National Post (National Edition)
Trudeau’s assault on the rule of law
Anti-corruption reforms don’t seem to apply
It’s ironic that the first piece of legislation passed by the Conservatives in 2006 was the Federal Accountability Act to drain the Liberal swamp.
And it was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his minions’ attempts to abrogate this law’s reforms that have mired him in scandal and declining voter support.
Following years of Liberal corruption, the act created a conflicts of interest and ethics commissioner and a commissioner of lobbying as well as protection to separate the Public Prosecution Service from political interference, among other reforms. All of these were designed to bolster the country’s rule of law, by de-politicizing governance, and all were transgressed or attacked by Trudeau.
The first misdeed occurred
in December 2017 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau became the first sitting PM to be found to violate the Act since it was passed in 2006. Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson ruled that he broke Canada’s ethics law by accepting two extravagant, all-expenses-paid family trips to an island in the Bahamas. Trudeau was hosted by the Aga Khan, a billionaire who is spiritual leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims, and who has had dealings with the federal government.
Trudeau claimed that he didn’t report the trips because gifts from close friends were exempted. The commissioner rejected this excuse because, she noted, the two were not close friends and had only spoken once in 30 years.
By contrast, the Commissioner of Lobbying Karen Shepherd separately ruled the trips (also another taken by Liberal cabinet minister Seamus O’Regan) were legal. But this was overturned in April by a Federal Court ruling, thanks to a challenge by activist group Democracy Watch.
“The Federal Court ruling confirms that former federal Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd was a lapdog whose enforcement of the lobbying law and code was negligently weak,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch.
“Thankfully, the ruling not only closes secret, unethical lobbying loopholes that Commissioner Shepherd negligently created, it also essentially orders the new Commissioner to enforce the lobbying law and code much more broadly and strongly.”
Furthermore, Democracy Watch asked the auditor general to review all the decisions by this former commissioner.
In addition, “Democracy Watch has requested that new commissioner Nancy Bélanger delegate all investigations to someone who is independent of her and all political parties, given that she was hand-picked by Prime Minister Trudeau through a secretive, dishonest process. Democracy Watch is currently challenging her appointment in Federal Court,” read its news release.
Then there’s the SNC scandal, caused by a cabal of high-level Liberals and civil servant accomplices who apparently intended to suborn the law by strong-arming the then-attorney general into undermining the Public Prosecutor’s decision to try SNC for bribery and corruption offences.
An initial news story about this was blanketly described as “false” by Trudeau. But what followed were high-level resignations, character assassination and expulsion of two women from the Liberal cabinet, obstructions, censorship in committee hearings, and the abuse of cabinet privilege by Trudeau.
This August, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion concluded emphatically that Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act by trying to influence former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to overrule a decision by the public prosecutor to proceed to a corruption trial against Quebec’s SNCLavalin.
“The authority of the prime minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the decision of the director of public prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. Wilson-Raybould as the Crown’s chief law officer,” Dion said.
However, the Liberals attempt to smear the Conservatives during the election, though the reality is that the Tories are the party that created the law that has protected the country from corruption at the highest level.
And morality matters.