LILLEY: Trudeau can't fix this, says Scheer
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There is nothing Justin Trudeau can do to fix the problems he’s created from the SNC-Lavalin scandal, that is Andrew Scheer’s assessment in an exclusive interview with the Sun.
“He’s lost that opportunity by saying things to Canadians that he knew weren’t true. He’s broken that trust,” Scheer said.
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LILLEY: Trudeau can't fix this, says Scheer Back to video
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The Conservative Party leader pointed out the number of times Trudeau changed his story on the allegation the PMO had pressured then attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould into giving SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement and escape bribery and corruption charges.
At first Trudeau denied there was any pressure, now he says there was pressure and Wilson-Raybould just couldn’t handle it.
“I deeply respect that the former attorney general felt there was inappropriate pressure put on her. I respect that but I disagree, I think it is the job of the government to continually look for ways to protect Canadians and their work,” Trudeau said on Thursday.
Trudeau and several of his senior staff spent months pressuring the attorney general to overrule a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions to take SNC to court on those bribery charges.
Wilson-Raybould had been given the written reasons why the Director had chosen to go to court, and didn’t see SNC as fit for a deferred prosecution.
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Those written reasons were provided to Trudeau and his office, but they persisted.
Scheer says this unrelenting pressure from Trudeau and his office is the real problem.
“We’re talking about the indepence of our judicial system, the principle of the rule of law, that everyone in Canada is supposed to be treated equally,” Scheer said.
“For generations people have come to Canada fleeing the types of countries where powerful politicians are able to interfere in the courts, that they are able to reward friends and punish enemies.”
That is why this story matters so much.
It isn’t about who said what to whom. This isn’t about who recorded what phone call.
This is all about an attempt to allow our justice system and its outcomes be determined by lobbyists and who you know in the PMO.
We can’t let that happen in Canada.
We either have independent prosecutors or we have a system where how you are treated by the courts is determined by your relationship with the government of the day.
That is getting lost in the fog of never-ending stories and side stories attached to this.
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The never-ending narrative change by the government, the drip-drip-drip of leaks from Trudeau’s office attempting to undermine Wilson-Raybould.
The latest leak claims the former attorney general had a series of demands to stay in the Liberal caucus; Gerry Butts, Michael Wernick and Mathieu Bouchard all be let go from their positions and that current attorney general David Lametti not overrule the Director of Public Prosecutions on giving SNC a sweetheart deal.
Trudeau backers are now claiming that last demand from Wilson-Raybould amounts to political interference in a criminal prosecution.
No, it is the opposite.
Wilson-Raybould didn’t seek to make sure SNC could never get a deal, just that the decision be made by an independent prosecutor and not a politician.
She in fact sought to uphold that very pillar of Canada’s democracy.
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