PONDERABLES
Are there no principled Liberal MPs willing to stand up to Trudeau over his lack of principle?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
Justin Trudeau’s WE apology took so long and was so nuanced that it’s clear the only thing he’s sorry for is getting caught. Again.
The same can be said for his principal unprincipled puppet, Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
The real culprit in the current lack of parliamentary accountability is Jagmeet Singh, who supported Trudeau in voting against the resumption of parliament.
JUSTIN TRUDEAU’S RAP SHEET AND EXCUSES
Prime Minister Trudeau has already been found guilty of violating Sections 5, 9, 11, 12 and 21 of the Conflict of Interest Act and has probably added sections 6 and 7 by not recusing himself from the WE Charity cabinet discussions and decisions.
Trudeau’s excuse for the violations arising from his visit to the Aga Khan’s island was that Khan was an old friend, even though they’d been in the same company only once in decades, and that was at Trudeau’s father’s widely-attended funeral. His excuse for his ethical breaches in the SNC-Lavalin debacle was that he was protecting Canadian jobs, even though there wasn’t a scintilla of evidence that any jobs were in jeopardy. Justin and his enablers tend to characterize his lack of ethical behaviour as “his heart being in the right place.” It’s time he got his conscience in the right place.
MORE “WE” QUESTIONS ARISE AT COMMITTEE HEARING
Thursday’s House of Commons Finance Committee hearing revealed troubling testimony regarding the Liberal government’s overweening coziness with the WE Charity conglomerate.
Bardish Chagger, Minister for Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, testified that Rachel Wernick, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister at Employment and Social Development Canada, made the decision to involve WE. But Ms. Wernick testified that WE had pitched various government ministers before she ever heard of the idea, and that it was someone from the ministry of finance who suggested WE become involved. This raises two important questions. Was Chagger fudging the truth? Was Finance Minister Morneau even more deeply conflicted than he’s already admitted?
ANOTHER HYPOCRITICAL, SELF-ENTITLED CABINET MINISTER
It’s now been disclosed that Thunder Bay MP Patty Hajdu, at a time when the federal government was sternly warning all Canadians that any non-essential travel should be avoided (my memory is that they were even considering fining scofflaws who didn’t comply), used a government aircraft to travel between Ottawa and her home riding on four weekends during April and May. According to the Ottawa-based internet publication Blacklock’s Reporter there were only two constituency events during the period, neither of which required her to be there. It’s not unreasonable, then, to conclude that the reason she was commuting (at significant taxpayer expense) was to be with her family at a time when thousands of ordinary Canadians were separated from theirs. These facts are bad enough, but add the fact that Hajdu is the Minister of Health and the hypocrisy becomes staggering. Then there’s the self-entitlement angle. It’s also easy to conclude that when the boss assumes he’s above the rules, members of his hand-picked team could assume that they, too, are exempt. Not the kind of leadership that’s expected from a prime minister.
A COUPLE OF BASEBALL OBSERVATIONS
Like most baseball-starved fans, I watched the Blue Jays intra-squad games, played in an empty Rogers Center, on TV last Tuesday and Wednesday. It was weird, but it was baseball. Their two upcoming exhibition games against the Red Sox in Boston next Tuesday and Wednesday will be infinitely more interesting, so I’m fervently hoping that Sportsnet is going to pick up a feed from NESN.
I remain sceptical that MLB is going to be able to complete the mini-season; there’s simply too much travel involving Covid-19 hot spots in the US. And because of the number of people who will be entering Canada from south of the border, I think that allowing the Jays to play their games at home would be a mistake. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto mayor John Tory have both given their go ahead, citing the 150-page protocol that MLB is operating under as an adequate safety valve. I wonder how many of the more than a thousand players and staff who will be crossing the border have studied it? As of the time of writing, the federal government hasn’t ruled on the issue.