People tend to have short memories.
They’ll often say “I’ve never seen anything like it before” or “I’ve never experienced anything like that previously,” even though a similar or greater situation had occurred in the not-too-distant past.
But when you hear all sorts of veteran reporters and insiders say they had never experienced anything like Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony last week, in regards to the SNC-Lavalin controversy that has been brewing in Ottawa for nearly a month, then you begin to realize how significant her comments were.
Wilson-Raybould’s testimony became must-see TV last week as she outlined the sustained pressure she faced from numerous sources to drop charges against SNC-Lavalin. She alleges Prime Minister Justin Trudeau along with people in the prime minister’s office, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and other high-ranking Liberals have all tried to interfere.
It’s not just what she said that should grab people’s attention, it’s how she said it. She spoke with conviction and credibility under the glare of the national spotlight and the Commons justice committee that was peppering her with questions. She gave answers that were detailed but not long-winded.
And she didn’t waiver in what she said, or contradict herself. It’s a contrast from the prime minister, who has changed his tune on the scandal several times in the past month.
Even the biggest skeptic would have had a hard time questioning her credibility last week.
And when she noted that the prime minister mentioned an upcoming election in Quebec, and his status as an MP for a Quebec riding, as one of the motives for sweeping the legal woes of SNC-Lavalin under the rug, it represented another serious blow to Trudeau’s credibility.
The optics are terrible for the Liberals. They pressure the attorney general to drop charges against a Quebec-based engineering firm that donated to the Liberals in the past.
They claim that Canada is a rule of law country, but then they seemingly try to obstruct justice. When the attorney general says no, she’s dropped to a lesser role as the minister of veteran’s affairs.
The testimony of Wilson-Raybould will mark one of three things for Justin Trudeau as prime minister: the end, the beginning of the end, or a crisis that causes a lot of damage at the time, but can be overcome.
The most probable option would be the middle one.
It’s unlikely that the end is near for the prime minister. Don’t expect him to resign from this mess, unless something else comes to light, or unless the pressure to resign becomes so great that he has to abdicate his role.
We’ll see if there are any criminal investigations. But his resignation would not only be a massive blow to Trudeau, it would cause serious damage to the party.
The time for Trudeau to resign would be if he’s defeated in October’s federal election, not now.
As more details into this scandal become public, it becomes more and more difficult for the Liberals to win the next election. It seems that the Tories are now the favourites, and for the Liberals to hold on to power after the election, they will need a big blunder from the Tories.
And as the story continues to linger in the media and in the memories of Canadians, it becomes harder for Canadians to forget what has transpired.
It’s rare for a story to be on the front-burner every day for nearly a month in this modern world, but that’s what has happened. And it has taken away from some of the other things happening on Parliament Hill.
This scandal is reflective of one other thing: the need for good journalism. Kudos to the Globe & Mail for breaking the story, and for doing it relatively quickly. The issues that morph into scandals often take a long time to surface. This controversy was reported within weeks of Wilson-Raybould being demoted from her justice minister role.
The diligence shown by the people who worked on the article, and the depth they provided, should be further evidence that the value of newspapers is still as great as it’s ever been.
