The core question in the SNC-Lavalin affair is whether Justin Trudeau and his advisers respect the rule of law.
The answer appears to be that they have no respect for it at all, after an unnamed source, in an effort to smear former attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould, fed reporters a story about a dispute over choosing a judge for the Supreme Court.
Even Liberals are furious over the leak to The Canadian Press and CTV, presumably from someone inside the Trudeau government.
“It is outrageous that there is a leak with respect to the Supreme Court judicial appointment process,” Toronto Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith told the House of Commons ethics committee on Tuesday. “People from all parties ought to condemn that kind of thing.”
According to the reports, Ms. Wilson-Raybould recommended appointing Manitoba judge Glenn Joyal to the Supreme Court as chief justice in 2017, but Mr. Trudeau vetoed the recommendation because he thought Justice Joyal brought too conservative an interpretation to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The implication from the leaker: Mr. Trudeau rightly began to question the judgment of his attorney-general long before the issue of whether to prosecute SNC-Lavalin emerged.
Members of the Liberal old guard are not pleased. The leak “involved extremely confidential information about applicants to the Supreme Court,” tweeted Penny Collenette, who was director of appointments for four years under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. “Shockingly bad form.”
“Agree,” replied Senator Percy Downe, who served as Mr. Chrétien’s chief of staff. “Appalling behaviour.”
allthecanadianpolitics: