RCMP were blocked from fully investigating SNC obstruction claims
We now have it confirmed: The RCMP have been investigating the possibility that someone in the Trudeau government obstructed justice in the SNCLavalin case.
The news was revealed in a bombshell report by the Globe and Mail issued less than 12 hours before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was to visit Rideau Hall and kick off the 2019 election.
This isn’t a matter of speculation or partisan spin. This isn’t something that Liberal supporters can dismiss as people inventing a scandal where there is none.
We know the RCMP have been looking into the matter because they have been interviewing people involved in the case and seeking documents.
And the government has blocked them from doing so. That is the shocking part. The Clerk of the Privy Council has determined that cabinet confidence is more important than a police investigation into obstruction of justice in a case involving corruption. Ian Shugart,
the clerk, invoked cabinet confidence to block the Mounties from talking to people.
That was confirmed to the Globe not only by a spokesman for the justice department but also a spokesman for Trudeau himself.
Ian MacLeod, the spokesman for justice, told the Globe the decision not to give a broader waiver for cabinet confidence “was made solely by the Clerk of the Privy Council as guardian of cabinet confidences.” Trudeau’s spokesman, Cameron Ahmad, told the paper that the PMO had no role in the decision.
Except they did, they backed it up.
Here is a simple fact, the PM could waive this issue of cabinet confidence and allow people to speak freely to the police if he is so convinced that no crime has been committed.
He won’t though. Trudeau supported blocking nine different witnesses from giving full testimony to the ethics commissioner and the refusal to turn over documents for that investigation. He’s now backed up the decision to block the RCMP.
Essentially Trudeau is supporting the obstruction of an investigation into obstruction of justice.
No doubt the PM will be asked about this and once again invoke his support for our democratic institutions and the rule of law.
Yet it is those very things that Trudeau is mocking by blocking a House of Commons committee, the ethics commissioner and now the RCMP from fully investigating this matter.
On that cold February morning when Trudeau first faced questions on the SNC-Lavalin scandal, I stood there in a commuter parking lot just feet away from him as he denied the story completely.
Since then, as new elements have come out, as the original story was confirmed, Trudeau has changed his own story of what happened. When that didn’t work with the public, he started using his power to shut down every attempt to examine the facts in this matter.
Shutting down the House of Commons committee can be dismissed as partisan politics. Denying the ethics commissioner full access to witnesses and documents was wrong and petulant.
But blocking the RCMP is Putinesque.
According to the Globe, the RCMP will put any examination of this issue on hold during the election. If Trudeau wins on Oct. 21, the Mounties will be blocked from investigating permanently.
Do Canadians want a system where the PM and his office are above the law?
We know Trudeau does, he’s told us that with his actions. On Oct. 21 we will find out what Canadians think.