Andrew Scheer and the Fake Scandal That Wasn't

As we all know, Andrew Scheer likes to sniff for fake scandals like a hog sniffs for truffles.

And for a very simple reason, he has nothing else, no policies, no nothing.

But while he was able to keep the SNC-Lavalin fake scandal going for twelve weeks, with the help of his shabby media stooges.

The case of Admiral Mark Norman that Scheer and his grubby Cons were trying to turn into the latest fake scandal has apparently blown up in his face.



For while the Cons were trying to make it look as if the poor admiral had been cruelly treated by Justin Trudeau and his scurvy crew.

There was no evidence that the Liberals interfered in his prosecution. 

As much as this might disappoint their critics, there is no evidence the Liberals interfered in the Norman prosecution.

The government did ask police to investigate the leak of a cabinet decision concerning a supply vessel from the Davie shipyard in Quebec. 

But there is no evidence the government pushed the office of the director of public prosecutions to lay the charge. Quite the opposite.

Then when it was revealed that three Harper Con ministers had helped Norman's defence, the fake scandal started to fall apart. 



Three former federal cabinet ministers have confirmed they spoke to Vice-Admiral Mark Norman's defence team about information that may have been key to the Crown's decision to halt the criminal prosecution of the military's former second-command. 

Peter MacKay, who held the justice and defence portfolios, Erin O'Toole, the former veterans affairs minister, and Jason Kenney, the last defence minister in former prime minister Stephen Harper's government, all say they spoke to lawyers representing the career naval officer.

Only to become a Con scandal when the RCMP asked to see the evidence that led to the charges being stayed.

RCMP investigators say they're not sure why the Mark Norman case collapsed because they haven't seen the new evidence that led to the stay of a breach-of-trust charge against the naval officer. 

The Mounties also suggested that former Conservative ministers — a possible source of the fresh evidence given to defence counsel — could have come to the RCMP with the information at any time.

Which blew the Norman case right out of the water...



With the only remaining question being why didn't Stephen Harper himself come forward with this information?

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman not only had the blessing of the former Conservative cabinet to deal with a Quebec shipyard, he was authorized to speak with it directly in the run-up to the signing of a $668-million leasing contract, CBC News has learned.

For it was his cabinet, and a word from him would have changed everything.

"The whole heart of this case was that he was doing something that he wasn't supposed to be, and that that was contravening the public interest," said Dave Perry, an analyst who specializes in procurement with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. 

"If the [former] government had given him direction to engage with that company, then I think this changes fundamentally everything."

But then I guess that neither Harper nor any of his ministers wanted to reveal another real scandal.

The one where the Cons authorized Norman to make an end run around those opposed to leasing a ship, without any competing bids.



The leasing plan was opposed by federal shipbuilding and defence bureaucrats, who wanted to either compete the lease proposal with other shipyards, or wait and force the navy to make do until the eventual delivery of permanent supply ships, expected some time in the 2020s. The Harper cabinet decided to do an end-run around those opposed to the short-term lease — including the former chief of the defence staff, the now-retired Gen. Tom Lawson.

And thus prove once again that the word Con is just another word for corruption, or hypocrisy of the lowest order. 


And of course show that if Andrew Scheer spends all his time sniffing for fake scandals, like a hog sniffs for truffles.

It's because he is one...



Enough of those fake scandals.

Enough of those hoggy Cons.

Resist them as hard and as long as you can, and in the name of human decency don't let them win...