Friday, July 31, 2020

Pierre Poilievre and the Death of the Fake Scandal


I wasn't looking forward to watching Justin Trudeau appear before the Commons Justice Committee.

I knew that Pierre Poilievre and his ugly stooge Charlie Angus were out for blood, determined to make a fake scandal sound like a real one.

And after the way they had both teamed up to smear poor Margaret Trudeau the day before, I knew they were capable of anything.

But as it turns out, I shouldn't have worried.


For Trudeau was able to easily handle the Con NDP smear mongers, to the point of looking at times like he was enjoying himself.

And even the toxic Trudeau hater Michael Harris was forced to admit he had managed to take the air out of the fake scandal.

First, and most important, Trudeau testified that he never spoke to representatives of WE, and only learned of the charity’s involvement in the massive volunteer grant program on May 8. That was the date cabinet received the recommendation from the public service that WE was the only organization able to administer the volunteer grant program.

A tad disingenuous to be sure, since the public service recommends and cabinet decides. But a far cry from the charge that the PM personally favoured WE and interfered to tilt the ultimate decision in its favour.

The charge that Trudeau favoured the Kielberger brothers because they were his friends also went up in flames.

Trudeau also flatly denied being friends of the charity’s founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger. Trudeau said he never had dinner with them, never socialized with them, and didn’t consider them friends. Just people he knew. 

And then there was the "smoking gun." The one the Con/NDP mucky mucks were hoping to use to hurt his wife Sophie...


But only ended up hurting themselves.

But it was Trudeau’s explanation of his wife’s involvement with WE that let the air out of the charge that benefits to his family had affected the government’s choice to select WE to administer the volunteer grant program. When pressed on how much money his wife had received from WE, Trudeau instead pointed out two crucially important things. 

The first was that Sophie’s work for WE was unpaid, although she had been reimbursed for expenses. And before that happened, Trudeau testified that his wife’s pro bono work for WE was approved by no less a person than Canada’s ethics commissioner. Still shocked and appalled?

By shoving that fake smoking gun up their own asses and pulling the trigger.

Bottom line? The only way for the opposition to have magnified the WE “scandal” was to fortify the impression in committee and in front of the country that Trudeau was a shameless practitioner of nepotism and a crooked politician. They failed to add a single new fact to bolster those accusations. 

Instead, Trudeau got a national television platform to explain how things actually unfolded, and he was categorical. WE got no preferential treatment from his government, and no personal support from either the PM or his staff. Unless he is lying, this scandal is a receding tide.

Which left the ghastly misogynist Charlie Angus looking like a fool...


And left his good buddy Pierre Poilievre looking even worse...

The scandal won't die of course. Our filthy Con media will try to keep it alive.

But all that will do is show is that people like Vassy Kapelos are such toxic Trudeau haters they don't deserve to be called journalists...


While Justin Trudeau keeps on fighting the pandemic, and doing what needs to be done to help our economy recover.

And of course, showing once again that decency matters...


17 comments:

Jackie Blue said...

So Charlie the "ethics" guy, who berated an accomplished author and mental health advocate by reducing her to little more than her husband's/son's name, and going on a Trump-orange witch hunt comparable to the conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden, has now resorted to shitposting and copyright infringment. He ripped off a Theo Moudakis cartoon in a tweet where he demanded that Trudeau waive cabinet privilege (like he's going to do that). Someone inform him that while (alleged) CoI breaches are workplace HR issues, copyright infringement is an actual violation of the law.

Sounds like Mr. Bernie Bro needs to read up on the Berne Convention. I'm sure Trudeau has read it, as he schooled Skippy on the CoI Act when Skippy shamefully tried to take over the hearing when Wayne Easter's electricity went out. Unfortunately there's little hope of either them or the garbage press doing their homework. Fire Vassy and hire Ishat Reza for Power & Politics. She is phenomenal and puts all these Fox-wannabe pundits to shame.

Meanwhile, Jagoff continues lying about the "billion dollar bailout" proving he is yet another Con in Trump orange clothing. NDP: No Damn Principles. I didn't watch the testimony, but apparently JT did do well, as did Katie, and I sent JT an email saying that he needs to lawyer up and sue for damages because of what's been done to his family by this vile smear campaign that turned up nothing and willfully ignored the facts. (I was so happy to get a response, even though it was from the guy at the front desk. A Mr. Vachon who informed me that my kind words of support were greatly appreciated. So Justin read it!!!)

Anyway, I'd say JT's not the only one who needs to lawyer up after all of this. The K-Bros and now Theo Moudakis are going to need to hire some legal eagles too. But oh, Skippy, Chuckles, the goat herder guy who read a New Zealand Nazi's manifesto into the Hansard last year, do tell us about "ethics" why don't you???

rumleyfips said...

The consultation with the Ethics Commissioner raises suspicion. As has been pointed out the speaking engagements of mom and bro are on the public record. The ethics commissioner surely knew about them as part of his job. If he knew, , as an impartial advisor, he should have warned if there was any conflict.

If he ignored the two speakers , he either knew there was no conflict or he was engaged in a gotcha entrapment.

Unknown said...

You nailed it Montreal Simon!

Jackie Blue said...

Can anyone explain to me what the hell the NDP hopes to accomplish by going full Bernie Bro to own the (neo)Libs? Using juvenile, made-up meme words like "fauxgressives," Con talking points like "Laurentian elites," and now conspiracy theories accusing Liberal supporters of being troll plants from the U.S. Democratic Party??? Turn that back the other way and why shouldn't it be a possibility that they're being pumped up by Russia or Nina Turner's "Our Revolution"?

Isn't that "foreign funded activist" charge basically what Jason Kenney and Vivian Krause advanced with their bullshit about George Soros and the Tides Foundation? Matthew Green thinks he's being helpful to Canadian diplomatic relations by attacking Joe Biden???

https://twitter.com/MatthewGreenNDP/status/1289294950350364672

And then the first troll in his reply column accuses Liberals of being Andrew Scheer wannabes with American passports. I mean really. Nationalist Demagogue Party. Why not go full Corbynista and start tweeting about rootless cosmopolitans. Show us your papers. (Or your license plate.) I'd say their next step is to demand that Trudeau's Cuban birth certificate be entered in as evidence at the committee hearings, except they're obviously angry that he isn't really Castro's son. This is getting ridiculous and has all the fingerprints of an infiltrated campaign.

News has no borders, and Canadians have every right to discuss the dumpster fire south of 49 as I do to issue a Cassandra warning about the Trumpification and Sanderization of the pincer movement against the Liberals and Justin Trudeau. "Nacht Trudeau, Uns" is some scary kind of stupid. Really, what the fuck is going on here?

Anonymous said...

Cuckoos like you live in cloud cuckoo land. St Justin of Trudeau fucks up again, dizzy little beggar that he is, and it's everyone else's fault? Still, for straight out obliviousness and not being of this earth but floating a foot above it, I'd have to give the win to Billy Sunshine Morneau.

I was unaware that it was the Ethics Commissioner's job to proactively advise on matters he knew nothing about, since he's not a member of cabinet. Give your head a slap and a shake. There, doesn't that feel better?

I hate that snake Polievre, but he sure made JT look like a fool and I watched it live. Unaffiliated as I am with any of these political dolts.

All I've seen overall is the ridiculous state of Canadian politics recently, no matter the party. It's crap from all of them, but the CPC will hit the sewage recycling plant first because the Lord's on their side.

Can you tell that PM to get a shave and a haircut? He looks shaggy. I have a beard and hair, but I also own a mirror and a pair of scissors.

Jackie Blue said...

Hey troll, JT schooled Skippy and held his cool while Skippy with help from the useful-idiot Dippers tried to mount a kudatah over the committee by taking advantage of a thunderstorm and technical difficulties. Skippy failed to get his big Perry Mason guilty verdict because JT and Katie told "nothing but the truth." So now he's on a fishing expedition demanding to call random staffers and probably the janitorial staff to give him the answer he wants.

The only truth in your ramble is that #cdnpoli is ridiculous because of this obvious media-contrived hit job, and because of pox-on-all-their-houses gaslighters such as yourself, who still think snide remarks about JT's hair amounts to a substantive policy argument.

Perhaps you should look in that mirror as to what contributions you're making to the ridiculousness and degradation of civil discourse. I'm sorry you lost your job at the movie theater, what with projection obviously being your primary skill.

Anonymous said...

The anonymous comment made me giggle...I spoke with my parents (die-hard Albertan Conservatives) about the recent "grilling" and they summed it up in two phrases: (1) they just keep saying the same thing over and over again (i.e. this is a boring go-nowhere zombie controversy) AND (2) "Trudeau sure looks like he could use a hair cut." (LOL)

Steve said...

It was interesting to hear the right wing radio nuts rage that Trudeau would not answer questions. In particular how much his wife was reinbursed. This is already public knowlege, JT just would not take the bait and make a new con facebook add for free.

Sylvia J. Wilson said...

As usual Simon, you are "right on the money". Thank you for your comments and insight. Keep up the good work!

Steve said...

Two sides of the same coin. The Libs slipped towards that like Democrats in California. So keep it real and stop defying commmon sense and wasting the publics time on Scandals that have no wrong doing.

Anonymous said...

Its and unbelievable story,in the quest for family gain somehow a devious PM managed to bully or hypnotize a whole civil service, charity and political party into believing the most beneficial path forward was to award a single supplier not for profit contract in order for him to realize family kickbacks.As the story goes its fortunate he tripped up by participating in a cabinet discussion rather than recusing himself to visit a sick relative or attend an event with another charity as a cover story. On one hand a mastermind that achieved his objectives without the Harperesque muzzling and intimidation used by his predecessor, while on the other hand a conceited idiot that failed to see that Pierre Pecker and his mentally astute followers would see through the charade.
So was there a crime, who committed it and who is to benefit? Based on actual law there was no crime committed either by Trudeau or pushers of the false narrative.Free speech and opinion can cover a multitude of sins. From a beneficial view it would seem there are a multitude of losers especially the charitable planting of youthful green shoots that could result in a better future for all Canadians. In reality the only winner is the tabloid style media and their pay per click advertising revenue. Trudeau is a brand name that generates advertising revenue. To capitalize he needs a minister of OPTICS or a bot equivalent to interpret the social data real time and for any situation provide a recommended approach that is congruent with his objectives. The technology is there, sort of, why is he not using it? We have moved past the Fuddle Duddle era, the Cons are anti science/technology so whats holding him back from using the technology to crush them. It would seem that being genuine, true to a cause, and optically astute (manipulative?) are not incompatible. Possibly its the manipulative part, damn ethics.

RT

rumleyfips said...

Trudeau's quite the prognosticator as well RT. 5 years ago he saw the pandemic on its way and figured a way to scam some loot for his mother so she would no longer have to eat dollar store cat food.

By telling WE about covid19 and the need for them to run a programme, 5 years before it happened, he got them to funnel cash to his momey. Pretty good trick.

ottlib said...

OT again, but on Friday afternoon Statistics Canada announced that the Canadian economy grow by 4.5% in May. On Saturday, the media decided to focus on Mr. Morneau's $41,000 error and "suggest" his days are numbered as Finance Minister.

Coincidence?

Jackie Blue said...

So how do the Liberals make this go away sooner rather than later? There's nothing new to talk about. It's all just "commentary" and "analysis" and picking apart semantics after the fact. Testimony after testimony corroborated that there was nothing to see here, no favoritism, just an oversight. They're beating a dead horse into glue. Even Paul Wells said that Charlie couldn't prove the case so he fell back on a narrative of "Trudeau's prior mistakes".

But rather than accept the facts, the media and DipperCons keep going on saying that the Liberals are circling the wagons, they coordinated an alibi, the public service is under their authority, "no one is believing Trudeau's lies" -- Is this Hillary's emails coverage going to last all through August if not the rest of the year?

Someone on Reddit commented that they expect Morneau to leave prior to the reopening of Parliament, and then there'll be a cabinet shuffle before September. Judging by the media's thumping drum, I still think the only ransom they'll accept is Morneau's head on a platter.

Then again, as Simon and other commenters have pointed out, giving them an inch means they'll grab for a yard, if you give a moose a cookie he'll want $900,000 in chocolate milk, that sort of thing. Their real goal is obviously getting rid of Trudeau. They fall back on character assassination because physical assassination didn't work.

Jackie Blue said...

Ottlib -- regarding coincidences (or lack thereof), Dipper trolls online are demanding a say into Morneau's hypothetical replacement. This as Linda Frum recently demanded that "the opposition" have input into Payette's hypothetical replacement, and the Bernie fanatics in the U.S. are demanding the final say over Biden's V.P. Call me a conspiracy theorist but this sounds very, very coordinated.

Interesting that Linda's brother David, no stranger to destabilizing governments himself, is known for saying that if conservatives can't achieve what they want democratically they won't abandon conservatism but democracy. I would say the same goes for authoritarian leftists on either side of the border, who are simultaneously issuing ransom demands to force their radical acolytes into high office completely overriding the democratic choices of the electorate.

Voters did not want Bernie Sanders or his agenda in the White House, so the Bernie cult is trying to muscle their way in by attempting to exercise authority over Biden's V.P. Likewise, the NDP, or their surrogates at least, are demanding that someone who meets their standards of hardcore socialist economics be chosen as Morneau's replacement, because Trudeau rejected their calls for a coalition government after last October's election. Both are livid at being ignored and irrelevant and will not accept the fact that neither Biden nor Trudeau owes them so much as the time of day.

The ideal outcome in their wild fantasies, of course, and the slippery slope were it actually to occur, would be to have Singh replace Freeland as Deputy P.M., for Trudeau to resign, and then Singh becomes prime minister without ever winning an election. That's... not how it works, yet disturbingly sounds like the kind of last-ditch gambit one might expect from Andrew Scheer. Just like when he got miffed that he wasn't invited to discussions about the railway blockades because he and his party are gobsmacking tough-on-crime racists. It's also what happens under PropRep governments -- the coalition decides the leader -- which is why Netanyahu remains prime minister in spite of millions of people wanting him out. Funny how the NDP never mentions Israel in their relentless angling for PR.

The thing is, this is also what the Bernie cult is attempting to do, by pushing for their own V.P. pick and calls to have Biden resign after defeating Trump. So when I point out that the NDP are coordinating messaging and tactics with the radical U.S. left, and I get piled on it for being paranoid or not wanting Americans to have healthcare, that's what I'm talking about. "Unity cabinet" is a meme being spread all over social media in both the U.S. and Canada. The NDP and the Bernie brigade are behaving like saboteurs.

Those who attempt to point out the fact that Singh either does not understand basic civics, or is being willfully disruptive and lying to the broader electorate, are being smeared as racists. I fail to see what his skin color or his religious garb has to do with the fact that at no point ever has the loser had any weight in determining the executive staff of the winner. Remind me, when did Stephen Harper consult Justin Trudeau or Tom Mulcair for who should replace Jim Flaherty?

Steve said...

Thanks to massive overuse by the opposition there is a massive straw man shortage in the capital.

Educ8m said...

https://www.hilltimes.com/2020/08/03/to-break/258557