Juno News - What will happen at Trudeau's committee appearance？

00:00:00.000 So we learned on Wednesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is agreeing to testify at the

00:00:10.780 Finance Committee to discuss the WE scandal. Wow, maybe we didn't see that coming, to see him

00:00:16.980 actually make that appearance. He didn't agree to do it during lavscam, so should we go, okay,

00:00:21.480 fair enough, here he is. We should commend him for this transparency, for being willing to answer

00:00:26.580 all of these questions. Well, you will pardon me if I'm feeling a little cynical about all this. I'm

00:00:32.080 not so sure I'm withholding my applause. I'll wait until we see his performance at the committee,

00:00:37.260 because here's why. A number of points. First of all, what's to say it's not going to be full

00:00:41.940 of talking points? What are the things that Trudeau is already saying about the WE scandal?

00:00:46.060 Well, he's using this phrase, open and transparent. We've been open and transparent. Ad nauseum. We're

00:00:50.920 hearing it time and time again. Isn't that kind of interesting that this is a phrase that he doesn't

00:00:55.420 particularly use when there aren't scandals going on. He only uses them when people are concerned

00:01:00.420 that he has not been open and transparent, and his response is just to counter and say, I am

00:01:05.360 being open and transparent. The other thing I think we'll hear a lot about, we've already heard

00:01:09.660 a few examples of it, is he says, well, we do what we need to do to help Canadians during the pandemic.

00:01:14.900 Basically, don't worry about the details of this administering this program. It's all because

00:01:19.300 we're just so urgent and quick and doing everything we can, pulling out the stops

00:01:23.520 to help Canadians dealing with COVID-19. I also think we could hear that real zinger

00:01:28.820 that's upset some people that he said a couple times in the past that this scandal

00:01:33.200 is more of a learning opportunity for the rest of Canada and for everyone else. Maybe we'll hear

00:01:39.280 that doozy. What do you think? I also think one thing we have to keep in mind is Trudeau has not

00:01:44.640 agreed to make a traditional committee appearance. He has agreed to sit down in front of his laptop

00:01:50.780 and log on to a virtual sitting. And this is a very different thing, of course, because there

00:01:56.700 are different dynamics. There's different give and take. You know how these Zoom calls and all

00:02:00.700 these things work where it's really hard for people to interrupt each other. You really have

00:02:04.620 to be given your time because microphones come and go and they sort of put up on a screen who's

00:02:09.520 talking and who's not and so forth. So there are much more stage managed affairs. I think this works

00:02:14.800 to Justin Trudeau's advantage if he would like to evade some more difficult questions, if he would like

00:02:20.120 to sort of drag on with the comments that he is making. Because keep in mind, Trudeau has never

00:02:24.840 actually faced any serious prolonged public scrutiny. He's never faced any particular grilling

00:02:31.000 from anyone. Yes, there's a question period, but that's still a managed affair. Likewise for when he

00:02:35.840 deals with questions from the media up at the podium. But what could happen at finance committee is,

00:02:41.200 say, conservative finance critic Pierre Polyev, he could really want to give Trudeau a grilling and they

00:02:45.960 could really get into a back and forth because of the way finance committee testimony appearances work,

00:02:50.680 there is that opportunity for back and forth with which Trudeau has never really been exposed to

00:02:56.440 before. But we're not going to see that because the virtual sittings, well, they operate a little bit

00:03:01.720 differently. So I guess it's better than not that Trudeau has agreed to make this appearance.

00:03:06.600 Opposition members were calling for it, so he has agreed to it. But hold your applause until we see

00:03:12.220 what actually transpires.

Juno News - July 24, 2020