It is usually best to stay away from political situations that you do not understand. While we have gone around the the rings in this circus a few times, we still do not know much. It really is too bad that we do not have a leader who can explain.
We are talking about SNC-Lavalin, the Quebec-based world-wide engineering firm. When you are doing multi-billion construction jobs, it pays to have a firm such as SNC-Lavalin on board.
All we know is that it has something to do with an incident in Libya ten years ago. The Quebec firm was said to be involved in something illegal back then. It seems that the firm can pay a fine and be forgiven if the federal minister of justice thinks it appropriate. Otherwise, they still pay the fine but they are also cut off from federal contracts for the next ten years because of the conviction. That could destroy the multi-billion-dollar firm by cutting it off from billions in contracts.
The most open politician in this squabble is Quebec premier Legault. He has made it very clear that he wants the firm to be forgiven its indiscretion. He sees nothing wrong with the prime minister’s office telling the justice minister to get in line. And most of the talking heads in Quebec seem to be agreeing as none in that province want to see SNC-Lavalin go under.
The situation is quite different out west where the former justice minister is from. Jody Wilson-Raybould has further complicated things by resigning from cabinet and hiring a senior constitutional lawyer to advise her on the conflicts of interest involved with cabinet ministers and the prime minister’s office.
The prime minister is no longer making nice over the situation and he appears to be as frustrated as everyone else about what is going on. As things stand today, nobody is happy about it. The public is confused. The liberal MPs are closing ranks with the prime minister and the opposition is baying like hounds with a scent. We can only hope that it is just Jody Wilson-Raybould’s ‘new freedom’ perfume!
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Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
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