mislead Service Canada in their [Labour Market Impact Assessments] LMIA applications, they were not in contravention of the conditions of employment that were outlined in their decision letter and annexes,” said a spokesperson for Minister Hajdu’s Office. “Service Canada therefore did not impose any administrative monetary penalties against the companies.”

Hiring under the classification of agricultural workers, the memo says the eight corporations had a “distinct advantage over employers using the low wage stream of the TFW Program” because they didn’t have to pay the $1,000 per position processing fee and were only required to advertise the jobs to Canadians for two weeks instead of the four required for temporary foreign workers strictly working in food processing.

The memo to the Labour Minister also noted that the unemployment rate in some communities where some of these food processing plants are located is 6.6%, higher than Ontario’s average of 5.5%. (Many southwestern Ontario communities have lost many manufacturing jobs in recent years.)           

Since the eight companies were only required to advertise for two weeks at the lower farmworker wage before utilizing the TFW program, the memo states this “removed the possibility of employment in the food processing industry for some Canadians at the proper, competitive wage.”

“These employers should have been applying through the Low-Wage Stream for the work that was outlined on their LMIA applications. The positive decision by Service Canada for these employers to use the SAWP for major food processing was an administrative error that was identified and corrected,” said Minister Hajdu’s spokesperson in an email to True North.

“This practice contravenes the regulations, and any other employer applying in a similar manner would either be denied the application or would be found non-compliant,” said the labour department in the memo to Hajdu in February 2018.

The Labour Department also informed Hajdu it would “work closely with the Governments of Jamaica and Mexico, Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and affected employers to make this transition as smooth as possible for all parties including instituting an expedited service path to prevent undue delays in assisting employers in hiring [temporary foreign workers].”

From 2016 to present the government has fined 129 companies for violating the TFWP, with penalties ranging from $500 to $54,000. 52 of those companies were given two-year bans from using temporary foreign workers.

“If violations are uncovered during the course of an inspection, all employers are provided with an opportunity to take corrective measures in order to become compliant with Program conditions,” says Hajdu’s office. “Appropriate measures are taken against all employers who fail or refuse to comply.”

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.  

https://soundcloud.com/candicemalcolm/true-north-field-report-trudeau-govt-allows-companies-violating-the-tfws-program-go-unpunished


Proposed change would see NB power’s carbon tax bill increase 500%

By
True North Wire
-

New Brunswick’s electrical agency may see its carbon tax bill increase six-fold if a proposed change is approved.

The plan proposed by the federal government would slash the carbon tax exemption for coal-generated electricity by half.

Currently, most of the energy production at the Belledune Generating Station in northern New Brunswick is exempted from the carbon tax — the first 800 tons of emissions.

If the change is implemented in January 2020 as proposed, the carbon tax bill on coal power would increase to $18 million, an increase of 500 per cent.

NB Power, the crown corporation which provides electricity to most of New Brunswick, already had to take on more debt and cut its profit outlook for the next four years in the wake of the carbon tax, and has not budgeted for such a drastic change.

Despite having its own climate-change plan that it says it can follow while maintaining a balanced budget, so far the federal government has rejected any “made-in-New Brunswick” plan that does not include the costly carbon tax.

The carbon tax — a tax which will make the basics of life more expensive for Canadians while doing nothing for the environment has proven extremely unpopular in the blue-collar province.

A recent pro-carbon tax rally in Fredericton was cancelled after only nine people showed up — the latest in many similar failed demonstrations in the province.

In 2015 New Brunswick sent 11 MPs to Ottawa, all Liberal. The Conservatives believe that their anti-carbon tax platform will be a winner for them in the province.

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer told a packed room in Fredericton that “for Conservatives, job number one will be to repeal the carbon tax.”

Since being elected in September, New Brunswick has launched its own challenge to the federal carbon tax in court and is joining the suit launched by Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Syrian refugee charged in death of 13-year old Marrisa Shen appears in court

By
True North Wire
-

Ibrahim Ali, the 28-year old Syrian refugee who was charged with the first degree murder of 13-year old Burnaby girl Marrisa Shen, appeared at the Provincial Court of British Columbia on March 5th.

During the court appearance, defense lawyer Veen Aldosky asked for further disclosure despite the fact that crown prosecutor Daniel Port has argued that the disclosure is “substantially complete.”

Over 10,000 pages of evidence have been reported in the case against Ibrahim Ali, who arrived to Canada in March 2017, only four months before he allegedly murdered Shen.

Aldosky also represented Iraqi refugee and UN gang affiliate Aram Ali for firearms and and aggravated assault charges.

Ali was released from prison despite being considered a danger to the public, and is currently awaiting deportation while Aldosky files an appeal with the Immigration and Refugee Board.

In front of the courthouse, protesters waited outside as the proceedings adjourned, holding signs saying “Hold Trudeau accountable” and “Punish murderers.”

Present at the court were some of the former candidates from the recent Burnaby South byelection, including Liberal Richard Lee and Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson from the People’s Party of Canada.

Both spoke about Shen during the last Burnaby South all-candidates debate.

“Right here in Burnaby South, a young girl named Marrisa Shen was murdered in central park by a Syrian refugee. This demands that we be careful in vetting the refugees that come to our land,” said Thompson during the third Burnaby South debate.

Lee expressed that Shen’s family didn’t want the event to be politicized. “I talked to the family, twice. All I want to say is, let the court decide. Okay?”

Ali was privately sponsored as a refugee by several community groups in British Columbia and was brought to Canada to join several family members residing in the area.

He was arrested Sept. 28 after a year-long investigation by police.

Shen was discovered dead on July 18th, 2017 after she went missing for only several hours from her home in Burnaby South.

Eventually Ali was identified as a suspect following an investigation involving over 2,000 people.

Ali will be returning to court April 15th for his next hearing.

LAWTON: Justin Trudeau has rigged political advertising rules

By
Andrew Lawton
-

Google’s refusal to allow political advertising for Canada’s upcoming election proves that Justin Trudeau has rigged the political advertising laws in Canada to benefit the government. While political parties and candidates won’t be able to advertise on Google platforms, the government will.

True North’s Andrew Lawton explains.

KNIGHT: A Dumpster Fire – PMO in Disarray

By
Leo Knight
-

The resignation of Treasury Board President Jane Philpott was a grenade tossed into the PMO.

The Prime Minister tried to make light of it at a speech in Toronto by making out like he’d been having discussions with the Minister in the lead-up to her resignation letter. But somehow I doubt it.

The language in her resignation letter is telling, not only for what she did say, but also for what she didn’t include in it.

After saying she had lost confidence in the way the government handled the SNC-Lavalin emerging scandal that has already caused the resignations of former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and Trudeau’s Principal Private Secretary Gerald Butts. She then said this:

“Unfortunately, the evidence of efforts by politicians and/or officials to pressure the former Attorney General to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence as to the content of those efforts have raised serious concerns for me.”

That’s a broadside.

But what she didn’t say is also telling.

She did not thank the Prime Minister for the opportunity to serve in Cabinet. I can’t remember ever seeing a resignation letter from a member of Cabinet without some variation of those words.

The Prime Minister, for his part, did thank Philpott for her service in a climate action speech given at some sort of community hall or theatre in the Danforth area of Toronto. In some ways it was the perfect venue for the Trudeau event given what is going on with his government. An older venue with the paint peeling from the walls in the entranceway right where his handlers brought in the PM.

This was supposed to be a staged event. The venue was packed with the usual diverse group of folks, adults and kids from varying racial backgrounds behind Trudeau all dutifully holding pre-produced signs extolling the virtues of Trudeau or his climate policies.

The event got underway nearly two hours late. We are left to surmise why that was. Was it poor organization? Or was the Prime Minister huddled at length with his handlers backstage working on the messaging to try and explain Philpott’s resignation?

And all this just two days before Gerald Butts and the Clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, were to testify before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

To add to the comedy of errors at the event, multiple hecklers or protestors piped up during Trudeau’s speech and had to be hustled out.

The interesting thing to me as I watched was they were taken out by members of the Prime Minister’s Protection Detail of the RCMP not by event security. This is not protocol for the PMPD.

Their responsibility is their principal, in this case the Prime Minister who was on stage in the middle of a crowd. To take four or five members responsible for his protection away to escort out a protestor weakens the principal’s protection perimeter.

If there was event security then why did PMPD members get involved in something that should not have been their concern?

Was there event security? I’m not sure.

But what I do know is that this day was a dumpster fire for the PMO and the Prime Minister. At every level.


FUREY: Can we trust Canada’s top public servant Michael Wernick?

By
Anthony Furey
-

NDP MP, Charlie Angus, is calling on Michael Wernick to resign.

Michael Wernick is supposed to be a non-partisan public servant, but his testimony at the justice committee suggested otherwise. We now learn that Wernick will be on the”Critical Election Incident Public Panel”, a government body that will tell Canadians what is “fake news”.

Can we trust him? Can we trust this panel?

True North’s Anthony Furey discusses.

Philpott resigns from cabinet in wake of SNC-Lavalin scandal

By
True North Wire
-

Jane Philpott, President of the Treasury Board, has resigned — citing the ongoing SNC-Lavalin scandal.

“I have been considering the events that have shaken the federal government in recent weeks and after serious reflection, I have concluded that I must resign as a member of Cabinet,” she said in her resignation.

Philpott, who has been in cabinet since she was first elected, felt it necessary to distance herself from her party’s leadership in wake of allegations of political inference in the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

In her resignation, Philpott slammed the behaviour of her government in handling the SNC-Lavalin case.

“Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised,” she said.

“Unfortunately, the evidence of efforts by politicians and/or officials to pressure the former Attorney General to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence as to the content of those efforts have raised serious concerns for me.”

Philpott, a physician, was elected for the riding of Markham-Stouffville in 2015. She was immediately brought into cabinet as Minister of Health. In 2017 she was shuffled to Minister of Indigenous Services.

In January she was again moved to President of the Treasury Board in the same cabinet shuffle that saw Jody Wilson-Raybould demoted from Minister of Justice to Veterans Affairs.

Last week Wilson-Raybould gave bombshell testimony accusing various high raking Liberals of pressuring her with “express statements regarding the necessity for interference in the SNC-Lavalin matter, the potential for consequences, and veiled threats if a DPA (deferred prosecution agreement) was not made available to SNC.”

Philpott, a friend of Wilson-Raybould, tweeted her support for the former Attorney General at the time of her demotion.

Wilson-Raybould had also resigned from cabinet recently.

While she remains as an MP in the Liberal caucus, Philpott’s resignation is another blow to the Trudeau government in the midst of ongoing allegations of misconduct at the highest levels of the Canadian government.

Gerald Butts to testify to Justice Committee on SNC-Lavalin

By
True North Wire
-

The Former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister will finally testify to the Justice Committee in regards to his part in the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

The day after former Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould testified to the committee, Butts wrote a letter asking to testify before the committee himself.

Butts’ letter comes in light of former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s bombshell testimony which implicated him and others in the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

Wilson-Raybould told the committee last week that she was hounded with “express statements regarding the necessity for interference in the SNC-Lavalin matter, the potential for consequences, and veiled threats if a DPA (deferred prosecution agreement) was not made available to SNC.”

Wilson-Raybould was sacked as Minister of Justice in mid-January.

A month later Gerald Butts resigned, citing the developing SNC-Lavalin scandal in his resignation letter while denying any wrongdoing.

In his resignation, Butts said “I categorically deny the accusation that I or anyone else in [the Prime Minister’s] office pressured Ms Wilson-Raybould,” while Wilson-Raybould’s testimony says the opposite.

As Principal Secretary, the Prime Minister’s most senior advisor, Butts is among those implicated in the attempts to influence Wilson-Raybould into granting the Quebec engineering firm lenient treatment for accusations of political interference.

One of Wilson-Raybould’s most shocking claims is that the clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, allegedly threatened Wilson-Raybould during a call the two had on December 18th.

As Principal Secretary, Butts would have inside knowledge on what efforts Wernick and others made to allegedly pressure the former Minister of Justice.

“We believe that it is important that Mr Butts respond to the account of the meeting of the 18th provided by Ms Jody Wilson-Raybould, in addition to the other allegations about him and PMO colleagues mentioned in her testimony,” said Justice Committee Chair Anthony Housefather.

Later this week Butts will have to defend himself in the wake of Wilson-Raybould’s scathing testimony which contradicts everything he has said previously.

1...1,4291,4301,431...1,460Page 1,430 of 1,460

Related stories

© 2025 True North | Privacy Policy