Alleged PMO obstruction in SNC Lavalin case

[The Bread Guy]

For the record, the retirement letter (also attached in case link doesn't work) ...

The Right Honourable Justin P.J. Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
Room 315-A, West Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Dear Prime Minister:

Recent events have led me to conclude that I cannot serve as Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet during the upcoming election campaign. Therefore, I will be taking steps to retire from the public service well before the writ of election is issued.

One of the key roles of the Privy Council Office is to be ready to assist whichever government Canadians elect in October. It has been my privilege to work with the transition teams of three prime ministers. It is now apparent that there is no path for me to have a relationship of mutual trust and respect with the leaders of the Opposition parties. Furthermore, it is essential that during the writ period the Clerk be seen by all political parties as an impartial arbiter of whether serious foreign interference has occurred.

Therefore, I wish to relinquish these roles before the election. It is essential that Canadians continue to see their world leading public service as non-partisan and there to provide excellent services to Canadians and the governments they elect.

The timing of my retirement is something we should discuss, as your Government will have a busy Cabinet agenda until the end of the Parliamentary session, and you will want to seek advice on how best to address succession.

I will have more to say later, but I would be remiss if I did not use this letter to thank you for the confidence you have placed in me over the past three years and the opportunity for extraordinary personal and professional experiences in the service of my country.


Sincerely yours,
Michael Wernick

 

[PPCLI Guy]

But those are most likley well paid Liberal supporters and donors, so it's "Double ungood"

Hmmm.  Max donation for anyone in Canada is $1600. irrepsective of province or party.  As to well-paid, here are some average salaries for Canadians.  Look at the Engineering ones - all less than a Capt or CWO in the CAF. 

https://neuvoo.ca/salary/

So if a Maj in the CAF makes a donation to the NDP, is he or she "a well paid NDP suppporter or donor?"  How about CPC supporter?

 

[mariomike]

Look at the Engineering ones
https://neuvoo.ca/salary/

They seem a bit low. ( The Engineer pay scale, that is. ) See also,

Job Classification Title ENGINEER
https://www.brainhunter.com/frontoffice/seekerViewJobDetailAction.do?sitecode=pl389&jobId=2320933&page=search&external=

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

You are looking at the wrong statistics.

Those are the average salaries for engineers. In the private sector, the engineers that work for engineering firms (like SNC) are also partners and shareholders in the firm. Once you add the remuneration coming from those factors for the P. Eng. with more than ten years practice, and particularly in the higher echelons of the firm, the annual compensation packages will run them in the six figures and more likely above the 200,000/year range for quite a few of them. Even that leaves money in the actual firm's kettle to put into lobbying and politics.

And yes, sure, Canadian are limited to $1600 per person, but if the firm ensures that 100 employees donate that amount ( and are compensated in the background for it by the firm) "on order" and it is advertised quietly to the powers that be, for instance, then it's the power of $160,000 that this "firm" holds over the party it donated to in this fashion. 

 

[PuckChaser]

Hmmm.  Max donation for anyone in Canada is $1600. irrepsective of province or party.

So what you're saying is, once you're in the Laurier Club for the Liberal Party of Canada, you can attend fundraising events for free for the rest of the year? Or does the fact that the Laurier Club gives you access to events closed to normal donors at $200+ a ticket just mean those people are "middle class" individuals who can fork out at least $1800 of net income on political party events

https://secure.liberal.ca/laurierclub/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/donation-stats-indicate-liberal-fundraisers-are-exclusive-events/article32588273/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeau-fundraiser-touted-as-a-networking-opportunity/article33233874/
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/9b8jba/the-trudeau-government-scheduled-more-than-100-cash-for-access-events-in-2016-alone

That being said, most political parties do big ticket fundraisers. The difference is, the Liberals campaigned on being "transparent" and "working for the middle class" https://www.liberal.ca/openness-and-transparency/. Not just a little bit of hypocrisy, a huge amount of it.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

So this is okay (tonight by the way) if you don't say you have a policy of transparency?

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/an-evening-with-conservative-party-candidate-michael-ma-tickets-55785572148?from=singlemessage&isappinstalled=0#

 

[Navy_Pete]

Hmmm.  Max donation for anyone in Canada is $1600. irrepsective of province or party.  As to well-paid, here are some average salaries for Canadians.  Look at the Engineering ones - all less than a Capt or CWO in the CAF. 

https://neuvoo.ca/salary/

So if a Maj in the CAF makes a donation to the NDP, is he or she "a well paid NDP suppporter or donor?"  How about CPC supporter?

Those are working level engineering type jobs (equivalent to new-newish Captains).  Once you hit senior Captain, Maj and above, job titles change to 'Senior Engineer', Engineering Manager, Director etc. They also branch out into Project Manager, Program Manager, VPs, etc. Have met a few company presidents that are engineers, as well as other senior executives, presidents and CEOs, so the job title is a bit misleading once they hit the management side and get out of pure engineering.

Still, not many people will complain about those kind of salaries, so not uncommon for people to stick in the design trenches and do what they love (especially if they don't need to deal with people; they have other people for that!    ).

 

[PPCLI Guy]

And yes, sure, Canadian are limited to $1600 per person, but if the firm ensures that 100 employees donate that amount ( and are compensated in the background for it by the firm) "on order" and it is advertised quietly to the powers that be, for instance, then it's the power of $160,000 that this "firm" holds over the party it donated to in this fashion.

I can't seem to find any past incidences of this having happened?  Am I slow tonight?

 

[Infanteer]

Not just a little bit of hypocrisy, a huge amount of it.

I'm not sure how having fundraising dinners goes against transparency and openness?  I attended one for the Kiwanis Club once - does that make them non-transparent and closed?

 

[Infanteer]

I can't seem to find any past incidences of this having happened?  Am I slow tonight?

I seem to remember this beauty, which did one better by funding the Party with taxpayer dollars rather than corporate dollars!

 

[Navy_Pete]

I can't seem to find any past incidences of this having happened?  Am I slow tonight?

Former SNC-Lavalin exec charged with illegal federal political contributions

https://globalnews.ca/news/4215730/former-snc-lavalin-exec-charged-with-illegal-federal-political-contributions/

Key figure in illegal election financing scheme quietly pleads guilty
Social Sharing
Normand Morin's plea means Canadians may never know which Liberals, Conservatives received SNC Lavalin money

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/election-financing-snclavalin-charbonneau-1.4984823

Basically SNC employees or spouses donated the money and were reimbursed by the company. Went to both Liberal campaigns, leader hopefuls, and some Conservatives, as well as PQ.

Really convenient how only one person was charged, a bunch of others got immunity, and others were never charged.  He got off with a $2000 fine, so probably cheaper than paying a lawyer, but also killed any disclosure. Makes sense for the prosecutors to take the plea, but there were enough people involved that a single scapegoat is suspicious, and the whole thing was conveniently buried around the same time as the JWR situation was coming up.

Feel like I need a tin hat, except that these guys are just awful at trying to cover it up.  The justice committee is apparently deciding to down tools and let the ethics czar investigate, knowing full well it will never get done before the election.  I don't think Canadian voters will really care though, and most will forget about it, or decide there is no real alternative anyway.  Scheer doesn't really capture the hearts and minds of anyone outside of Conservative faithful, and they keep trotting out Polliviere as a talking head, which is really just messaging to their own echo chamber.

Would be nice to have an option where they would actually work with other parties and compromise as required for getting things done, but they are probably less electable.  Think my personal red line is going to be actualsupport for proportional representation, so likely going with the Green party.

 

[Rifleman62]

Well, that's the end of that open and transparent investigation.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5071191/opposition-mps-leave-justice-committee-meeting-snc-lavalin/

Opposition MPs briefly storm out of committee meeting as Liberals end SNC-Lavalin investigation - 19 Mar 19

Opposition MPs briefly stormed out of the Justice Committee meeting Tuesday morning, after reporters were given a document outlining a Liberal motion to discuss hate crimes the morning after publicly calling for an end to the SNC-Lavalin investigation. On Monday night, the five Liberal MPs in the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights sent a letter to the chair of the committee saying they believe the “all rules and laws were followed” by government staff in relation to SNC-Lavalin, and that “Canadians now have the necessary information to arrive at a conclusion.”

During the meeting Tuesday morning, the Liberal-majority committee voted to end the probe into the affair. Ahead of the planned Justice Committee meeting, Liberal staffers handed out a motion to media to discuss hate crimes and study how racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and homophobia spreads through online platforms. Global News’ Mercedes Stephenson reported on the motion on Twitter — which was the first opposition MPs had heard of the motion, Tory MP Lisa Raitt told Global News.(see photo MS)

They said the Liberals violated the Committee in camera rules by providing that motion to media before it was tabled and walked out of the meeting. After briefly speaking to media, the opposition MPs rushed back into the meeting, which is in camera and thus not open to the media. Opposition MPs had been asking for the meeting to be open to the public, and for the probe to continue, saying Canadians have the right to hear more about the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

Raitt said on Twitter that even after the investigation, “we don’t know why” MPs Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott resigned from the Liberal cabinet, or why Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Gerald Butts resigned from their positions after the scandal broke. NDP MP Murray Rankin said Raybould-Wilson had more to say and would ask the committee to “do the right thing.” (see photo MR)

 

[Kirkhill]

I can't seem to find any past incidences of this having happened?  Am I slow tonight?

Further to Navy Pete's last:

SNC-Lavalin violated Elections Act with contributions to Liberals ($108,000), Tories ($8000)
Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, September 8, 2016 9:51AM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, September 8, 2016 5:09PM EDT

According to the agreement entered into by SNC-Lavalin, former senior executives approached employees to make political contributions and, in some cases, those employees were reimbursed with refunds for false personal expenses, fictitious bonuses or other benefits.

The improperly donated sums included: $83,534.51 to the Liberal Party of Canada; $13,552.13 to various Liberal riding associations; $12,529.12 to four contestants in the 2006 Liberal leadership race, including $5,000 each to Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae; $3,137.73 to the Conservative Party of Canada; and $5,050 to various Conservative riding associations.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/snc-lavalin-violated-elections-act-with-contributions-to-liberals-tories-1.3063412

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Further to Navy Pete's last:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/snc-lavalin-violated-elections-act-with-contributions-to-liberals-tories-1.3063412

Thank you to you, Navy Pete, and Infanteer for enlightening me.  Much appreciated.  Now I need to take a shower.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Speaking of jobs, from 2017 https://context.capp.ca/infographics/2018/infographic_533000-jobs

 

[Jarnhamar]

Well, that's the end of that open and transparent investigation.

I hope Canadians have had enough of this bullshit.

 

[FJAG]

I hope Canadians have had enough of this bullshit.

The investigation? or the "open and transparent" Liberal government?

;D

 

[cavalryman]

The investigation? or the "open and transparent" Liberal government?

;D

Does it matter?  Canadians have their priorities.  The Stanley Cup playoffs are coming and Montreal has a chance at one of the two Eastern Conference wildcard slots.  What's the SNC scandal by comparison /s
;D ;D ;D

 

[Rifleman62]

She stated she was not running in Oct, then quits the LPC now, a day after the Budget?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-mp-caesar-chavannes-caucus-1.5064544

MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes quits Liberal caucus - 20 Mar 19
    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces Ontario MP's departure after weekly caucus meeting

Extract; Whitby, Ont. MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes has quit the Liberal caucus and will sit as an independent, prompting Conservative attacks calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a "fake feminist."

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I hope Canadians have had enough of this bullshit.

:rofl:

Sorry Jan, not laughing at you. Canadians are so apathetic towards our governments they don't care.
Typically, if they aren't talking about it, they don't think about it and even some don't even know about it.
These small islands of outrage that we (you, me, the other people really upset) belong to are just that. Small low population islands.
trudeau could declare himself King and people will still yawn, stop at Timmie's and go to work, plodding through their day to slump in their chair with a beer on return home. Rinse and repeat.