Juno News - February 15, 2019


Is it time for Justin Trudeau to become his own man？


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

190.65591

Word Count

623

Sentence Count

36

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The way I see it, there are two big things that need to happen on the SNC-Lavalin file.
00:00:09.920 We've got a lot of talk about the Justice Committee, what they're going to do and whether
00:00:13.360 or not the Liberal MPs are going to fulfill what a lot of people are calling them to do,
00:00:17.720 which is bring PMO staffers and senior bureaucrats to account at that committee.
00:00:22.840 I say it's all going to be a bit of a ruse, though, because the chair of that committee
00:00:26.240 is appointed by the Prime Minister, and you better believe any report that comes from
00:00:30.740 that committee, the PMO will have their hands all over it.
00:00:33.960 No, that doesn't suffice.
00:00:35.900 The first thing that we need to have here is some outside, respected person to come in
00:00:41.000 and tell us, is there something here or is there nothing to see here, folks?
00:00:45.280 Go home, this is false, as the Prime Minister says.
00:00:48.380 Most people are not too inclined to believe the latter.
00:00:51.120 So what options do we have?
00:00:52.460 Well, we have the Ethics Commissioner, but he was appointed pretty much by the Prime Minister.
00:00:58.060 Our other options?
00:00:59.460 We've got something that could be akin to the Gomery Inquiry, a public commission and inquiry
00:01:04.340 that is different than any other sort of committee.
00:01:06.940 The problem with the Gomery Inquiry, Paul Martin brought that in to basically investigate things
00:01:11.640 that happened during the Jean Chrétien years.
00:01:13.980 You're not going to call for something like that on yourself.
00:01:17.180 What does that leave us with?
00:01:18.560 An RCMP probe.
00:01:20.280 The challenge is, what is the specific evidence that they're going to be using right now to
00:01:24.140 justify opening the probe?
00:01:26.640 Right now, it's just media reports and questions about who said what to whom.
00:01:31.560 But we're going to have to get something because this story can't be allowed to fester.
00:01:36.080 Number two, and here's a really important one.
00:01:38.380 There needs to be a fall guy.
00:01:41.140 Heads must roll.
00:01:42.900 Because even if this story is false, as Trudeau says, and I don't believe that one minute,
00:01:47.640 but even if that's true, then someone should pay for spreading this story.
00:01:52.760 Maybe it was a senior staffer who didn't actually know what they're talking about.
00:01:56.720 That person has to get the boot.
00:01:58.180 Or a medium staffer, junior staffer.
00:01:59.760 Although I don't know why the Globe would run a story that hinges on a junior staffer's
00:02:04.760 word.
00:02:05.760 If this came from higher up, if this is true, if the PMO did press undue influence on Jody
00:02:12.760 Wilson-Ray Bould, at the very least, we're not talking about legal processes here, but
00:02:17.760 at the very least, someone in the PMO has to go.
00:02:23.260 Someone very senior.
00:02:26.500 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been relying on Jerry Butts for years.
00:02:30.660 You look back at different sources and he seems to be the guy who pushed Trudeau to enter
00:02:34.420 office and run for the leadership in the first place.
00:02:37.540 You know, there's an old saying out there, you dance with the one that brum you, but
00:02:40.800 eventually you have to cut things loose.
00:02:43.160 George W. Bush, he was accused for the longest time of being a puppet of Dick Cheney.
00:02:48.180 But finally, he isolated Cheney.
00:02:49.980 He said, sorry Dick, you're not in on the meetings anymore.
00:02:52.660 He became his own man.
00:02:55.220 Has the time come for Justin Trudeau?
00:02:57.740 To become his own man, to cut ties with those senior people.
00:03:01.780 They've been around him for a long time.
00:03:03.360 Usually you don't keep a chief of staff for your whole tenure.
00:03:06.460 You don't keep a principal advisor for your whole tenure.
00:03:09.160 Maybe this is Justin Trudeau's opportunity to make a clean break, but will he do it?
00:03:15.460 Don't hold your breath.