He's such a nice boy, that Justin ...

Image from : Medium.com A pack of weasel words


He's such a nice boy, that Justin ...

Who'd have thought he was part weasel?

One simply must watch this delightful YouTube video-recording of Justin Trudeau winning the hearts and minds of Thunder Bay-ians. Now, when he's on the official campaign trail, he can just relax and show the video.

In it, Trudeau admits, without of course admitting it, that he had indeed tried to convince Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould to change her mind after she had finalized her decision regarding the crimes committed by SNC-Lavalin.  But Justin cannot bear to say the actual words: "Yes, she was telling the truth; yes, I did try to influence her to change her mind."

Who'd have thought Canada would blessed with a PM who is also an amazingly impressive master of weasel words.  From the outset of the video, he uttered flat-out statements and negated them in the exact same breath.

First of all, he indirectly impressed upon his audience that the average person has no clue about anything.  Let me teach you, he might as well have said.  He actually did say that he would explain the whole thing "at the simplest possible level".

Omigawd; he's not only a weasel, he's an equal-opportunity mansplainer!

Then he talks about the "challenges" of criminal prosecution and emphasizes that the "terrible, terrible" infractions were made by "former leadership of the company" who "were then fired", and then, in quick, run-together words, like an afterthought insertion, he says: "and some of them are on their way to jail".

The way he races over that last part makes it seem doubtful those crooks will actually reach their destination.

Now get this: he says: "The company has worked very hard over the years to try to clean up its act and (here he speaks so rapidly it's almost a mutter) they've done significant jobs in that". 

See how he's so adept that, while saying one thing, he can actually think ahead to what he's going to say next, which was to talk about "jobs".

Unfortunately, he got ahead of himself and accidentally said "jobs" when he meant to say "job".  Confused yet?

"Now ..." he quickly says, to move the minds of his audience ahead and away from the gaffe, and of course to get to the purpose of his little campaign speech, disguised as a simple answer to a simple question from the audience.

Right away, he ups the job numbers to 10,000 from the previous 9,000 that was impressed upon us ad nauseum, (especially by Gerald Butts who must have said it at least 15 times when talking to the Justice Committee, though he denies having done so with Wilson-Raybould) but clearly has a touch of guilt about doing that, so he re-modifies the figure, again speaking rapidly, by adding the words "or so" and then in almost a mutter he says, "9,000, 10,000" - as if to say, "What's the diff, eh?".

But there's obviously a diff or he wouldn't have upped the ante like that. He knows full well that it does make a psychological difference.

Note: he doesn't say the company has cleaned up its act; but he gives it points for "trying" to do so, as if SNC-Lavalin were a small child learning about life from his daddy, and not a massive, international corporation that knows every trick in the book to commit criminal acts without signficant consequences.

Read this: TheTyee: SNC-Lavalin’s Criminal Record

The Tyee report includes that the company

• made illegal political party donations ... on a massive scale.

So, by his own words, it seems that Trudeau senses there's guilt written all over him, and we're only a couple of minutes into the video!

Still on the jobs scare, Trudeau says that if the current case were to go all the way to full prosecution, "those jobs" (pause), "absolutely" (pause) "could be at risk".  Its phenomenal the way he uses disparate words to mess with people's minds!  "Absolutely" together with "could be"?  Give us a break.

He goes on about how the whole thing should be handled "in a way that doesn't necessarily punish the workers". The guy is a veritable master at this sort of word game. He assuages his own conscience by adding the word "necessarily", both lying and truth-telling in the exact same breath. 

Forgive me, but is that not a trait of psychopathy?  In reality, he has no clue what would happen to the workers if the company were given the remedial route, nor if the company were duly charged.  It's just a handy nail on which to hang his own conviction that the company itself should suffer only minimal consequences.

His reasons for that are his own, and he's not yet owned up to what they are.

Time to re-visit the following article that I linked to in this earlier YYC post:

Macleans: SNC-Lavalin’s demise would not be the calamity its defenders claim

As far as I'm concerned, Trudeau clearly admits to having pressured Wilson-Raybould when he says, "we kept having discussions about it", but then he attempts to mitigate the obvious by again expressing his deep and abiding concern for THE JOBS, describing the situation as merely "a bit of a difference of opinion" -- (more weasel stuff: it's just "a bit of a difference of opinion") --and that, after Wilson-Raybould made her decision, the discussion continued as to "whether or not they were appropriate decisions to continue to have".

That's not just hair splitting; that's downright devious thinking. First she has to put up with him trying to get her to make the decision he wants, while assuring her that the decision, of course, was hers alone to make. And then, when she makes it, she has to put up with him debating with her as to whether or not the decision was appropriate.  The man is a downright crazy-maker!

Meanwhile nobody in the T-Bay audience appeared to be amazed, or appalled, or even the slightest bit cognizant. Clearly, they were dyed-in-the-wool Liberals, and he didn't even need to ask for their vote, let alone their understanding.

Perhaps they were pre-programmed that those discussions in themselves were not inappropriate. Why? Because the recently absconded Betts and Wernick insisted they weren't? Talk about hit and run!

Now get ready to feel the urge to hurl. Trudeau did it all "to protect jobs, and of course, protect our institutions".

"These are the things you have to do", he says. That's like saying, "The Devil made me do it."

So, whether he thinks so or not, Trudeau's admitting that Wilson-Raybould was telling the truth; that she was, indeed, essentially, pressured by Trudeau -- and by his pals -- but only because he was obligated to fulfil his mandate as Prime Minister.  What a guy!

Not only that, but to show how deeply he cared about Wilson-Raybould's situation, in an unprecedented move  -- "never happened before" -- he waived all of the secrecy rules, designed to protect government, so that "she could speak fully".  What a downright, upstanding guy!

And we all know how long it took for him to eventually get around to doing that!  After all this time, she's finally able to speak, and will wisely do that in writing so there's no confusion about what she said.

Good lord, how much more do we need to just accept that she was pressured over and over again by people who should have known better.

Trudeau goes on to talk about the women who have resigned, and says he respects their opinion, but also says the Ethics Commissioner is "looking into" the issue.  He says this knowing full well that the Ethics Commissioner is now on a "prolonged absence" for "health" reasons. The "work of the office" may still be going on, but if it's the effective sort of work it ought to be, then what was he needed for in the first place?

Then he goes back to talking about the duty of the government to "protect jobs" and "grow the economy" (wow, another dog whistle comment, just sort of tossed in as a scary little afterthought), and then does a partisan sidestep accusing the Conservatives of deliberately delaying the most important things that Parliament should "weigh in on"), crassly appealing to the fears of the general public who don't do their own research on such matters.

All in all, Trudeau stresses that no laws were broken under his watch, so what's the big beef, eh?
Well, there's legal and there's moral. Somebody should tell him that.  In fact, before someone is allowed to run a country, they should be tested for that.

Finally, he jumps right into the actual purpose of his little question/answer session; that is, to schmooze the way to his re-election.  On that score, he was most straightforward.

I wonder if Justin sent all those Canadian tax dollars to the Clinton Foundation because he owes Bill for lessons in obfuscation.  (See: Frank Caliendo does Bush and Clinton [YouTube] - "I am not here. What is 'here' except 'there' without a T?")