For a Friday

(Insert own pithy comment here)




Justin is stuck in a loop:

Jody Wilson-Raybould would still be justice minister if it wasn’t for the resignation of former Treasury Board president Scott Brison, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday, downplaying suggestions she was moved for not giving into political arm-twisting.

Trudeau said Brison’s decision to leave politics resulted in having to “move things around” on the team, including shuffling Wilson-Raybould into the veterans affairs portfolio.

“One of the seniors members of our team stepped down and we had to move things around on the team,” Trudeau said. “If Scott Brison had not stepped down from cabinet, Jody Wilson-Raybould would still be minister of justice and attorney general.”

Trudeau was also asked directly if the decision to move Wilson-Raybould out of justice had anything to do with SNC-Lavalin.

“Any time, one makes a decision to shift members of cabinet, there are always a wide range of factors that go into making that decision,” he said.

Yes, about that:

I recall skimming an unusually lengthy statement published by recently-demoted attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould on Jan. 15.

The statement was largely a congratulatory pat on the back in which Wilson-Raybould reflected on her many accomplishments as AG and waxed poetically about the challenges still to come in her continuing service as a Liberal MP and her new role as Minister of Veterans Affairs.
 
The PMO had allegedly pressured Wilson-Raybould — then attorney general —  to enter into a “remediation agreement” with SNC-Lavalin; essentially encouraging the AG to cut a deal. Wilson-Raybould is said to have refused, citing the obvious impropriety of an Attorney General, at the direction of the Prime Minister’s Office, interceding in the normal course of a prosecution being handled by the Public Prosecution Service. Then Wilson-Raybould got fired as AG.

**

“I am surprised and disappointed and to be honest don’t entirely understand why Jody Wilson-Raybould made the decision that she did. Because if anyone, particularly the attorney general, felt that we were not doing our job fully, responsibly and according to all the rules, as a government, it was her responsibility to come forward to me this past fall and highlight that directly to me. She did not. Nobody did. And that’s why I continue to be puzzled and disappointed by her decision to step down from cabinet.”

** 

During a conversation in the fall, Trudeau said Wilson-Raybould asked if he would be directing her to take a particular decision, stressing that he replied, “No.” Trudeau said Friday he told Wilson-Raybould any decision on SNC-Lavalin was hers alone.

“It was her decision to make and I expected her to make it,” he said. “I had full confidence in her role as attorney general to make the decision.”

So, which is it, Justin? 


Also:

While talking about the demotion of former attorney general Jody Wilson Raybould, Housefather told host Elias Makos the cabinet shuffle may have had to do with her lack of French.

“There are a lot of justice issues this year, including the Charter of Values being proposed by Quebec, that are going to require a justice minister who is very able to communicate with Quebecers,” Housefather told CJAD.

Wilson-Raybould was Justin Trudeau’s justice minister and attorney general and was able to shepherd some major legislation for the government including medically assisted dying and the legalization of marijuana.

And she did all that without speaking French.

There were no complaints about her performance until she apparently refused to cut a deal to allow SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal based construction giant, to avoid prosecution over bribery, fraud and corruption charges.

Housefather chaired the justice committee meeting on Wednesday that blocked attempts by the Conservatives and NDP to call Wilson-Raybould and top advisors to the PM to testify.

Just pile it on, lackeys.




Meanwhile:

Quebec Premier Francois Legault says he wants the federal government to settle with engineering firm SNC-Lavalin “as soon as possible” in order to protect jobs and the company’s corporate headquarters in Montreal.

I'll just leave this right here:

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) (lit. Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund, also referred to in English-language media as the Caisse) is an institutional investor that manages several public and parapublic pension plans and insurance programs in Quebec. It was founded in 1965 by an act of the National Assembly under the government of Jean Lesage. It is the second largest pension fund in Canada, after the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

**

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has raised its stake in SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., as the pension fund keeps its faith in the beleaguered engineering and construction company.

The Caisse, already SNC’s top shareholder, bought 1.81 million shares on March 12 and 13 for a total investment of $73.7 million, according to March 16 filing with the Ontario Securities Commission’s System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders, or SEDI.

The pension fund bought 721,800 shares at $40.56 each and an additional 1,087,300 at $40.88 over the two-day period, taking its total stake to 17.27 million shares, or 11.3% of the company.

(Merci)




So it begins:

A rural Manitoba school division says it is investigating after a gym teacher posted a photo to Facebook showing him holding a sign insulting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The photo was taken after an event attended by Conservative MP Candice Bergen at the kindergarten to Grade 12 school in Miami, Man.

In an interview with CTV Winnipeg, physical education teacher Brent Unrau says he asked for a photo with Bergen and in it, the two hold signs that together read: “Trudeau is just the worst.”

Well, he is.

If the school division finds any partisan content in the classroom to be offensive, I trust it will be as equally punitive to others teachers.

Right?



Basic income is just another form of welfare:

An Ontario court has denied a request that it quash the provincial government’s decision to cancel a basic income pilot project.

In a decision released Thursday, a panel of three Superior Court judges ruled the court has “no power” to reverse the move made by the Progressive Conservative government last summer.

The Tories announced in July they were cancelling the project, which provided a guaranteed annual income to participants in three Ontario cities: Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lindsay.

Good:

Britain’s Home Secretary has warned he’ll block the return of Britons who travelled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group.

Sajid Javid’s comments come amid a furious debate about Shamima Begum, who ran away to join extremists when she was 15. Begum, who is now nine months pregnant, told The Times newspaper that she wants to come home.

Javid told the newspaper on Friday that he “will not hesitate” to prevent the return of Britons who “supported terrorist organizations abroad.” Others have appealed for mercy, noting Begum’s age when she fled.

And I thought North Korea was on the ropes:

North Korea possesses the capabilities to track and target satellites, posing a challenge to other militaries, the US Department of Defense said in a recent report.

According to the report published Monday by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, “Challenges to Security in Space,” North Korea is among countries that pose a challenge to militaries using space-enabled services.

Will this issue be addressed during the summit?:

North Korea has informed Japan that Minoru Tanaka, a Hyogo Prefecture native who vanished in 1978, is living in Pyongyang with his wife and children, Kyodo News reported Friday, quoting an unnamed source in the Japanese government.

The government claims Tanaka was kidnapped by North Korean agents while staying in Europe.

Since 2014, North Korea has told Japan about Tanaka’s situation several times, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Pyongyang also reportedly told Tokyo that Tatsumitsu Kaneda, one of his coworkers at a noodle shop, is also living in Pyongyang with his wife and children.

Japanese officials were told that neither Tanaka nor Kaneda intends to return to Japan, according to Kyodo News. ...

Japan officially lists 17 citizens as having been kidnapped by North Korean agents and suspects the North’s involvement in many more abductions. Of the 17, five were repatriated in 2002.