January 2021

The only good thing about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s non-answer to reporter’s questions regarding the firing of Governor General (G.G.) Julie Payette, after a damming report was issued that the G.G. office had become a toxic workplace had become toxic under Payette, is that he didn’t say anything along the lines of, “We’ve all been reflecting on past behaviours. There is an awakening going on and we need to take opportunities to reflect on it.” Maybe Justin has finally learned that not all of us have to reflect, but I digress.

He also didn’t take any personal responsibility for this debacle, so there’s that.

The above quote was Trudeau’s response to a reporter’s question regarding revelations that he groped a female reporter in Krestin, B.C. in 2000.

The debacle with Payette is just one of the many, many scandalous things Trudeau has done in his life, both in and out of politics; things that would have sunk any other politician, but that seem to bounce right off his Teflon hair.

Oh, how I miss the days when expensing a $16 glass of orange juice, or visiting a strip club, was enough to sink your political career. Then again, those were both Conservative politicians, so never mind. Nothing to see here, right Justin?

I’m sceptical that Trudeau will ever be held to account for scrapping a committee process for nominating our G.G., in favour of giving the job to Payette without a thorough vetting process, seeing as a simple Google search would raise enough red flags, let alone an intensive investigation. It’s very obvious that either Trudeau didn’t conduct a thorough vetting process, or he was so intent on installing Payette in the G.G. position, that he ignored all the negative aspects of her past.

Trudeau now says, “We are looking right now at processes that can be strengthened as we move forward and we will have more to say on that as we make decisions.” Oh, you mean like implementing a selection committee process for nominating the G.G., like former Prime Minister Stephen Harper had in place, but you scrapped? It’s déjà vu all over again, as baseball great Yogi Berra famously quipped.

Trudeau alone is responsible for this disaster and Canadians shouldn’t forget it.  It’s ironic that his predecessor, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was frequently demonized by Liberals as a dictator who had a “hidden agenda” (by the way, five years after Harper left office, we’re still waiting for him to reveal this “hidden agenda”).

Trudeau has the distinction being the first sitting prime minister to be twice convicted of ethics, with a third investigation still in process; he made a complete fool of himself in India by dressing fancier than a Bollywood actor to 6.5 days of a 7-day trip; on the same India trip, Trudeau invited a man convicted of an attempted murder of an Indian politician; he dressed in blackface on at least 3 occasions (or 3 times that he’s willing to admit); he groped the above mentioned female reporter at a fundraiser in 2000, then claimed that he would not have been so forward if he’d known that she was reporting for a national newspaper (The National Post); he directly interfered with the investigation of a Liberal-connected firm, SNC-Lavalin, leading to the resignation in protest of two cabinet ministers, one of them being the Attourney General; he arranged for an almost one billion dollar student grant program to be given, sole-sourced, to the Liberal-friendly WE Charity, a charity that had previously paid his mother and brother speaking appearance fees to attend WE functions, then cancelled the contract when it became public knowledge, leading to the closure of WE Charity in Canada; a Chinese real estate developer who was part of a Chinese industry group that donated to the Trudeau foundation, was charged for running an illegal casino in a Toronto area mansion.

This is, of course, besides all the economic damage that has been done to Canada by his climate and social-justice policies that have crippled our energy industry, and pissed-off many of our allies and trading partners around the world; Trudeau’s failures in handling the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, including the far too late closure of our borders (that aren’t really closed, but I digress), along with his bungling of the vaccine acquisition and rapid testing devices; Trudeau’s blind faith in the honesty of the CCP and their totalitarian and criminal behaviour relating to many issues, including the hostage taking of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

We can only hope that even the most die-hard Trudeau apologists will finally see that Trudeau is toxic to the Liberal Party of Canada, if not to Canada itself, and send him packing. At least the Toronto Star, a newspaper that has frequently been accused of being the propaganda arm of the Liberal Party, published a scathing editorial, written by columnist Susan Delacourt, about Payette’s tenure as G.G. and it’s inevitable demise.

As a Conservative, I’d love nothing better for Justin to stick around to fight the next election, so that it will be Justin who has to explain his past behaviour on the campaign trail, not a new leader who can claim they are a “new Liberal Party,” but for the sake of Canada, we can only hope his tenure as prime minister will soon be coming to an end.

Maybe there will be a convenient snowstorm this February, and the Liberal Party will be able to convince Justin to take a walk in the snow.

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Justin Trudeau scandals, as published by Postmedia:

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/a-short-history-of-justin-trudeaus-scandal-plagued-liberal-government

A short history of Justin Trudeau’s scandal-plagued Liberal government

The scandals started early. They’ve kept going. Some involve gifts; others involve lobbying; still others involve forgotten chalets by the finance minister

Author: Tyler Dawson

21 October 2020  

The Aga Khan

Justin Trudeau first got in trouble with the ethics commissioner in December 2017, when it came out that he’d broken conflict of interest rules by vacationing at the Aga Khan’s private island over Christmas.

At issue: the Aga Khan’s foundation is registered to lobby the government. Also, Trudeau rode in the Aga Khan’s private helicopter. Also, the Aga Khan Foundation has received tens of millions of dollars from the federal government.

Costumes in India

Not an ethics scandal,, but Justin Trudeau found himself a laughing stock after a trip to India in February 2018 where he enthusiastically dressed in various local costume, to the bemusement of Indian officials.

There’s another side to this story: A photo emerged on the trip of Sophie Grégoire Trudeau with a man named Jaspal Atwal at a reception in Mumbai.

Atwal was convicted in 1986 of the attempted murder of an Indian politician. This led to numerous questions about how he ended up at that reception.

Costume, part two

The hardest blow to Trudeau personally came during the 2019 election campaign, when a handful of photos came out of him dressed in blackface, a racist caricaturing of Black people. There were three photos: a 2001 yearbook photo when he was a teacher, a photo from when he was in high school, and a video of him as a young man.

“It was something that I didn’t think was racist at the time, but now I recognize it was something racist to do and I am deeply sorry,” Trudeau said.

Groping allegations

In 2018, a newspaper piece from 2000 emerged: A reporter alleged that Trudeau, who was 28 at the time, was at the Kokanee Summit in Creston, B.C., raising money for a charity. An editorial in the local paper said Trudeau was accused of “groping” and “inappropriately handling” a female reporter during the event.

Reached by CBC in 2018, the woman said “The incident referred to in the editorial did occur, as reported. Mr. Trudeau did apologize the next day. I did not pursue the incident at the time and will not be pursuing the incident further. I have had no subsequent contact with Mr. Trudeau, before or after he became Prime Minister.”

Trudeau apologized: “Over the past weeks, since this news resurfaced, I’ve been reflecting, we’ve all been reflecting, on past behaviours,” he said. “And as I’ve said, I’m confident I didn’t act inappropriately, but I think the essence of this is people can experience interactions differently and part of the lesson we need to learn in this moment of collective awakening … people in many cases, women, experience interactions in professional contexts and other contexts differently than men.”

The SNC Lavalin scandal

SNC-Lavalin, a Liberal-connected firm in Quebec, was facing charges regarding alleged bribes to officials in Libya. The company had lobbied the federal government for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, which would have allowed them to avoid criminal charges.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada said no, they had to stand trial.

Enter several prominent Liberals who pushed Jody Wilson-Raybould, then minister of justice and attorney general, to find a solution that didn’t involve SNC-Lavalin standing trial and a criminal conviction that would have barred them from receiving government contracts in Canada.

Enquiries confirmed inappropriate actions by the prime minister and several staff members.

Wilson-Raybould resigned over the affair.

WE Charity scandal

In June, the government said WE Charity would run a student grant program, which was part of COVID-19 relief. The contract to WE was given via a sole-source agreement, not an open competition.

At issue specifically is that Trudeau, and former finance minister Bill Morneau, had personal conenections to WE and were involved in the decision-making process, without recusing themselves.

Morneau’s daughter works for WE. His other daughter has spoken at WE events. And, he’d been on trips paid for by WE in 2017 — Morneau has since paid back the $41,000.

As for Trudeau, his family has been involved with and paid by WE. WE initially denied they had paid Trudeau’s mother, Margaret, his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau or his brother, Alexandre.

As it turned out, Margaret has been paid $250,000 for speaking at 28 events, and Alexandre received $32,000 for speaking at eight events.

Grégoire Trudeau, who’s hosted a podcast for WE, was not paid, although she was reimbursed for travel expenses.

The illegal casino magnate

Earlier this month, the National Post reported that Wei Wei, a Toronto real estate developer, has been charged after police raided an illegal casino inside a mansion.

Wei met at least twice in 2016 with Trudeau and was a part of a Chinese government-endorsed industry group that met with Trudeau. A member of that delegation donated $1 million to the Trudeau foundation and sponsored a statue of Pierre Trudeau.

That meeting led to a reformation of Liberal party fundraising rules.

Sources: https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-the-kokanee-grope-is-about-trudeau-not-the-rest-of-us, https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/a-short-history-of-justin-trudeaus-scandal-plagued-liberal-government, https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/01/22/justin-trudeau-offers-no-apology-for-making-julie-payette-his-governor-general-or-for-her-150k-a-year-payout.html, https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2021/01/21/julie-payette-was-never-a-good-choice-for-governor-general-and-justin-trudeau-should-have-known-it.html, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-payette-1.5883471?fbclid=IwAR1v7rMUWfj2_2bFOSGgBPRwDK6QA1WR-n0sHVXdxLljaE_qyuQycWR_UY4, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra#%22Yogi-isms%22.