Juno News - Trudeau’s excuses for #Lavscam keeps changing

00:00:00.000 Let's talk about why the latest news in lab scam matters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

00:00:13.840 being found guilty by the Ethics Commissioner of violating Section 9 of the Conflict of Interest

00:00:20.080 Act. Now that is a law. So Justin Trudeau was found to have broken a law. Now this was not a

00:00:26.800 law that was administered in a criminal court say that he's been found guilty of something that

00:00:30.780 comes with jail time. The repercussions are pretty minimal. The office is pretty toothless. But he

00:00:36.200 broke a law nonetheless. If you want to read the Conflict of Interest Act you find it up there on

00:00:42.000 the Justice Laws page alongside other documents like the Criminal Code. It is a very serious matter.

00:00:49.620 And the difference now between the conversation we were having months ago is back then a lot of it

00:00:54.780 was well what would the political consequences be and what's the spin going to be? How will Trudeau

00:01:00.080 turn the page on this? How will he get a new message out on this? And so forth. Now very different. This

00:01:06.020 isn't Andrew Scheer calling on him to resign or what have you which is well a valid take I guess to have 0.59

00:01:12.340 and one that a lot of people are putting forward that's still one politician saying something else

00:01:17.440 to another politician in a partisan arena. No this is a quasi-judicial body. This is a commissioner,

00:01:22.880 ethics commissioner saying you broke these rules. So that takes us into new terrain in the first

00:01:29.100 place and we've learned that the RCMP has said they are keenly watching this and they will do any

00:01:33.820 actions that are appropriate which is a very interesting statement because a lot of times

00:01:38.340 they don't comment. Here they're offering well they're offering something and we shall see where

00:01:43.240 that takes us. Another thing that's changed is how Trudeau is responding to all of this and it's

00:01:50.080 changed perhaps not in the way it should have. Now you remember when the story first broke way back

00:01:55.500 in the beginning of February Justin Trudeau said fake news. He sounded like Donald Trump. False. Nothing

00:02:00.780 to see here. He said this story is false. The allegations in the Globe story this morning

00:02:06.720 are false. Neither the current nor the previous Attorney General was ever directed by me or by

00:02:15.300 anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter. Then a few weeks later Jody Wilson-Raybould

00:02:22.220 gave her damning testimony at committee where she provided documentary evidence. She gave exact quotes.

00:02:28.060 She gave timelines and dates and Trudeau had to say well okay fine. I mean it happened but it wasn't

00:02:34.040 improper pressure. We did not break any rules or laws and it was all about jobs. Now that doesn't

00:02:40.500 even hang anymore. Now he said to say okay well we were found to have broken a law well it was still

00:02:47.220 all about saving jobs and that leaves a lot of people scratching their heads going well what what

00:02:52.000 other laws would you be willing to break in this pursuit of saving jobs? Is everything justified

00:02:58.260 for one policy proposal for one job campaign for one company and so forth? I mean is that really

00:03:05.140 the right way to focus on all of this? Is that the right thing to say? Trudeau also said some other

00:03:10.880 things in how he quibbled with the ethics commissioner Mero Dion. I want to read to you

00:03:14.640 some of his remarks he gave in response after this news broke. He said even though I disagree with some

00:03:20.460 of his conclusions Mero Dion's conclusions I fully accept this report and take responsibility for

00:03:25.780 everything that happened. How he actually takes responsibility for it is still unclear. Nothing

00:03:30.300 has changed but he says where I disagree with the commissioner amongst others is where he says

00:03:35.360 and takes a strong perspective that any contact with the attorney general on this issue was improper.

00:03:42.600 What do you mean you disagree with what the ethics commissioner says? This is you're not at you're not like

00:03:50.280 at the bar talking to a guy and he has one opinion and you have another. This is not Mero Dion saying

00:03:56.600 something. This is not him voicing an opinion. This is a ruling by the ethics commissioner. It's not really

00:04:03.820 something for you to to disagree with. I mean you can say you don't like that you've been found guilty like

00:04:09.020 I'm sure a lot of people who are found guilty by a judge a jury or even you know an ethics commissioner

00:04:14.020 or someone like that they may not like the outcome but this is not a debate parlor. This isn't two guys talking

00:04:18.920 at the bar. You can't really legitimately expect people to buy that and the framing of it is very

00:04:25.200 troubling because Justin Trudeau is almost suggesting that the ethics commissioner is someone who

00:04:31.100 well it's just some guy on equal or even lesser footing than Justin Trudeau and it's not so much that

00:04:37.600 it's the ethics commissioner's job to judge Trudeau but that it is Trudeau's job to judge the ethics

00:04:44.520 commissioner. Is that the case? I don't think so and it's very alarming to see him take that tone. One

00:04:50.600 would think that maybe he would offer just a little bit of contrition now that the RCMP has come even

00:04:56.800 closer to knocking on his door vis-a-vis obstruction of justice issues. Instead doubling down tripling down

00:05:02.960 that not only is there nothing to see here but that one must discredit the entire office of the ethics

00:05:09.580 commissioner. So the lab scam story has changed quite a lot since when we talked about it last

00:05:14.980 and it has not changed at all for the better.

Juno News - August 16, 2019

Trudeau’s excuses for #Lavscam keeps changing

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