Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Version of Law and Justice

It is incontrovertible that Trudeau gave Wilson-Raybould the hook after she refused to do his bidding. Instead of doing politics differently, he has proven to be a vindictiv, controlling autocrat  Cartoon, Gary Clement, National Post

There is the prime minister who boasted on the world stage that he preferred a Cabinet with Ministers of the Crown that represented an equal number of men and women, reflecting the gender makeup of society. He burnished his "progressive" identity as a "feminist" even further by appointing an Indigenous woman elected to Parliament, as Attorney General of Canada to head the Ministry of Justice, a powerful, prestigious post. That woman, Jody Wilson-Raybould turned out to have a mind of her own, one dedicated as much to justice as to the country she was born in and represented in the House of Commons as Minister of Justice.

She was not the least bit conflicted, given her law degree and experience, in recognizing criminal, corrupt action on the part of one of Canada's signature engineering and construction firms that employs tens of thousands of workers worldwide, and close to ten thousand in Canada alone, with several thousand located in Prime Minister Trudeau's Montreal riding. It is uncomfortably close to a federal election and the Liberal Party of Canada and Justin Trudeau ideally would like to count on all votes in a province that reflects the party's greatest polling strength.

As Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould refused, though pressed, to allow SNC Lavalin to get away with a fine and a promise to change its corporate tactics. Fine recompense for SNC Lavalin's hard work meeting with Cabinet ministers, lobbying government relentlessly to pass a law that would forgive past instances of graft and corruption, allowing it to bargain with prosecutors to obtain permission to proceed with a "remediation agreement". When the director of Public Prosecutions refused, contending that the crimes committed merited a trial leading to conviction and a loss of government contracts for SNC Lavalin, then-Attorney General Wilson-Raybould concurred.

It took little time for her to be disciplined through a surprise, summary yanking out of that vital portfolio as a non-team member "difficult to get along with", determined to "damage" the government "by allowing the speculation about alleged corruption to hang out there", with all of this skulduggery recently reported in the national Globe & Mail. She was demoted to the minor Ministry of Veterans Affairs, leading her to write on her website the importance she places on the separation of the judiciary from political influence. The situation has moved from cabinet shuffle to public awareness that all is not well in government.

Signals of dysfunction and petty vindictiveness on the part of Justin Trudeau were previously identified and decried when he set out to demote and effectively destroy the reputation of the second-in-command of the Canadian Armed Forces, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, accused by Crown prosecutors of disclosing Cabinet secret discussions relating to the federal government's contracting of a temporary replacement supply ship to the Canadian Navy. A competitor shipping yard had lobbied the Liberals to reconsider that contract and award it to them instead.

Vice-Admiral Norman was accused of releasing this information to a journalist and to his contact at the contracted shipping yard. This was information available to a large number of people any of whom might have relayed it onward. The government was embarrassed by the revelations and as a result of public attention, honoured the contract with the original shipyard; the resulting supply ship materialized and was put to service, and the Vice-Admiral was abandoned by the Chief of the Defence Staff, his colleague and commander, in collusion with the prime minister's office.

In a run-up to Vice-Admiral Norman's trial, his lawyers have been attempting for a year to convince government lawyers, the Armed Services and the prime minister's office to release documents critical to his defence, but to no avail. In some instances it has been asserted that during high-level meetings between the chief of the Defence Staff, General Jonathan Vance, meeting with Trudeau's advisers no notes were taken at all. Some members of the military came forward to attest to the fact they had discovered that measures were taken to deny the existence of requested documents.

Trudeau wants revenge, and he has undertaken a manipulative stance, suborning the integrity of the justice system, convincing elite members of the military that it would be in the public interest to hang Vice-Admiral Norman out to dry to satisfy Trudeau's raging gut instinct that anyone he feels has crossed him must suffer. And Vice-Admiral Norman has suffered; an honourable man who served the country well, he has been removed from his post and forced to defend himself against an ruinous allegation that he committed a breach of trust, a crime against his nation.

"The PCO [Privy Council Office] supports the prime minister. They implement what the Prime Minister's Office wants. They execute on behalf of the Prime Minister's office. In my respectful submission ... the position the Crown is taking is more concerning, I would say, than the allegations relating to to SNC Lavalin. The Prime Minister's Office, by way of its right arm, the PCO, is dealing directly with the [prosecution service] and the prosecution service apparently is allowing this to happen."
"I don't have to tell you, your honour, if the Prime Minister's Office has any kind of input into the conduct of this prosecution ... even if just the PCO has input into how to run the trial, that is a corruption of the process, it's an abuse of process."
Christine Mainville, Norman lawyer

Vice-Admiral Norman's lawyer's argument in addressing a court on Monday, pre-trial, certainly convinced Justice Heather Perkins McVey, who responded: "So much for the independence of the PPSC [the Public Prosecution Service of Canada]". Justin Trudeau's petty little irritations causing him to subvert justice to reflect what he feels should be the order of his day, not what the Canadian justice system is geared to produce, has made a mockery of both his office and the arms of government in service to justice.

Suspended Vice-Admiral Mark Norman and his lawyer Christine Mainville leave court following a hearing on access to documents in Ottawa, Friday November 23, 2018. (Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS)