The News Rundown

Ministers provide few details to committee probing Liberals’ use of Emergencies Act

Earlier this year when the federal cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act that set in motion the requirement that a special committee investigate its invocation.
That investigation started this week and the Ministers involved have been short with forthcoming information.
When Justice Minister David Lametti was asked detailed questions he repeatedly responded with the words that he “would not betray cabinet confidence.”
Lametti further continued saying that as Attorney General he’s also bound by solicitor client privilege.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino also appeared as a witness where he said the government received advice to invoke the emergencies Act but wouldn’t say who gave the advice.
Mendicino also said that the Emergencies Act also “helped smooth over differences in jurisdiction.”
It was insinuated early on in the Emergencies Act period that the government got their information from somewhere in the media.
Early leaks suggested that it was CBC and this week the Justice Minister himself confirmed this.
In testimony David Lametti said, “CBC reported, I believe on the 14th of February or the 13th of February, that there was foreign funding through a variety of different sites.”
Later on, CBC producers then corrected two false stories claiming there was foreign influence into the “Freedom Convoy.”
First, on January 28th CBC TV said that Russian actors could be “continuing to fuel things as this protest grows or perhaps even instigating it from the outside.”
Then, on February 10th, CBC Radio claimed that GoFundMe suspended convoy contributions “over questionable donations to the group.”
These stories then formed government narratives from cabinet ministers like Marco Mendicino, Bill Blair, and Chrystia Freeland.
Mendicino said, “it is important that we follow the money because for a number of weeks there have been alarm bells going off about the rate at which the leaders have been able to raise significant funds, much of which has been raised from abroad.” This was said on February 16th.
Bill Blair said, “we have seen strong evidence that it was the intention of those who blockaded our ports of entry in a largely foreign-funded, targeted and coordinated attack which was clearly intended to harm Canada.”
Chrystia Freeland brought in the policy that the Emergencies Act could seize bank accounts and assets of truckers and tow companies involved.
For anyone today looking for any of these stories that the government used, they will be disappointed because they can not be found.
The stories have been either pulled completely or their false information edited away.
The main headline on this story was that the government ministers so far have been tight lipped citing cabinet confidence.
The big question that needs to be answered for anyone going forward is whether or not the police services on hand before invocation had the powers to do what they needed to do to clear the blockades in Ottawa and bridges around the country.
We should note that the RCMP in Alberta were able to clear the blockade at the Coutts border crossing without the use of the Emergencies Act.
Data from Statistics Canada this week says that the border blockades had relatively little impact on trade.
First hand data from Fort Macleod based seed processor Arjazon said that the first few days saw a slow down but after that new routes were found and shipments made their way through.
Crossings at the Ambassador Bridge, Coutts, and in BC and Manitoba were down by 8.8% in February but was partially offset by an increase at nearby crossings.
For February, vegetable trade was up by 7% in Ontario and 66% in Alberta.
The only trade that was down in February was automobiles and precious gems.
Those auto parts were needed across the border and it was this push, specifically by the Biden administration, that caused the Trudeau government to act after they had a phone call when the bridge was blocked.
But analyst Peter Nagle, of the automotive research firm S&P Global Mobility, notes that cross-border trade in completed vehicles was down this January and February compared to last year. However he believes this decline is largely a result of global supply chain issues that have bedeviled automakers.
That being said, small businesses in border towns like Windsor did take a hit but overall trade wasn’t impacted that much.
It was trade that was ultimately one of the key reasons for the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act.
The federal cabinet has to come clean and say why they invoked the act.
The economic data doesn’t support that justification.
The foreign funding stories have been debunked and proven as fake news.
The only thing left to ask is, could the local law enforcement have done what was done without the Emergencies Act and if yes, was there another way?
This will prove all we need to know but the media likely won’t ask these questions and the Liberals will hide behind cabinet confidence.
Supplementals:

This week in BC, much of the media and public discussion have been discussing topics that have come up earlier in the month or even earlier in the year, and as such, we've already covered them on Western Context. While ongoing healthcare, housing and repeat criminal offenders are certainly major issues, it's important to tread new ground as we continue to pre-empt the media cycle.
With that in mind, it's important to take note of a special committee from the BC legislature made up of MLAs from the governing BC NDP, the opposition Liberals, and the distant third party BC Greens. This committee is called the "Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act", and it released a report this week on its findings on the police, in the midst of issues with systemic racism, accountability, as well as questionable responses to mental health and addictions crisis.
The committee has unanimously agreed, amongst all party lines, that the province should stop using the RCMP and create its own provincial police force that would create a more consistent standard for police response, training and oversight across BC.
Committee member Adam Olsen, Green MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, said: "It is a complete overhaul of policing to ensure that they're accountable, to ensure that there's transparency and ensure that the public trust remains with policing. There was a lot of testimony from people saying there was mistrust in how policing currently works in the province and so the recommendation, I think, reflects what we heard meeting in and meeting out."
From the report: "Over the last 15 months, it has become clear that transformative change is required to achieve a new vision of policing and community safety rooted in decolonization, anti-racism, community, and accountability."
The committee has made 11 recommendations on reforming how the police operate in BC. Included are drafting a new Community Safety and Policing Act with First Nations engagement, and transitioning to a provincial police force. This new police force would involve integrating and coordinating health and police in response to mental health, addictions and 'other complex social issues', creating a fair and equitable shared funding model for municipalities, and enhancing and standardizing police training with modern key values in mind, (as said above).
Interestingly enough, a few intriguing recommendations include requiring police services to collect and publicly report disaggregated race-based and other demographic data, which is intended to provide information for reviewing policing procedures in regards to issues of racism.
Another recommendation is for the formation of a single all-encompassing independent, civilian-led oversight agency responsible for overseeing conduct, complaints, investigations, and disciplinary matters for all police and public safety personnel with powers or authority under the new Community Safety and Policing Act.
And in the legislature, it is recommended to appoint an all-party parliamentary committee to undertake a broad review of and modernize the Mental Health Act, as well as to establish an all-party select standing committee on policing and community safety in order to get the ball rolling on these changes, and to conduct regular reviews of the new system to ensure its effectiveness.
If anyone wishes to view the full 96 page report for themselves, we have it linked in the supplementals to this story. Thankfully there are executive summaries with the main points.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said that it is vitally important to the province's future to carry out these reforms, and with First Nations input. He said: "I believe in the province of British Columbia that significant, transformative police reform is long overdue. I believe that the RCMP has failed to effectively carry out their mandate providing for the safety and well-being of the residents throughout this province, particularly in First Nations communities. Having failed that high duty of care, I think it's time that the RCMP went back to Ottawa and that a collective group of leaders ... come together and design a policing agency in British Columbia that will serve the diverse interests that are clearly evident — that will respect the cultural diversity here in the province."
Doug Routley, NDP MLA for Nanaimo-Cowichan, chaired the committee and told reporters the feedback received from some Indigenous communities during the review included concerns about a lack of police in more remote areas. He noted the RCMP directs its officers where to go, whereas the province would have more control under the system recommended in their report.
Routley said: "Generally, members aren't in rural detachments serving First Nations, Indigenous communities for more than three years, and it's really difficult for them to build those really positive relationships in that short a time."
Asked how long such a transition could take, or how much it might cost, Routley said that wasn't within the scope of the review. However, based on what's happened in jurisdictions such as New Zealand, he suggested the transition would likely take about a decade.
Deputy chair Dan Davies, B.C. Liberal MLA for Peace River North, said police being used as the "default first responders" to mental health and other "complex social issues" was seen as a major issue. Other recommendations address the need for more resources to be given to other services, such as social workers, to tackle such cases.
Vancouver lawyer Wally Oppal, a former BC Supreme Court judge and attorney general, said individual officers have done an "excellent job" in the province but agreed the RCMP should go because of inadequate oversight. He said it was important to have local accountability, and that 'none of that is being done by the RCMP,. In 1994, Oppal ran an inquiry into the province's policing system and recommended broad reforms to the NDP government in power at the time, but was largely ignored.
A statement from RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, the commanding officer in B.C., said they'll take time to review the report and won't speculate on next steps until that's done. B.C.'s contract with the RCMP expires in 2032.
McDonald said: "The RCMP has a complex role in B.C. as we deliver services at the municipal, provincial and federal level. I am very proud of the RCMP team that works incredibly hard every day to keep B.C. communities safe and secure and we remain committed to doing so."
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, who is not a member of the committee, said the province has begun contacting its partners to discuss the recommendations. He said: "The recommendations ... echo our government's belief that everyone deserves equal treatment by the police. This has not always been the case for many Indigenous, Black and other people of colour. Public trust requires that the delivery of police services is fair, equitable and responsive to all British Columbians."
It's remarkable to see such a complex issue get tackled by an all party legislative committee and not only does the committee come up with great recommendations after getting input from all parts of the province and from First Nations and other visible minority community members, but it's also unanimously agreed upon by all members.
Clearly this is a long overdue change, and as we continue to move through the decade, hopefully we will see these reforms get undertaken by whoever is in power. It's clear that BC deserves the opportunity to see our unique issues get handled in province, by a police organization that is held accountable locally, and is held to standards that all British Columbians, no matter their social standing, race, gender or status, can have input into.
This reform would be a major step forward for the province, and it's very surprising that outside of a few short paragraph articles in local outlets, this has not become more widely known and reported on. Perhaps just like our other BC stories in the past month or so, this story will blow up in a few weeks or a month, and then we will see matters fall into place.
Supplementals:

Bloc warns Liberals against ‘creating parallel Parliament with its own rules’ on Winnipeg lab documents

Last year we covered a story that involved the Liberal government taking the Speaker of the House of Commons to court in an attempt to block the release of documents relating to the National Microbiology lab in Winnipeg.
The Liberals and NDP have set up a special committee to review documents and determine what if anything can be released to the public.
Committee members will see unredacted documents but a panel of judges, chosen by the parties, will have final say on what can be made public.
The Conservatives want the documents turned over to a regular committee of MPs.
The reason for this is that the House of Commons last spring passed an order saying that the documents would be vetted by the Parliamentary Law Clerk for any national security violations and then released.
The issue with creating this committee is that without being a committee of Parliament, it can’t have delegated authority and the investigative powers that a typical House of Commons committee has.
So far the Bloc and Conservatives have refused to join further cementing the new agreement between the NDP and Liberals.
The government says that the committee will have full access to all national security documents but as we mentioned, any investigative power will be lacking.
The NDP felt that bringing the committee forward in Parliament could derail other work the foreign affairs committee is doing regarding Ukraine.
This all comes back to the fact that this is a minority Parliament. With that, if there was no agreement between the Liberals and NDP, the opposition would get to run the committee.
This new committee ensures that the Liberals remain in charge even if something were to surface that would change the NDPs feelings.
At the end of it all, there are more than 250 pages of records that MPs have not been able to see.
The documents involve the transfer of virus samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the RCMP investigation focuses on the possibility that such materials like plasma DNA molecules which could be used to recreate viruses or vaccines were transferred to Chinese authorities without the approval of the Public Health Agency.
What’s more, the people involved and fired from the lab include Dr. Qiu, who had ties to China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Nobody has said this but in recent months the idea that the COVID-19 virus could be lab made has gained more prominence.
An idea that was once shunned received coverage in mainstream media in the US and UK but we did not have time to cover it here on WC.
Just what is being hidden is a huge question and there’s always the idea in the back of people’s heads that, maybe, Canada had some role in the creation of a virus in mid to late 2019 that could have escaped.
Though there’s no way of knowing unless MPs are afforded the right to see all the documents.
As of Thursday this week the Bloc joined the Conservatives in criticizing this entire plan saying that the Liberals and NDP want a “parallel Parliament with its own rules.”
Judges will decide what is able to be released to the public but your opinion on this will be based on whether or not you feel the elected representatives should have the right to see the documents in secrecy or if the judges should decide.
Investigative authority is something we have seen used extensively in the past here and in other democracies, this is different and it sets a precedent for the judiciary controlling what elected MPs are able to see when Parliament typically governs itself and has its own set of rules.
This is something that should raise many eyebrows but barely even garnered an eye twitch this week in Canadian media.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

RCMP considered whether to charge Justin Trudeau over Aga Khan trip, documents show

One of Trudeau's prior scandals has risen from the grave where it was buried unceremoniously in 2016, and new information has come to light that has put both the Prime Minister as well as the RCMP in a terrible light.
Trudeau and his family went to the Aga Khan’s private island at Christmas, 2016, even though the Ismaili Muslim leader had millions of dollars in dealings with the federal government. In 2017, then-ethics commissioner Mary Dawson found he violated the Conflict of Interest Act by accepting the vacation, because of continuing official business between the government and the Aga Khan. The Aga Khan Foundation Canada has received nearly $330-million from the federal government since 1981.
Now it's come to light that the RCMP didn't bother investigating or charging Trudeau with fraud just because he was the Prime Minister.
The Liberal government sidestepped opposition questions about an RCMP inquiry into Justin Trudeau’s family vacation at the Aga Khan’s Bahamian retreat, saying that the country faces more important issues than the Prime Minister’s past ethical conduct.
Conservative MPs told the House of Commons that Trudeau got a “get out of jail free card” after the RCMP decided not to charge him with fraud because the rules about accepting gifts from people doing business with Ottawa are murky. Conservative ethics critic James Bezan said: “The only reason the RCMP didn’t charge him was because he is the Prime Minister. So there is one law for the Prime Minister and another law for all the rest of us.”
Bezan told MPs: “The RCMP said the Prime Minister was off the hook because he could have granted himself permission to accept the luxurious vacation gift worth $215,000. I would say that, again, this proves that there’s one set of rules for Justin Trudeau and all the rest of us have to live under the other rules, which includes the Criminal Code. Nobody should be above the law, and it’s up to the RCMP to ensure that nobody’s above the law, yet they made the determination not to pursue a criminal charge.”
Bezan and fellow Conservative Luc Berthold pressed the government to say whether the Prime Minister had “granted himself the power to break the law.”
The Prime Minister was not in the Commons, but Government House Leader Mark Holland dodged the questions, accusing the opposition of dragging up an old story for partisan purposes. He replied: “I would say there are a lot of pressing issues … we just had a budget tabled that takes action on housing, Indigenous reconciliation, the environment, and I would think those are important questions to be asking, Mr. Speaker.”
Sure, there are lots of issues going on in Canada, but the Prime Minister potentially committing fraud and the RCMP ignoring that just because he's the Prime Minister flies in the face of the founding Canadian constitutional tenets of Rule of Law, and it is critically important that we get the full details of this story.
This is rather difficult to do, as the Globe and Mail, who originally posted the article exposing the RCMP's investigation and the connection with Mary Dawson's conflict of interest investigation, has COMPLETELY changed what the article has said. The Globe and Mail changed their headline from "RCMP considered whether to charge Justin Trudeau over Aga Khan trip, documents show", to "Trudeau faces backlash in House over inquiry into Aga Khan trip", and removed almost all of the document information about the RCMP.
The original article shows that while the RCMP believed there were “reasonable grounds” to think fraud may have been committed, the force decided it would not be in the public interest to lay charges because of a lack of clarity in federal rules that apply to accepting gifts.
“It is unclear whether Mr. Trudeau can be prosecuted under section 121(1)(c) of the Criminal Code, since the section has a provision which allows officials to accept benefits from individuals with government dealings, provided the official has the written consent of the head of their branch of government,” RCMP Corporal Michael Kiperchuk said in a briefing note to his superiors.
Section 121(1)(c) of the Criminal Code says government officials must have “the consent in writing of the head of the branch of government that employs them or of which they are an official” in order to receive any gift from anyone who has specific dealings with the government.
Because Trudeau was the sitting Prime Minister and head of government, Cpl. Kiperchuk said, “an investigation and prosecution under this section may not be in the public interest if it cannot be definitely determined whether or not Mr. Trudeau can simply provide consent to himself.”
The RCMP investigator also said he was concerned that Ms. Dawson’s findings would be inadmissible in criminal proceedings owing to “judicial oversight, higher evidentiary thresholds and parliamentary privilege.”
The RCMP documents were acquired through an access to information request by the Conservative Party, which provided them to The Globe and Mail.
According to the documents, Mr. Trudeau’s actions as Prime Minister “were arguably more damaging to the Government of Canada’s appearance of integrity” than any similar actions carried out by a lower-ranking government official.
But the RCMP concluded that, aside from the low prospect of conviction, charging a sitting Prime Minister would cause damage that would “vastly outweigh” the negative effects of charging an ordinary member of the public.
The RCMP wrapped up their investigation on Sept. 25, 2019, saying in an internal document there was “insufficient evidence to proceed” with criminal charges. The Mounties had opened the investigation after Conservative MP Peter Kent, who did not run in the 2020 election, wrote a letter to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki in May 2019 to request a criminal probe.
Dawson’s summary of her findings, known as the Trudeau Report, looked at several vacations the Prime Minister and his family took to the Aga Khan’s island, Bells Cay, between 2014 and 2017. Vacations from March and December 2016 were the primary concern of the report.
The Aga Khan has had a long-standing relationship with the Canadian government in his role as the founder and director of the Aga Khan Foundation Canada. The government has contributed nearly $330-million to the foundation since 1981.
Trudeau has said he had a personal friendship with the Aga Khan, who was also friends with his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
Following the 2017 ethics report, opposition parties argued Mr. Trudeau should refund the treasury the costs of transportation and security for the trips. Mr. Trudeau acknowledged that he should have checked with the ethics commissioner before accepting the vacations and said he would be sure to clear all future trips.
In 2020, Conservative MP Michael Barrett made a complaint to the RCMP’s Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. He asked why the force had not launched any further investigation into the matter. The CRCC ruled that the RCMP had acted appropriately.
Conservative spokesperson Sam Galea said Barrett has since requested a full-scale review and is awaiting the watchdog’s decision.
Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen has been pressing Trudeau about whether he used his power as prime minister to grant himself the authority to accept the gift. Her question references the Criminal Code provision that says government officials cannot accept gifts from someone who has dealings with the government without written consent from the head of their government branch. Bergen says Trudeau’s response in the House of Commons Tuesday that he did not grant himself permission to accept the gift counts as new evidence, which means the RCMP should revisit the matter.
This all was from the original G&M article that has been changed completely to remove almost all of these references and quotes around the RCMP investigation, and makes it look like it's just the Conservatives' opinions that Trudeau broke the law and committed fraud. The only question is, why did they change the article, and were they pressured by the RCMP, or by Trudeau's PMO to do so? Either option is really really dangerous, because the possibility of either the national police force that has jurisdiction over much of Canadians' lives, or the government that literally creates the laws including the loophole found in the Criminal Code that allowed Trudeau to get away with his actions, if either organization asked the G&M to change their story to make them look better, this is something that should worry all Canadians.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, have been asking Trudeau about this for the past several days since the story broke, and he’s laughing it off. Among his answers on Wednesday when questioned about allegedly breaking the law is that he supports keeping abortion legal and the Conservatives should be talking about that rather than his trip to paradise. For taking this seemingly illegal vacation, the most Trudeau has faced is a slap on the wrist and some public humiliation due to the Ethics Commissioner’s report. The police dropped the ball and the voters have rewarded him with two new mandates since then. Is it any wonder that much of the public is skeptical of both him, his government, and our institutions of democracy and justice that are supposed to protect Canadians from criminals, like people who commit fraud?
Trudeau in the past has interfered in a criminal prosecution to help a friendly firm (SNC Lavalin) and faced no consequences. He swept the We Charity scandal under the rug. He’s now attempting to set up the inquiry into his use of the Emergencies Act to wash away his sins on that file. And on this vacation that appears to have clearly violated the law, Trudeau stands in the House of Commons and laughs. No one is above the law, not even Prime Minister Trudeau.
It's clear that the RCMP failed in their investigation and that a complete lack of oversight into the matter allowed Trudeau to escape from his scandal, and there was a complete failure from the Trudeau government to deal with the issue as well, attempting to cover up the story completely right from the get go. And there was also failure in the media to accurately cover the story, and even remove key aspects of it causing the readers to have a completely different perspective on the story. It's a failure all around and Canadians deserve better.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“It is unclear whether Mr. Trudeau can be prosecuted under section 121(1)(c) of the Criminal Code, since the section has a provision which allows officials to accept benefits from individuals with government dealings, provided the official has the written consent of the head of their branch of government. An investigation and prosecution under this section may not be in the public interest if it cannot be definitely determined whether or not Mr. Trudeau can simply provide consent to himself.” RCMP Corporal Michael Kiperchuk, in a briefing note to his superiors on the conclusion of his investigation into Prime Minister Trudeau’s alleged fraud during the Aga Khan scandal.

Word of the Week

Rule of Law - a political philosophy and founding Canadian constitutional principle that states that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, and that no one is above the law

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Show Data

Episode Title: No One is Above the Law

Teaser: David Lametti relied on fake news to invoke the Emergencies Act, a BC committee agrees to replace the RCMP, and the Winnipeg lab scandal documents are redacted. Also, the RCMP decided not to charge Trudeau with fraud because he is the Prime Minister.

Recorded Date: April 29, 2022

Release Date: May 1, 2022

Duration: 1:06:14

Edit Notes: Sneeze removal

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX