He said, he said ...

Image borrowed from Cartoon Stock


He said, he said...

The game of political tit-for-tat in Canadian politics

Globe&Mail: Conservatives renounce Google ad that spreads false border claim

• “Justin Trudeau is letting a foreign entity take control of our borders.”
• Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer opposes the United Nations Global Compact for Migration, which Ottawa endorsed in December.

Then there's this:

• Also over the weekend, Liberal MP Adam Vaughan apologized for appearing to suggest online that people should “whack” Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
• “It was never my intent to suggest anyone, anywhere should inflict real physical harm to Premier Ford."

And more:

• In a recent Facebook post, Mr. Scheer accused the Liberals of inventing lies about Conservative Party policy. Specifically, he pointed to recent comments by Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, who falsely claimed during a news media conference that the Conservatives want to “militarize the border” and line it with RCMP officers at every 100 metres.

The border controversy is only false in that it doesn't entirely hit the mark. Yes, the Cons were talking about UN-enforced migration, but there's something more nefarious controlling our borders and it's called America, courtesy of the Trudeau administration.

HuffPost [Dec '18]: U.S. Border Guards Are About To Receive Alarmingly Broad Powers On Canadian Soil

• Bill C-23 empowers foreign officials while eroding the rights and freedoms of our own citizens.
• [It] seeks to replace and expand provisions of the previous legislation governing pre-clearance zones between the United States and Canada. In so doing, it will expand the existing powers of U.S. border guards and even add new ones.

But it's not just the Liberals who've been so gracious to America. Courtesy of the Harper administration, from 2012 we have this:

CBC: Cross Border Policing Provokes Sovereignty Worries

• The Integrated Cross Border Law Enforcement Operations Act now makes it possible for American officers to cross the border into Canada where, as the act states, they have "the same power to enforce an act of Parliament as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police."
• This means they'll be armed and have the powers to arrest suspects in Canadian territory.

And that's not all from the Cons:

Tyee: Andrew Scheer, Political Klutz

• The only thing Harper didn’t do to Indigenous peoples was bring back Indian Agents. He humiliated leaders like Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat First Nation, cut national funding, ignored problems and tried to run a federal bulldozer over native constitutional rights.
• Scheer’s answer? The one thing you can’t say to people who have been waiting for decades for social justice — you’ll have to be patient.
• Scheer merely lurks with that silly smile on his face, a political non-entity who acts like he’s gunning for the doorman’s job at Walmart.

"You'll have to be patient." Why that's pretty much the same thing Trudeau said when he promised in his last election campaign to bring potable water to First Nations communities by 2020 - the year after his mandate ends! (See YYC: Stuff I find hard to fathom)

What's not so hard to fathom is why Trudeau is so protective of SNC-Lavalin that he disappeared his Justice Minister to avoid upsetting them. But, hey, we can still see her, and she's actually being eyed as a potential successor to Trudeau himself.

TheTyee: After SNC-Lavalin Disaster, Liberals’ Only Hope Is PM Jody Wilson-Raybould --
Allegations of PMO attempts to push plea deal for engineering giant doom Trudeau’s re-election hopes.

• Just how serious is his dedication to the rule of law if it applies to foreign corporations like Huawei but not to SNC-Lavalin?

Wow! That's gotta smart!

• Wilson-Raybould’s own father observed, “If this mess comes out as messy as I imagine it might be, she will be one of the few people that won’t get any dirt on her.”

Ms. Wilson-Raybould is of course being hounded to tell her story, but she's citing solicitor-client privilege - as she is bound to. But the thing is:

CBC: ... Trudeau could easily waive it and allow his former justice minister to speak freely and truthfully on the matter.

• "The easiest way out of this is just for the prime minister to say, 'Look Jody, there's some serious questions here and just tell the truth about our conversations and waive the privilege,'" Ottawa-based criminal lawyer Michael Spratt said in an interview.

I'm guessing the company is bigly (thanks for the word, Donald) financing Trudeau's campaign - or at least has in the past and will again, provided yet another deal can be struck to resolve their current predicament. That's what they've become accustomed to.

CBC: A closer look at SNC-Lavalin's sometimes murky past

• A global engineering giant, SNC-Lavalin is no stranger to scandal

You know what? I bet both Trudeau and Scheer would be welcome at Wal-Mart. It, too, plays fast and loose with ethics and fair play:

Britannica:

• Wal-Mart has been criticized for contributing to urban sprawl by forcing out of business local merchandisers, many of whom were unable to compete with the company’s economy of scale. Wal-Mart has also been criticized for perpetuating low wages; its workers make significantly less than the average retail worker, in large part because of the company’s anti-union stance. Its merchandising practices are nonetheless emulated by other retailers.

It all boils down to people skills and you can be sure both Scheer and Trudeau are working hard to upgrade themselves. There's all that Flim to tweak, and then there's the Flam. Nobody said it would be easy.
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