Re: Trudeau controls waiver of cabinet confidentiality on SNC-Lavalin (The Globe and Mail September 13, 2019)
In this piece about cabinet confidentiality, Messers Fife and LeBlanc suggest in their carefully constructed reporting of the words of retired Justice Gomery and Professor Savoie that these two eminent Canadians support the false equivalency in the decision making about cabinet confidentiality as it applies to the two cases, the SNC Lavalin controversy and the AdScam sponsorship scandal.
However, in the case of AdScam, some people were actually engaged in criminal activity as they misappropriated public dollars with very poor or no government control over those transactions. Cabinet confidentiality could lead to possible obstruction of justice in prosecution of the matter.
In the case of the SNC Lavalin controversy, there was never any legitimate allegation of criminal activity by SNC Lavalin or the Government in their dealings with each other. Therefore the only matters being held confidential are those of Privy Council activities and deliberations which are always held confidential.
The only highly questionable allegation made against this Cabinet was a smear perpetrated by opposition MP’s who were successful in using media outlets, such as The Globe and Mail, as a fax machine from their propaganda room to the Canadian public.
Now I wonder if that itself is not in violation of the criminal code. I don’t have legal counsel on staff nor am I an experienced journalist, so I don’t know.
In any case, the upshot of this is that I will not allow children in my care to read any part of Canada’s major daily news services without adult supervision because I believe the example set throughout the SNC Lavalin controversy is not in keeping with a pillar charged with supporting a democratic society.
Michael Klein
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