Category: The Libranos

SNC-Libranos

The Libranos 87 Comments

You knew this was coming;

Materials submitted to the Commons Justice Committee this week indicate Jody Wilson-Raybould recorded at least one of the contentious conversations at the heart of the SNC-Lavalin affair, multiple sources tell CBC News.
 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Wilson-Raybould’s exit from cabinet was a result of a “erosion of trust” between Wilson-Raybould and the Prime Minister’s Office. The existence of a recording suggests that trust may have broken down well before she left cabinet on Feb. 12.
 
The audio recording, or a transcript of it, is expected to be part of a new submission to the committee from Wilson-Raybould to be released later today. That submission also includes a written statement, emails and text messages.

Related.

Update and bumped: The recording is out.

And… reaction.

I Don’t Even Know Where To Begin

The Libranos 20 Comments

So, how about here.

Seagrams heiress Clare Bronfman faints in court after judge seems to suggest that Michael Avenatti was secretly representing her, trying to negotiate deal with US attorney’s office in NXIVM case. An ambulance has been called.

Yes, creepy porn lawyer himself along with “CNN legal analyst” (and Nike extortion co-conspirator) Mark Geragos. They sure do get around.

Working backward to revisit the NXIVM case: from March 18th;

Keith Raniere was charged last week with exploiting a child and possessing child pornography. He had previously pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of operating a secret society within his NXIVM group that forced women “slaves” to have unwanted sex with him and branded them with his initials.
 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza told a judge on Monday that the government is in “active plea negotiations” with three defendants. Additionally, defense attorney Mark Geragos said his client, Seagram liquor fortune heiress Clare Bronfman, will be asking for a separate trial on charges she bankrolled the Albany-based group, which has also been called a pyramid scheme.
 
“We don’t need to be the collateral damage,” Geragos said.
 
Geragos said he expects Bronfman and Raniere will be the only two to face trial. Included among the three remaining defendants contesting their charges is Allison Mack, best known for playing a teenage friend of Superman on the “Smallville” TV series. The comments from Geragos indicate Mack is one of the three defendants the prosecutor said were in plea negotiations.

Previously, on March 13th: NXIVM co-founder Nancy Salzman pleads guilty in sex-cult case

I touched on this story back in April of last year. I still don’t understand why it’s not received higher media play. The connections between the Bronfmans and Canadian politicians are legion.

The weirdness just keeps getting weirder.

SNC-Libranos

The Libranos 13 Comments

It feels like a good day to freshen up the post title;

The PM – who just two weeks ago called for the House of Commons justice committee to do their work – has not only shut down that committee, but on Tuesday, his Liberal MPs shut down the ethics committee.

Related.

The Libranos: SNC Lavalin

The Libranos 37 Comments

Here come da judges.


More – Welcome to the Tet offensive of Charter rights: This was the week it became necessary to destroy the village of good government in order to save it.

The Libranos: SNC Lavalin and The Buffalo Chronicle

Media The Libranos 26 Comments

Links to this site keep popping up in the comments, so I decided to take a look.

From February;

Sources close to the Conservative opposition leader have told The Chronicle, on the condition of anonymity, that Scheer has reason to suspect that Brison’s resignation on January 10th was part of a wider effort to shield the government and Bank of Montreal executives from wide-ranging improprieties related to the former Kinder Morgan pipeline and its subsequent acquisition.

And this, on March 11th: ‘Political grandmaster’ Frank Iacobucci is at the center of SNC Lavalin, Kinder Morgan scandals

Iacobucci led SNC-Lavalin‘s efforts to secure a ‘Deferred Prosecution Agreement’ last summer and into the fall. He was instrumental in persuading Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to insert the new legal provision as a policy rider into last year’s budget bill, acting as SNC Lavalin’s in-house attorney. […]
 
Iacobucci sits on the Board of Directors of Torstar, the company that publishes The Toronto Star, The Hamilton Spectator, GTA Today, The Niagara Review, iPolitics, and a series of smaller newspapers. He formerly served as Chairman. The Toronto Star, in particular, has earned a reputation for left-leaning opinion pages and reliably favorable coverage of Liberal politicians.

It’s all highly detailed, so I won’t bother excerpting more. Nor can I provide any opinion on the legitimacy of the content. But one thing’s for sure, it’s gotten under Justin Ling’s skin.

Related? Susan Delacourt’s also testy. (She writes for the Star).

The Libranos: SNC Lavalin

Shiny Pony The Libranos 82 Comments

“There’s much more to the story that should be told.”

This is Philpott’s first interview since she resigned over Trudeau’s handling of the SNC-Lavalin controversy. She believes, as she put it, that “there’s much more to the story that needs to be told” but that it can’t come out because “there’s been an attempt to shut down the story”—an attempt she attributed to the Prime Minister and his close advisors.
 
But she is also keenly aware, because she has been hearing from Liberal colleagues, that “there are people who are afraid that they’re not going to get elected because of what I did.” As she described that anger, the former minister said: “My only way of living with myself on that, is that this is not my fault. I did not start this.” Now she is trying to figure out how to see it through.

Update: Grab a chocolate bar, and bask in his éloquence.

Party On, Media Party!

Media The Libranos 48 Comments

Things you’ll never see on the CBC.

Or Postmedia, or Global.

It’s Raining Money! Hallelujah!

The Libranos 57 Comments

$22.8 billion in new spending. But first, this message from the Opposition benches.

John Chittick summarizes in the comments: Morneau – “free stuff” , “free stuff”, “free stuff”. Scheer – “cover-up” (afraid to criticize free stuff because he wants to get in on the give-away). Max – Liberal vote buying on the backs of the unborn taxpayers (from the only leader amongst them). Singh – “not enough free stuff”. May – “I like your free stuff and wish it came from me”. Canadian politics in a nut shell.

The Libranos: SNC Lavalin

The Libranos 41 Comments

Whew! Glad that’s over.

Opposition MPs briefly stormed out of the Justice Committee meeting Tuesday morning, after reporters were given a document outlining a Liberal motion to discuss hate crimes the morning after publicly calling for an end to the SNC-Lavalin investigation.
 
On Monday night, the five Liberal MPs in the the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights sent a letter to the chair of the committee saying they believe the “all rules and laws were followed” by government staff in relation to SNC-Lavalin, and that “Canadians now have the necessary information to arrive at a conclusion.”

Now we can sit back and let the money rain down on us.

Related.

The Libranos: SNC Lavalin

The Libranos 50 Comments

And the wheels on the bus go BUMP – BUMP – BUMP.

‘Recent events have led me to conclude that I cannot serve as Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet during the upcoming election campaign. Therefore, I will be taking steps to retire from the public service well before the writ of election is issued.’

Related? Michael Wernick’s son worked for Liberal MP behind SNC-Lavalin cover-up

But wait, there’s more!

The Libranos: SNC Lavalin

Political Animal The Libranos 96 Comments

Watching as Liberals profess a new and desperate devotion to saving other peoples’ jobs, I’m beginning to wonder if the real fear surrounding a potential SNC-Lavalin criminal trial isn’t about electoral politics at all, but about what might come out during testimony.

This company has a history of bribery, lest we forget…

Bumped for this update: my spidey senses may be correct. (Sorry! linked fixed)

Is the true purpose to prevent a public trial, rather than save jobs?

 

[…] Is it because Riadh Ben Aïssa has been cooperating with authorities, and his and others’ testimony at trial might be much more damaging than anyone can guess?

The Libranos: SNC Lavalin

The Libranos 30 Comments

And then, as if by magic, a proposal for deferred prosecution agreements was buried into page 202 of the 2018 federal budget.

The DPA circle was now squared—and with barely any scrutiny. A little over two weeks later SNC met one last time—on July 5—with both Bouchard and Marques, the latter now also in the PMO.
 
All that was left was for SNC to be offered its deferred prosecution agreement. Only the offer never came. On Sept. 4, 2018, the government said it would not offer a DPA to SNC.
 
The shock must have been immense; to the company, to the political staff who took the dozens of meetings and to the bureaucracy that had done the same.

Recommended reading.

Butts Testimony Live

The Libranos 149 Comments

Sorry, I got distracted and forgot this joker was testifying this morning — live feed at CPAC.

POLLSPOTTING: Who do you believe more on the SNC-Lavalin affair? (CTV Ottawa)

Question round: Basically, his strategy is to call JWR a liar. And, can’t remember.

Random reactions from various Twitter feeds.

Update: I’ve been busy with work and life, so couldn’t pull a full round up. Suffice it to say that the op-eds will be flying tomorrow after Wenrick’s second round of sanctimony before the committee.

He Admires Their Basic Dictatorship

Chinada Gopher News Shiny Pony The Libranos 52 Comments

First rule of dictatorships — when you sell yourself to dictatorships, they expect you to stay bought.

Winnipeg-based grain handler Richardson International had its registration to ship canola to China cancelled at the beginning of March.
 
“Canola is our biggest cash crop in the province, so this will affect things right away and quickly,” said Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan president Todd Lewis.
 
The Chinese government didn’t disclose its reason for blocking Richardson’s access, according to a Tuesday report from the Reuters news agency.

Oh, Shiny Prime Minister!

Political Animal Shiny Pony The Libranos 129 Comments

(It’s probably nothing).

Bumped for morning update: Trudeau’s trip to Regina has been “abruptly cancelled”. No surprise, as the Canadian Tire stunt was tacked on so the taxpayer would pick up the tab for a Goodale fundraiser.

A “political civil war”? What hath Scott Brison wrought?

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