Are the RCMP finally investigating the Liberal's SNC-Lavalin affair?
Breaking reports allege an investigation is underway, and the RCMP has yet to respond. The government's track record on truth leaves a lot of room for doubt about what's actually going on.
An explosive headline from the National Post rocked the House of Commons moments before the Question Period on Monday: that the RCMP might be “investigating allegations of prosecutorial obstruction in connection with the SNC-Lavalin affair.” You can read the story here.
The upshot of the story is this. An organization called Democracy Watch filed an access to information-request regarding the SNC-Lavalin scandal, which came back with a response that implied that the RCMP may finally be investigating the matter. The National Post, in their article, noted that they had reached out to the RCMP on the issue but had yet to receive a response.
In their press release regarding the potential investigation, Democracy Watch raised several pertinent questions for the RCMP, including:
When did the examination end and the investigation begin?
How many investigators have been investigating?
How many hours in total have they spent investigating?
Have there been negotiations with the PMO to disclose Cabinet confidences about the situation and, if not, why has the RCMP let almost four years pass without challenging the refusal to disclose in court?
When does the RCMP expect that the investigation will conclude?
Will the RCMP and Crown prosecutors issue a full public explanation of the investigation and its findings when it concludes?
These questions are critical given that four years have passed since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was found to have broken ethics rules over the scandal, which saw Trudeau unceremoniously fire former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould for doing the right thing and refusing to participate in activities that could now be the subject of this alleged investigation.
But if the RCMP is investigating, more questions will need to be raised too, why did it take so long for them to do so, and what changed?
Remember that as recently as 2021, in the aftermath of the publication of Wilson-Raybould’s book on her experience in Trudeau’s cabinet, Trudeau denied that the RCMP had ever contacted him about the matter. And today, in Question Period, when asked, the government again claimed that neither the Prime Minister nor anyone in his cabinet was under investigation.
But given that Trudeau’s Liberals have recently been plagued by changing answers on other serious scandals, their denial of this new alleged investigation will likely raise a few eyebrows. In the last few weeks alone, the government has had to change its story on having prior knowledge about threats against Members of the House of Commons by foreign governments and the transfer of notorious serial killer Paul Bernardo to a medium security facility.
More information is needed, and the House of Commons is about to rise for the summer. If the Liberals neuter Parliamentary standing committees by proroguing, it will be up to gutted media newsrooms to keep digging for answers over the summer. So it’s vitally important that the RCMP doesn’t obfuscate and quickly provides clear answers to these allegations.
More to come….
*Update at 7pm EST: the RCMP issued this statement https://t.co/JiiFgVai3g
*Update from Democracy Watch following RCMP statement
https://twitter.com/democracywatchr/status/1670937216611237889?s=4
* other questions raised
https://twitter.com/sunlorrie/status/1670963354855256066?s=46