Pierre Poilievre called the leadership of the RCMP despicable and accused them of covering up for Justin Trudeau.
Now we have progressives who have spent much of the last decade denigrating police as tools of oppression, of being systematically racist, and the types of groups that should be defunded suddenly clutching their pearls in horror.
There are political questions to ask about the wisdom of Poilievre’s comments and then there is a simpler question – are his comments true or valid.
Politically, this doesn’t help Poilievre, and the media pile-on that we’ve seen already will continue. He will be accused of being unfit for office for daring to question such a treasured national institution. Had he called the RCMP complicit in turning a blind eye to crimes against Indigenous women, he would be facing no such outcry.
So, these comments don’t help Poilievre in his goal of being seen as a government in waiting, the man who can replace Mark Carney’s Liberals.
On the matter of whether these questions are true or valid, the answer is a clear yes. The evidence of the Trudeau government interfering in a criminal prosecution for political reasons to assist a favoured firm in SNC-Lavalin was overwhelming.
Pressure campaign orchestrated by Trudeau
We know that Trudeau directed his staff to pressure then attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould to opt for a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC-Lavalin despite the fact that an independent prosecutor working for Wilson-Raybould had made a clear decision that this case should go to trial.
It wasn’t just mild pressure on the then attorney-general, threats were made.
There were meetings and calls between Wilson-Raybould and Trudeau’s top staff. There were text messages trying to convince Wilson-Raybould to get involved in the case, take it over from the prosecutor, and give SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement to help them avoid criminal charges.
At one point, Michael Wernick, who was then Clerk of the Privy Council, the most powerful bureaucrat in the federal government,called Wilson-Raybould. He went to great lengths to explain why him calling her to get her to change her mind was not inappropriate – a sure sign that it was and a point that Wilson-Raybould made again and again.
“I think he (Trudeau) is gonna find a way to get it done one way or another. So he is in that kinda mood, and I wanted you to be aware of that,” Wernick said, hinting that Wilson-Raybould could be replaced if she didn’t do as Trudeau wanted.
After Wilson-Raybould rejected Wernick’s repeated calls to use a DPA, he told her that Trudeau was firm that this happen.
MW: OK, alright … that is clear – um – well, he is in a very firm mood about this so um….
JWR: Does he understand the gravity of what this potentially could mean? – This is not about saving jobs – this is about interfering with one of our fundamental institutions – this is like breaching a constitutional principle of prosecutorial independence.
MW: Well I don’t think he sees it as that…
What did happen was that Wilson-Raybould was removed from her position as attorney-general, David Lametti was put in her place, and SNC-Lavalin was granted their deferred prosecution agreement.
Overwhelming evidence of obstruction
The amount of evidence uncovered and put in the public domain by Commons committees investigating this matter was breathtaking. The RCMP had full access to all of this material, they had access to a certain amount of cabinet documents, but after they were denied access to more cabinet documents by the Trudeau government, they would up their investigation and said there was nothing to see.
In October 2023, when MPs summoned RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme to appear and explain his reasons for not laying charges, the Liberals moved to adjourn the meeting, the NDP and Bloc voted with them and the whole affair was shut down.
“I wouldn’t say justice didn’t play out,”Duheme told CBC News that day.
“But I would say that when you don’t have access to all the information, it’s sometimes challenging.”
What’s challenging is believing in the face of all the evidence before them that the RCMP didn’t simply look at the politics of charging a sitting prime minister or one of his top staffers and decide it wasn’t worth the political headache. Cops are people just like all of us and they face pressures as well, they make mistakes and in this case, I believe mistakes were made.
We had a sitting government interfere in a serious case involving bribery and corruption and the government of the day, at the request of Justin Trudeau, acted in a corrupt manner to stop the prosecution.
That is what the public should be aghast at, not Poilievre’s comments.
