Trudeau’s excuses for #Lavscam keeps changing
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Summary
Justin Trudeau has been found guilty by the Ethics Commissioner of violating section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act, but what does that mean for the rest of his political career? And what does it mean for his chances of re-election?
Transcript
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Let's talk about why the latest news in lab scam matters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
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being found guilty by the Ethics Commissioner of violating Section 9 of the Conflict of Interest
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Act. Now that is a law. So Justin Trudeau was found to have broken a law. Now this was not a
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law that was administered in a criminal court say that he's been found guilty of something that
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comes with jail time. The repercussions are pretty minimal. The office is pretty toothless. But he
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broke a law nonetheless. If you want to read the Conflict of Interest Act you find it up there on
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the Justice Laws page alongside other documents like the Criminal Code. It is a very serious matter.
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And the difference now between the conversation we were having months ago is back then a lot of it
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was well what would the political consequences be and what's the spin going to be? How will Trudeau
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turn the page on this? How will he get a new message out on this? And so forth. Now very different. This
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isn't Andrew Scheer calling on him to resign or what have you which is well a valid take I guess to have
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and one that a lot of people are putting forward that's still one politician saying something else
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to another politician in a partisan arena. No this is a quasi-judicial body. This is a commissioner,
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ethics commissioner saying you broke these rules. So that takes us into new terrain in the first
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place and we've learned that the RCMP has said they are keenly watching this and they will do any
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actions that are appropriate which is a very interesting statement because a lot of times
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they don't comment. Here they're offering well they're offering something and we shall see where
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that takes us. Another thing that's changed is how Trudeau is responding to all of this and it's
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changed perhaps not in the way it should have. Now you remember when the story first broke way back
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in the beginning of February Justin Trudeau said fake news. He sounded like Donald Trump. False. Nothing
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to see here. He said this story is false. The allegations in the Globe story this morning
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are false. Neither the current nor the previous Attorney General was ever directed by me or by
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anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter. Then a few weeks later Jody Wilson-Raybould
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gave her damning testimony at committee where she provided documentary evidence. She gave exact quotes.
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She gave timelines and dates and Trudeau had to say well okay fine. I mean it happened but it wasn't
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improper pressure. We did not break any rules or laws and it was all about jobs. Now that doesn't
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even hang anymore. Now he said to say okay well we were found to have broken a law well it was still
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all about saving jobs and that leaves a lot of people scratching their heads going well what what
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other laws would you be willing to break in this pursuit of saving jobs? Is everything justified
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for one policy proposal for one job campaign for one company and so forth? I mean is that really
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the right way to focus on all of this? Is that the right thing to say? Trudeau also said some other
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things in how he quibbled with the ethics commissioner Mero Dion. I want to read to you
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some of his remarks he gave in response after this news broke. He said even though I disagree with some
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of his conclusions Mero Dion's conclusions I fully accept this report and take responsibility for
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everything that happened. How he actually takes responsibility for it is still unclear. Nothing
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has changed but he says where I disagree with the commissioner amongst others is where he says
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and takes a strong perspective that any contact with the attorney general on this issue was improper.
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What do you mean you disagree with what the ethics commissioner says? This is you're not at you're not like
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at the bar talking to a guy and he has one opinion and you have another. This is not Mero Dion saying
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something. This is not him voicing an opinion. This is a ruling by the ethics commissioner. It's not really
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something for you to to disagree with. I mean you can say you don't like that you've been found guilty like
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I'm sure a lot of people who are found guilty by a judge a jury or even you know an ethics commissioner
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or someone like that they may not like the outcome but this is not a debate parlor. This isn't two guys talking
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at the bar. You can't really legitimately expect people to buy that and the framing of it is very
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troubling because Justin Trudeau is almost suggesting that the ethics commissioner is someone who
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well it's just some guy on equal or even lesser footing than Justin Trudeau and it's not so much that
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it's the ethics commissioner's job to judge Trudeau but that it is Trudeau's job to judge the ethics
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commissioner. Is that the case? I don't think so and it's very alarming to see him take that tone. One
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would think that maybe he would offer just a little bit of contrition now that the RCMP has come even
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closer to knocking on his door vis-a-vis obstruction of justice issues. Instead doubling down tripling down
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that not only is there nothing to see here but that one must discredit the entire office of the ethics
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commissioner. So the lab scam story has changed quite a lot since when we talked about it last