Breaking: Trudeau, Raybould, SNC, and PMO Corruption Scandal

[Pete Podoski]

Cue the music from "Jaws" as Justin cowers in the corner.




EXCLUSIVE IN THE SUN: JWR SPEAKS!

The truth.

She says it’s true — the actions of the Liberal Prime Minister should be “of great concern for many Canadians, across the country.”

She says, truthfully, that Justin Trudeau has acted in a way that is “questionable.”

She says what happened her is “a wake-up call” — and, while she’s not happy about what Justin Trudeau did to her, she’s running again.

And — when, say, a Prime Minister Andrew Scheer gives her the legal green light to do so — she plans to tell all.

She plans to reveal what really happened “behind the veil” in Trudeau’s Ottawa.

The true story.

She’s Jody Wilson-Raybould, and she’s speaking out.

http://warrenkinsella.com/2019/05/exclu ... jwr-speaks

[Country plough boy]

JWR will go down as a hero . She is fighting a good fight against slime like Gerald Butts.

[Pete Podoski]

LILLEY: Trudeau’s dark cast of characters at the centre of scandal


Perhaps Jody Wilson-Raybould should be meeting up with Mark Norman to compare notes.

The Vice-Admiral and the former attorney general likely have much in common in how they have been treated by Team Trudeau.

In separate interviews with Postmedia over the last few days, the pair have been telling their respective stories.

Wilson-Raybould tells Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella that she is “sad and “disappointed,” that she was, “removed from caucus through a questionable process.”

Speaking with Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese, Norman described how he felt as he was watching Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announce on TV, months before charges, that the whole affair was going to court.

“I was thinking, ‘I’m screwed,’” Norman told Pugliese.

He was screwed, he had the full weight of the Trudeau government up against him, just like Wilson-Raybould did in her fight.

The two situations may seem like night and day, Wilson-Raybould was fighting to stop the government from letting off a well connected company on bribery and corruption charges while Norman was charged with leak a cabinet secret.

What they have in common is the attempt by Team Trudeau to interfere in the supposedly independent justice system.

They also share the same cast of characters.

Katie Telford, Michael Wernick, Scott Brison and of course Trudeau himself.

Telford is Trudeau’s chief of staff who famously said, “We don’t want to debate legalities any more.”

That is what Telford told Wilson-Raybould’s chief of staff after hearing another explanation on why SNC-Lavalin would not be getting the sweetheart deal to avoid prosecution.

Translation: forget what the law says, do what the PM wants.

Telford was also there when Norman was suspended prior to trial, getting a special briefing for political staffers including the now departed Gerry Butts.

Given how Norman describes the situation it is likely Telford, a civilian and political staffer, knew more about the allegation against Canada’s second highest ranking military officer than Norman himself did.

The whole Norman affair started after then-Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick effectively kickstarted the investigation.

After Trudeau became concerned about the leak regarding the shipbuilding contract, Wernick wrote a 60-page memo for Trudeau detailing the situation and why he thought Norman was to blame.

When the RCMP was asked to investigate the request came from Wernick.

Wernick was also one of the people pressuring Wilson-Raybould on SNC-Lavalin.

{Snip}

“He is gonna find way to get it done one way or another,” Wernick told Wilson-Raybould referring to the determined mood of the PM to get SNC the deal.

In one case Wernick was pushing to get someone charged, someone that had angered the PM while in the other case he pushing to help a firm the PM liked avoid prosecution.

Is that what we want from the top levels of government in Canada?

Not if we are a country built on the rule of law where political calculations aren’t supposed to enter into the equation.

Scott Brison has a starring role in both sagas for being the one to try and change the shipbuilding contract to a firm the Liberals favoured and being the person Trudeau blamed for moving Wilson-Raybould out of her position as AG.

Finally we have a new cast member, or perhaps a better way to put it is we have a promotion from supporting cast member to a starring role.

Ben Chin, a long time political operative in Ontario, BC and federal politics has been brought in to clean up the mess created by these two stories.

Chin is moving over from the finance minister’s office to be a senior advisor to Trudeau.

What is remarkable is that Trudeau doesn’t see the problem here.

Chin was one of the people pressuring Wilson-Raybould hard to give SNC a deal, now he is brought in to fix things as the government heads towards an uncertain election.

It shows they haven’t learned a thing from either saga over the past few months.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnis ... of-scandal

[Pete Podoski]

Oh, snap Justin!

All your hard work on behalf of your corrupt pals goes down the crapper.


SNC-Lavalin to stand trial on corruption charges, Quebec judge rules

Engineering giant spent months lobbying Ottawa to avoid a trial


There is enough evidence against SNC-Lavalin for the engineering corporation to be tried on fraud and bribery charges, a Quebec court judge has ruled.

SNC-Lavalin spent months lobbying the federal government to avoid finding itself in this position. It hoped to use a new legal mechanism — a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) — to pay a fine rather than risk conviction.

But its efforts ignited a major political scandal in Ottawa when the former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, accused the Prime Minister's Office of pressuring her to arrange a deal for SNC-Lavalin.

The court's decision was handed down in Montreal on Wednesday. It followed an extended preliminary inquiry into accusations from federal prosecutors in 2015.

They allege SNC-Lavalin paid around $48 million in bribes to Libyan officials between 2001 and 2011, a violation of the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act.

Federal prosecutors also allege SNC-Lavalin defrauded a number of Libyan institutions out of $130 million over the same period.

During the preliminary inquiry, which began in the fall, prosecutors laid out their evidence before a Quebec Court judge in Montreal.

They had to demonstrate a reasonable prospect of conviction, which is a lower burden of proof than they'll have to meet at trial.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal ... -1.5153429

[Pete Podoski]

Jody: never an 'end game'


The Canadian Press - May 29, 2019 / 10:55 am | Story: 257406


Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says there was never a specific "end game" for her during the SNC controversy that had anything to do with power.

Some of Wilson-Raybould's former Liberal colleagues and other political observers have questioned what she wanted to achieve by speaking out about pressure she felt to intervene in the criminal prosecution of Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied he or his staff acted improperly but he has conceded there was an "erosion of trust" between his office and the former justice minister.

Wilson-Raybould tells The Canadian Press she simply wanted to do her job.

Though the affair saw her kicked out of the Liberal caucus, she says she's comfortable with being an Independent member of Parliament and she'll keep doing the work she's always wanted to do.

https://www.castanet.net/edition/news-s ... htm#257406

[featfan]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cra-km ... -1.5154610

Here is another of Little Spuds favors to the wealthy.

[jimmy4321]

*removed*

[Hurtlander]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cra-kmpg-settlement-taxes-1.5154610

Here is another of Little Spuds favors to the wealthy.

The wealthy entitled self-serving elitists that run and control the Liberal party makes certain their kind are well looked after.
Only a fool would vote Liberal.

[Gone_Fishin]

It just keeps festering like a sliver under your fingernail.


Liberals polled Canadians about SNC-Lavalin deal and then ignored the results

Blacklock’s reported yesterday that the Privy Council Office conducted secret polls on a hypothetical settlement with SNC-Lavalin before the Liberals sought to avoid a criminal trial.

The polls concluded that the general public reaction was negative. Most people polled felt that using a deferred prosecution agreement was unfair and signaled that corporations could get away with corruption.

Despite the results, members of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office carried out their alleged attempts to politically interfere in the Montreal company’s case.

Currently SNC-Lavalin will have to face a criminal trial for allegedly bribing foreign officials to secure contracts abroad.

https://www.thepostmillennial.com/liber ... he-results

[Country plough boy]

Liberals go on and on and on about Facists. Call Trump a facist. However here we have actual facism.

SNC lavscam plus Tweed scam plus Adm Norman scam. All add up to this government and the previous one picking favorites. Making kings out of crooks.

[Gone_Fishin]

Just check out the bolded part in this latest look at the ongoing scandal. Trudeau and his wealthy friends are still screwing around behind the scenes. They thought they had a cover story for the latest shenanigans, but they forgot to doctor the paperwork first. Just disgusting. Trudeau must go.


What is Justin Trudeau’s ‘mood’ on SNC-Lavalin now?


Andrew MacDougall: The government hasn’t ruled on the DPA question, and the company has stopped asking. It could all change in November.
by Andrew MacDougall Jun 6, 2019


The week before last Christmas, then-clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick issued a stark warning to then-minister of justice and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould on the subject of SNC-Lavalin:

“So [the Prime Minister] wants to be able to say that he has tried everything he can within a legitimate toolbox to try to head [SNC leaving Canada] off. So he is quite determined, quite firm but he wants to know why the [deferred prosecution agreement] route which Parliament provided for isn’t being used. And I think he is gonna find a way to get it done one way or another. So, he is in that kinda mood and I wanted you to be aware of that,” Wernick cautioned.

Wilson-Raybould, as we all know, disagreed with Wernick and the Prime Minister. Vociferously. She would not be offering the “DPA route” to SNC based on the advice of the independent director of public prosecutions. And no amount of cajoling by Trudeau’s senior staff—including Wernick—would change her mind.

Two weeks later, the recalcitrant Wilson-Raybould was out as attorney general.

But six months on, the “DPA route” that Parliament (read: the Liberal government) “provided for” is still closed to the Montreal-based engineering firm. This despite the Prime Minister’s “mood” and weeks and months of the Trudeau government saying it would act to protect SNC’s high-paying jobs. Why has the government not rendered its verdict?

Has the pressure suddenly eased on SNC? Was the pressure never really there? Or is it just too politically unpalatable to pick the SNC scab at this particular point in time?

Given a federal judge has just said SNC must stand trial for corruption, and that a conviction would limit the company’s ability to pick up valuable contracts with the Canadian government—contracts the company says it needs—all signs point to timing being the problem.

And while there is still a chance the Trudeau government might not grant the DPA, it stands to reason it would have ruled it out earlier in the year if that was the case, whether at the time of Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott’s expulsion from caucus, or following last month’s ruling by the federal judge. After all, why leave a toxic loose end dangling?

But it hasn’t yet drawn the line. A DPA for SNC remains on the table. So, if not grant the DPA now, when?

The government isn’t showing any of its cards. A spokesman for the justice minister would say only that “nothing has changed” re: SNC, before referring to Justice Minister David Lametti’s say-nothing statement following last month’s federal ruling. Legally, Lametti can offer a DPA until there is a verdict in the case.

It could be the government is waiting for the summer recess of the House of Commons so as to avoid the grilling from the opposition on a get-out-of-jail-for-a-fee card for SNC.

snip

Alternatively, the government might actually be following some sort of rules-based process or assessment of the SNC situation, albeit one it hasn’t deigned to share with Canadians. Trudeau and his office were big—for a time, anyway—on seeking the counsel of someone like former Supreme Court Justice Beverley McLachlin on the matter. That said, surely six months is plenty of time for the new attorney general to have formed his opinion completely and utterly free and independent from the rest of government (cough)?

One thing is clear: SNC doesn’t appear to be pressing its case anymore. The past few years might have featured dozens upon dozens of interactions between SNC and the government but, according to the lobbying registry, there have been zero contacts between SNC and the government on “Justice and Law Enforcement” since January of this year, i.e. before the SNC hit the fan on the front page of the Globe and Mail.

If the threat to SNC’s business from the federal prosecution is existential—and the full court press the company applied last fall, including a call from a former clerk of the Privy Council to the then-current one, certainly suggests it was—then surely it would still be wanting a signal from government over what is to come? Could the silence mean the government and the company have come to an understanding?

When asked whether political staff from the Prime Minster’s Office or the Department of Justice had reached out to SNC—a contact that would not be reportable under law—the answer from both offices was a firm “no.” When asked whether their offices had been in contact with any of SNC’s lobbyists the offices’ answers diverged, with the PMO saying they had not been, and Lametti’s office admitting to initiating contact with lobbyist Bill Pristanski on March 20, although they say it was to discuss single-sport betting in the NHL (which Pristanski confirms).

A scan of the lobbying registry on the morning of June 6, however, showed Pristanski no longer had an active registration for the NHL (the status changed to active after Maclean’s contacted Pristanski for comment). On March 20, Pristanski did, however, have an active registration for SNC-Lavalin, with a DPA listed as one of the files to be discussed with the federal government. Pristanski says he’s had no conversations with the government regarding SNC Lavalin in 2019.

Whatever the case, the Prime Minister owes Canadians an explanation on the way forward for SNC before his rendezvous with the polls. The SNC scandal has cost him his top adviser, his clerk of the Privy Council, two cabinet ministers, one MP, and 10-to-12 points in the polls. If the concern is still around jobs then the government should have the courage to act now and let Canadians pass judgment on the entire SNC saga.

“We’re always going to try and fight for Canadian jobs in ways that uphold the rules,” is all Trudeau had to say following the most recent court ruling. A DPA is well within those rules, now that the Trudeau government has re-written them.

The relative silence from all sides suggests the company knows not to ask until November of this year, when the court process will still be ongoing. One suspects that if Trudeau is returned that DPA is as good as gold.

https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/what-is ... valin-now/

[Catsumi]

The last 2 paragraphs from Macleans story^^^^^ are worthy of being mulled over. Talk about "the fix is in".


“We’re always going to try and fight for Canadian jobs in ways that uphold the rules,” is all Trudeau had to say following the most recent court ruling.A DPA is well within those rules, now that the Trudeau government has re-written them.

The relative silence from all sides suggests the company knows not to ask until November of this year, when the court process will still be ongoing. One suspects that if Trudeau is returned that DPA is as good as gold.

..........


Corrupt, sleazy, backroom-dealing buzzards!

[Gone_Fishin]

So, Bruce says Trudeau lied, and now Bruce is getting the boot and being sent home to the UK. The collateral damage of Trudeau's constant lying and manipulation just never ends in this, the most scandalous of Canadian scandals.


SNC-Lavalin shakeup

The Canadian Press - Jun 11, 2019 / 5:04 am

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. says chief executive Neil Bruce is retiring from the company and returning to his family in the United Kingdom.

Ian Edwards, the company's chief operating officer, has been named interim chief executive effective today.

Bruce is expected to remain an adviser to the board until the end of the year.

SNC also says that the board of directors has asked Edwards to undertake a review of the strategic direction of the company.

A Quebec judge ruled last month there was enough evidence to send SNC-Lavalin to trial over charges of fraud and corruption. The company has pleaded not guilty.

https://www.castanet.net/news/Business/ ... in-shakeup

[Country plough boy]

Fled the country. His wife already had.

[Gone_Fishin]

I guess if they get one of Trudeau's judges, they have a better chance than trying to convince 12 regular Canadians that hookers and bribes and fraud and Trudeau's illegal interference wasn't such a bad thing...


SNC picks judge-only trial

The Canadian Press - Jun 28, 2019 / 1:35 pm | Story: 260015

Lawyers representing SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. have opted for trial by judge alone in a corruption case that has loomed over the Montreal-based engineering giant.

The company was ordered to stand trial last May.

The Montreal-based firm is accused of paying $47.7 million in bribes to public officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011. SNC-Lavalin, its construction division and a subsidiary also face one charge each of fraud and corruption for allegedly defrauding various Libyan organizations of $129.8 million.

Being found guilty could have grave consequences for SNC-Lavalin because it could find itself blacklisted and shut out of lucrative federal contracts for a period of 10 years as well as undermining its international business opportunities.

Shortly after learning that it would be ordered to stand trial, SNC-Lavalin said it intended to vigorously challenge the charges and plead not guilty.

It has argued that internal changes have been made and that the alleged actions were committed up to 20 years ago by former employees who have long departed the company.

SNC-Lavalin has been caught in a political controversy for months after failing to secure a deferred prosecution agreement, a kind of plea deal that would have seen the firm agree to pay a fine rather than face prosecution.

Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould alleged that top government officials pressured her to overrule federal prosecutors in the Libya case and negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement with the company.

The case will return to court on Sept. 20.

https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/26 ... only-trial