Where the real problem lies in the SNC-Lavalin debacle
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157.56738
Summary
In the wake of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott being expelled from the Liberal caucus, the question of whether or not the Prime Minister had the right to expel them from caucus has become a hot-button issue.
Transcript
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Much of the discussion surrounding the expulsion of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott
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from Liberal Caucus has been surrounding whether or not the Prime Minister had the right to
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expel them without consulting caucus, or indeed should caucus have had a vote.
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A lot of the other discussion concerns, as the Prime Minister said, the supposed lack
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of trust, or whether or not Wilson-Raybould had the right to record a phone conversation
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held with Michael Wernick, the Clerk of the Privy Council Office.
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The salient issue here should be the issue of prosecutorial independence, and that is
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where I think the Prime Minister has really gone astray.
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The prosecutorial independence is a basic tenet of a democracy.
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There's the police who investigate crimes, the prosecutorial system, which prepares the
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case and decides whether or not charges should be laid, and if so, what charges.
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And then finally, there's the judiciary, which hears the cases and then decides guilt or innocence.
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At any level, no one in a position of power should be able to call the police and say things
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Why don't you start an investigation against him and see if you can get him charged?
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Or any more than they should be able to call a judge hearing a case and say, you know, how's
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You know, this is the way I'd like to see it head.
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Well, that's exactly what the Prime Minister did in this case.
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And not only the Prime Minister, but also Gerald Butts and Michael Wernick, too.
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And possibly even Katie Telford, we're not positive on that one yet.
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But realistically, any representative of the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister himself
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in the September meeting he had with then Attorney General Wilson-Raybould, to try and
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get her to change the mind of the Director of Public Prosecutions is interference at the
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And it should not be tolerated, and in fact was not tolerated by Wilson-Raybould.
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Now, she ultimately fell on her sword on that principle, but I think good on her.
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And I think shame on the Prime Minister for trying to interfere in the independence of
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And in fact, it may be well up to the RCMP to determine whether or not that was an attempt
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There's much more to this, but very little of it, in my view, has to do with the optics
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I think it has a lot more to do with the attempt at interference from the most powerful office
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in this country with the prosecutorial independence of the Attorney General's office.
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I think that's where the real problem lies, and I think that's where the focus should be
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by the pundit class and certainly by the public and the major media.