Justin: Caught Left-Handed

Image: Trudeau's "please don't spank me" face.


Justin: Caught Left-Handed

SNC-Lavalin cookie jar closed for business?

Only if they don't eat their dinners.

NatNewswatch: Liberals wouldn’t take hidden SNC-Lavalin money now, Trudeau says

• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says today's federal Liberal party wouldn't accept political donations like those that got SNC-Lavalin in trouble in the late 2000s.

Huh? The "late 2000's"? Did I fall asleep and miss almost a whole century? Shades of Methuzelah!  I'm even more afraid than usual to look in the mirror!

Or is this a cagey way of saying without saying that the graft will continue until at least 3000?  

• Trudeau says the party has improved its standards and, in his words, "that is not what happens any more."

Talk about obfuscation!*  You notice he's not saying what does happen?

Okay, what does happen goes, reportedly, something like this:

NatPost: An SNC-Lavalin lobbyist attended Liberal donor events, critics say it was cash-for-access

• Bruce Hartley, who has been registered as a lobbyist for SNC-Lavalin since April 2017, attended two events for deep-pocketed donors in December 2017 and June 2018, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the featured guest
• Hartley told the Post that he signed an affirmation required by the party stating he would not lobby at the event. “I attended to support the Liberal Party of Canada as I have consistently done over the past several decades,” he said in an email.
• NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said the SNC-Lavalin controversy is revealing “the really tawdry little backroom world of influence that exists in the Trudeau government.” He suggested that despite the Liberals’ commitment to end controversial cash-for-access fundraisers, the practice continues.

Donor events generally include very expensive dinners and no doubt Justin earned his cookies.

And they still wonder why so many voters are cynical about government. They're turning me into an Anarchist, sort of. I even thought of attending the May Day BarBQ & March, but Environment Canada is predicting dire rain, which, like "global warming", so far doesn't seem to be happening, but I'm not taking any chances.

Continuing with the National Newswatch article:

• The Quebec-based engineering firm reached a "compliance agreement" with Canada's elections commissioner in 2016, admitting that executives who'd left the company by then had convinced employees to give money to both the Liberal and Conservative parties.
• SNC-Lavalin CEO Neil Bruce said in 2016 that the agreement with the elections commissioner was evidence that the company had turned over a new leaf.
• So has the Liberal party, Trudeau said Tuesday before the government's weekly cabinet meeting.
• "When we came to power and when I became leader of the Liberal party, we made significant changes to the fundraising regime, we have moved forward on transparency and openness, and that is not what happens any more."
• The donations covered by the compliance agreement were made between 2004 and 2011; Trudeau became Liberal leader in 2013.

First of all, "when we came to power" just makes me shudder!  If that's how government leaders see themselves, then why do they keep calling it "public service"? That alone gives one reason to believe that all politicians, Right, Left or Different, are self-serving influence seekers.

How does it help to say that all of the SNC participants are "former employees" who left the company with healthy bonuses, and imply that the Law came down real hard on one of them in May 2018 (what took them so long?), when the sentence imposed was a virtual slap on the wrist:

NatPost: Liberals accused of cover-up after report reveals details of SNC-Lavalin's illegal donations

• One former SNC-Lavalin vice president was ultimately charged for the breaches in May 2018. Normand Morin pled guilty to two violations of the Canada Elections Act in November, for “collusion” with senior executives on behalf of political parties, and paid a $2,000 fine.

Not exactly a punishment considering this was after what could only have been a huge departure bonus. What is being (sort of) revealed is a tiny droplet in a very smelly bucket.

But take a look at who is calling the kettle black!

• A CBC investigation listed for the first time individuals accused of indirectly funnelling almost $110,000 of SNC's money to the Liberals, and $8,000 to the Tories

Usually one has to read a right-leaning news outlet to see criticism of the Liberals. So one is left to wonder how deep the "CBC investigation" actually went (especially when it took them so very, very long to reveal the strongly alleged and partially acknowledged proclivities of their biggest radio star, whose punishment was merely to make an apology -- and who, not incidentally, has reportedly reappeared and "continues to be a weird mixture of delusional and pathetic".

Certainly, the CBC, indirectly at least, came down hard on the Cons by publishing this opinion piece:

​CBC: Opposition is a caricature, and Scheer is a humid performer: Neil Macdonald

• Conservative MP Lisa Raitt, in 2016, accused Wilson-Raybould of "spewing lies" in the House of Commons. Now, though, she dotingly believes every word Wilson-Raybould utters
•  No party raised any objection to the concept of allowing negotiated settlements with corporations
• But most of this flippity-floppity stuff goes largely unreported. The respect and admiration of opposition MPs for Wilson-Raybould, and their deep suspicion of the underhanded government decision to let big companies escape rule of law is the new "narrative," to use that awful, hackneyed word.

"Tralalalalalala", says Maggie Muggins; "I wonder what will happen tomorrow". Turns out she's opened up a site called "Maggie Muggins Designs" and at least one commenter is "eating it all up".

"I love hunny", says Pooh, but he might have to consider cookies until the bees come back.

"Mmmm, Coookeees", says Cookie Monster.  He has blue fur, the colour of Cons.
 
By the way, I'm pretty sure my web host clutters up your cache with cookies, but rest assured, I did not bake them.


* Obfuscation: * Artha says:

• the activity of obscuring people's understanding, leaving them baffled or bewildered