PM’S shifting SNC story sparks dumpster fire
A good old-fashioned Canadian political scandal is underway, and no one knows if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will emerge unscathed.
It began with a Globe and Mail report regarding alleged attempts by the Prime Minister’s Office to improperly influence former attorney general Jody Wilson-raybould into having the Department of Justice abandon a criminal prosecution of Canada’s largest engineering firm, Quebec-based Snc-lavalin.
As the story goes, within days of Wilson-raybould finally drawing the line that she would not interfere with the prosecution, she was replaced as attorney general and, in the priority of cabinet rankings, bumped far down to Veterans’ Affairs.
This week, Wilson-raybould resigned from cabinet and lawyered up, retaining a highly respected former Supreme Court justice.
It is beyond comprehension what kind of arrogance could lead Trudeau and his coterie of advisers to adopt the strategy they’ve taken.
Crisis managers know the first rule of scandal is control — agenda management, message discipline, forward staging, one single spokesperson and a complete seal on leaks.
But Trudeau and his politically inexperienced and ideological apparatchiks have done precisely the opposite, resulting in a complete dumpster fire.
The prime minister first called the Globe report “false,” offered no explanation and then stumbled through a parsed statement that his office had not “directed” Wilson-raybould to do anything.
Over the next four days, the government bounced from pillar to post and sent many different messages to various journalists — all leaked and off the record.
Then, as Wilson-raybould removed herself from the story, citing solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidentiality, Liberal spin doctors cast aspersions on her with stories of her being “Jody-centric” and never being a team player.
As the PM’S story seemed to shift with each telling, he then summoned the media to explain that Wilson-raybould herself had reminded him of a meeting he’d had with her in the fall on Snc-lavalin but it was to tell her that decisions on prosecutions were hers alone.
Trudeau prattled on that “of course, her presence in cabinet should actually speak for itself.” A day later, it spoke, all right — when Wilson-raybould resigned from cabinet.
Then the PM went on the attack, suggesting that everyone had followed the rules all along on Snc-lavalin and if Wilson-raybould didn’t agree, she should have spoken up. She didn’t, which makes her the problem.
Now, the Liberal-controlled Commons justice committee has blocked an attempt to investigate the case in a farcical session that would embarrass anyone with a smidgen of self-awareness.
Disparaged and publicly criticized, expect Wilson-raybould to break her silence soon. And it’s going to throw gas on the fire. This scandal is close to the stage where the public will need a human sacrifice, and not just any body to be offered up.
Once Wilson-raybould drops her bomb, the prime minister will likely be forced to clarify that while he spoke with her about Snc-lavalin, the PM — of course because he’s good and morally right — was talking about public policy, all properly legal.
But it has since come to his attention that his most senior adviser — and chief architect of this government — Gerry Butts, who was in the room with the PM, may later have said some things to Wilson Raybould — unintentionally of course — that could have been construed as pressure, which is deeply regrettable.
So, the PM must do the only thing he can to restore confidence, which is to apologize to the nation and to Wilson-raybould and, with a heavy heart, accept Butts’s resignation. With a bit of grovelling and some grandstanding by the PM — along with complete silence in the PMO — this might see the scandal burn itself out.
But even then, colour me skeptical.
Gormley is a broadcaster, lawyer, author and former Progressive Conservative MP whose radio talk show is heard weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on 980 CJME Regina and 650 CKOM Saskatoon.