Justin Trudeau was asked directly if he would turn over documents needed by the RCMP for a police investigation into his office and he refused to answer.
The SNC-Lavalin affair where Trudeau and those around him tried to get then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to interfere in a corruption trial has been brought back into focus with the release of Wilson-Raybould’s memoir.
Speaking with reporters at a campaign stop in Vancouver, Trudeau was asked about allowing police to have access to documents that his office had previously blocked.
“These are discussions that were fully had two years ago when this issue came forward, fully litigated before the last election,” Trudeau said.
He went on to say that the priority of Canadians is elsewhere, but refused to say he would authorize his office to grant police access.
The issue was far from fully litigated two years ago after the Liberals used their majority to shut down House of Commons committees and Trudeau’s office refused to grant full access to information and witnesses to the Ethics Commissioner or the RCMP. On Sunday, Wilson-Raybould called for a full investigation to be launched.
“It’s important for the RCMP to do their job,” Wilson-Raybould told the Globe and Mail. We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
On Monday, the Conservatives called for the Trudeau Liberals to hand over the documents for the ongoing RCMP investigation. Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said that if elected, he would waive the cabinet confidences that the Liberals are using to hold the documents back.
“If Trudeau won’t waive cabinet confidence, it raises one simple question — what is he hiding?” Conservative MP Michael Barrett asked Monday.
Trudeau was found guilty of breaking federal ethics laws in the SNC-Lavalin scandal, the RCMP is not currently commenting on the status of their investigation.
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Original Article: https://torontosun.com/news/election-2021/trudeau-refuses-police-access-to-documents-related-to-snc-lavalin-scandal
I greatly admire and agree with Jody Wilson-Raybould’s very refreshing public rejection of unethical government interference; however, I’m still bewildered by her apparent shock at the practice, including Justin Trudeau’s personal attempt at pressuring her to compromise her integrity as then justice minister.
Sadly, we are governed by a system in which corporate lobbyists heavily manipulate even our top elected officials. (Albeit, some elected heads will be better at concealment via their habitual general practice of secrecy with the news-media.) Lobbyists will even write bills for our governing representatives to vote for and have implemented, supposedly to save the elected officials their own time.
In the case of the Trudeau Liberals, they, like the Conservatives when in power, pander to corporate objectives, and the very wealthy, albeit the Liberals maintain their traditional liberal social policies (notably those involving race, gender and sexuality). Apparently, politically potent and focused big business interests get catered-to regardless of which of these two parties rules. It seems they can’t really lose, at least as long as the NDP stays out of high office.
I’d have figured the very intelligent and well-educated Wilson-Raybould, and others like her, would have known this long before running for office. One wonders how many other governing politicians got elected without being aware?
Perhaps anyone wanting to run for office should have to first pass a post-secondary political science course that teaches this in length and detail. Therefore they cannot claim innocent ignorance if ever, unlike Wilson-Raybould, getting caught making the ethically wrong decision.