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CBC says that privately, former Liberal leader John Turner had a better term for Question Period and other televised political venues: "Bullshit Theatre."

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Methinks its strange that CBC feels free to quote such bullshit said by a LIEbrano/lawyer/leader but block my comments when I call Parliament a Circus N'esy Pas?


https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2019/03/cbc-says-that-privately-former-liberal.html





https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opposition-scheer-1.5055428



Opposition is a caricature, and Scheer is a humid performer: Neil Macdonald



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David Amos 
David Amos
"Publicly, former Liberal leader John Turner used to say that "the job of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is to oppose." Privately, though, he had a better term for Question Period and other televised political venues: "******** Theatre."

Methinks its strange that CBC feels free to quote such things said by a liberal leader but block my comments when I call Parliament a Circus N'esy Pas?




Opposition is a caricature, and Scheer is a humid performer: Neil Macdonald

Trudeau is corrupt, sinister, subversive, rotten? One suspects Andrew Scheer doesn't actually believe that


If Scheer ever does achieve power, it's a safe bet he'll exercise the same sort of top down control every other prime minister does. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)


Back in December, NDP MP Charlie Angus approvingly retweeted a Christmas wish on Twitter calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fire then-Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.

"The Justice file has been completely bungled" quoted Angus, who accused Wilson-Raybould of all sorts of malevolence.

But of course that was then. To hear Angus tell it now, Wilson-Raybould is a person of great integrity who put her job on the line over principle and has suffered the consequences of her courage. At a guess, Angus's amended position is that Wilson-Raybould's demotion in January was a bloody travesty.


The failure of @Puglaas to show any leadership or direction on Indigenous justice has been one of the deepest disappointments of the Trudeau government.
"For Christmas I want Justin Trudeau to fire @Puglaas. The Justice file has been completely bungled."https://www.canadalandshow.com/podcast/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-a-new-justice-minister/ 





Conservative MP Lisa Raitt, in 2016, accused Wilson-Raybould of "spewing lies" in the House of Commons. Now, though, she dotingly believes every word Wilson-Raybould utters. After Wilson-Raybould rose in the Commons to say she wanted to speak "her truth," Opposition members erupted in a standing ovation. Wilson-Raybould, says Raitt, wisely warned us all that we must "speak truth to power." (Yes, a former minister in Stephen Harper's government actually said that).

Oh, and that new provision allowing negotiated settlements rather than prosecutions of companies like SNC-Lavalin? The one opposition MPs accuse the government of sneakily burying in last year's budget so they could help their corporate pals? It was examined, and approved unanimously by the Commons Justice committee Unanimously. Meaning all parties. Conservative MP Rob Nicholson declared, on behalf of his party, "We're completely supportive of it."

But most of this flippity-floppity stuff goes largely unreported. The respect and admiration of opposition MPs for Wilson-Raybould, and their deep suspicion of the underhanded government decision to let big companies escape rule of law is the new "narrative," to use that awful, hackneyed word.

Why? Because, well, they're opposition MPs, and inconsistency is their parliamentary privilege. They operate in an expectation-free zone. There is no supposition that they will show temperance, nuance, forbearance or shame. They can yell whatever they like and reporters will report it, because democracy, etc.


Angus's opinion of Wilson-Raybould has obviously changed since December, writes Neil Macdonald. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Publicly, former Liberal leader John Turner used to say that "the job of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is to oppose." Privately, though, he had a better term for Question Period and other televised political venues: "Bullshit Theatre."

He always got a laugh, but it was more than a joke. Turner was acknowledging that the opposition, with its constant, unstinting indignation about everything the government says or does, is a caricature.

For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is their struggle for a share of ink and airtime in the news media, opposition politicians behave like a pack of scent hounds. They have no shame because they know the system is unkind to anyone who does. Their rhetoric is both predictable and extreme; they believe it must be so, in order to make headlines, and they may be right. Still, anyone else who talked the way they do would be regarded as a crank.

Right now, the most humid performance is that of Conservative leader Andrew Scheer.

Appeal to the RCMP


In Scheer's estimation, the prime minister is "disgraced," up to "something sinister," running a coverup, and corrupt in the manner of a Third World despot. Trudeau, Scheer tells us, pressures, harasses, subverts the law and gags elected MPs. And he should be investigated for what are clearly crimes, something Scheer has written to the RCMP demanding.

Now, Trudeau might not be a particularly inspiring, or even articulate fellow. His gurgly moralizing is aggravating. But a sinister, disgraced, subversive, corrupt criminal? Because he tried to get his justice minister to change her decision about a prosecution, to persuade her to use a new law the Conservatives supported, then eventually accepted her decision, and then moved her to Veterans Affairs, an assignment she herself, truth-teller that she is, said at the time was not a demotion?
(Not only did Wilson-Raybould declare that reassigning cabinet ministers is the absolute prerogative of the prime minister, she added: "I would say that I can think of no world in which I would consider working for our veterans in Canada as a demotion.")

And yet, crime, corrupt, sinister, coverup, criminal, disgraced, bad, rotten, lawbreaker.

One suspects Andrew Scheer doesn't actually believe that, but he's the opposition leader, and doesn't have to.


In Scheer's estimation, the prime minister is "disgraced" and up to "something sinister." (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

With Scheer heading the opposition, we are supposed to forget that the government his party formed under Stephen Harper happily imposed its will on Canada's judiciary, using minimum-sentencing legislation to interfere with judicial discretion.

Or that Harper's Conservatives, having denounced Belinda Stronach for crossing the floor to join the Liberal government in 2005 (a betrayal of her constituents, we were told) happily received Liberal David Emerson, who crossed to join Harper's government in 2006, and then booted Conservative MP Garth Turner from the caucus after he protested (speaking truth to power, really) that Emerson should seek a new mandate from his constituents, the way the party had argued Stronach should have.

To be clear, Trudeau's mob is no different. They went from screeching that the Mike Duffy affair was proof of utterly corrupt government, and declaring that the Canadian people demand transparency and answers from Harper, to running an administration at least as opaque and secretive, once in power.

("The Canadian people," incidentally, is probably the most-quoted entity in the opposition benches. The opposition by definition was rejected by voters, yet Scheer apparently consults them every day, and knows their heart intimately).

Top-down control


If Scheer ever does achieve power, it's a safe bet he'll exercise the same sort of top down control every other prime minister does. Does anyone believe he won't? That he wouldn't, perhaps, order Tory MPs on the Justice committee to abruptly adjourn rather than take more political damage? I humbly suggest he would.

But back to Bullshit Theatre.

It's tempting to think that things have gone downhill, that there was once a gravitas and comity that has disappeared.

Says David Moscrop, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa who has just authored the beautifully-titled book Too Dumb For Democracy: "If you were to put Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer, and Jagmeet Singh beside Bob Stanfield, Pierre Trudeau and … Ed Broadbent, I know what team I'd pay attention to."

But, says Moscrop, it's never really been much better.

"There's no golden age. The introduction of television cameras has amplified the nonsense, and caused politicians to lean into the theatrics. And social media has exacerbated it further."
Only technique has changed, he says. Now, whenever the opposition (or the governing party) has a fit of outrage, they do two things:

"They immediately send out a fundraising request expressing the outrage and asking for five dollars, and they create a data-mining site."

Example: LetHerSpeak.Ca, the website set up by the Conservatives (although you have to go right to the end of the page, and examine the shaded fine print, to find out who's behind it, which is sort of a tacit acknowledgement of opposition credibility).

The nominal purpose of the site is to help The Canadian People demand that Trudeau un-gag Wilson-Raybould, because, you know, she really hasn't had a chance to speak much. Coincidentally, the site gives voters a chance to disclose their names, email addresses and postal codes. If they haven't read the shaded fine print at the bottom, and don't know they're supplying data to Conservative election campaign managers, well, they should buy reading glasses.

"It's the new frontier of bullshit," says Moscrop.

And we journalists are all just theatre critics.


This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read our FAQ.

About the Author


Neil Macdonald
Opinion Columnist
Neil Macdonald is an opinion columnist for CBC News, based in Ottawa. Prior to that he was the CBC's Washington correspondent for 12 years, and before that he spent five years reporting from the Middle East. He also had a previous career in newspapers, and speaks English and French fluently, and some Arabic.


CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices





https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justice-committee-wilson-raybould-trudeau-1.5052976



'Coverup!': Opposition erupts as Liberals shut down emergency meeting on SNC-Lavalin affair

Opposition MPs wanted to press Liberals to call Jody Wilson-Raybould back to testify


Opposition MPs want Jody Wilson-Raybould to return to the Commons justice committee. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)


Opposition MPs hurled angry claims of a "coverup" today after Liberals used their majority to shut down an emergency meeting of the committee probing the SNC-Lavalin affair.

The meeting was requested by Conservative and NDP members to press the Liberals to recall Jody Wilson-Raybould to testify again, even though the Liberals already had defeated a similar motion.
But less than 30 minutes after the meeting began, the Liberals voted to adjourn.


"I have never been so disgusted by the conduct of my Liberal colleagues," said Conservative MP Michael Cooper after the committee broke.
"They have done the bidding of the PMO."

Opposition MPs were making another bid to bring the former attorney general back to testify before the committee today, warning that Canadians would see any attempt by the Liberals to block them as evidence of a "coverup."

While casting their votes, opposition MPs shouted at their Liberal counterparts, calling their actions "despicable" and "disgusting."

"I'm strongly voting opposed and I'm shocked at the behaviour of my colleagues," said NDP MP Tracey Ramsey.

The committee is scheduled to meet next on Mar. 19 — a closed session that coincides with the tabling of the federal budget.


Politics News
Justice Committee vote raises calls of cover up
 Opposition members of the Justice Committee cry foul after a Liberal motion to adjourn until next week is adopted by the Liberal majority on the committee. 1:14
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of ordering Liberal committee members to shut down the hearing so "Canadians will never know the truth." He said Tuesday's meeting is "secret" and that the Liberal majority can shut it down whenever it wants.

"Justin Trudeau is transforming the justice committee into the Justin committee," he said.

Liberal MP Francis Drouin, who put forward the motion to adjourn, insisted it was a matter of procedure since next week's meeting to deal with potential witnesses had been scheduled already.

"It's as simple as that," he told reporters, as most other Liberal members dodged the microphone and made quick exits.


Politics News
Poilievre renames Justice Committee the 'Justin Committee'
 Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre calls out PM Justin Trudeau for ordering Liberals members of the Justice Committee to shut down a request for Jody Wilson-Raybould to return for further testimony. 1:02
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer tweeted about the committee developments, calling them "shocking."

Scheer announced Sunday the Conservatives were launching an online campaign urging Trudeau to "let her speak."

Poilievre had told CBC News it's crucial for the committee to hear from Wilson-Raybould again, given major discrepancies between her version of events and last week's testimony from Gerald Butts, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's close friend and former principal secretary. He said Trudeau also must fully waive cabinet confidence and client-solicitor privilege so that she can give a complete account of what happened.

"She says material events happened after she was removed as attorney general but before she resigned from cabinet. She said she wants to tell Canadians what happened," Poilievre said.

"The prime minister has the legal authority to allow her to do so. If he doesn't, he's got something to hide."
Prior to her Feb. 27 appearance before the committee, Wilson-Raybould had obtained a broad waiver from the Prime Minister's Office that allowed her to disclose details of her conversations with government officials about the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal-based global engineering and construction company.

But she told the committee that the waiver allowed her to speak only about her time as attorney general, leaving her constrained on what she could say about her time in the Veterans Affairs portfolio after she was replaced as justice minister and attorney general by David Lametti.

She said she endured intense, sustained political pressure and veiled threats from officials in the PMO, the Privy Council Office and the finance minister's office to overturn a decision by the director of the Public Prosecution Service to proceed with a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin instead of inviting the company to negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA).

A DPA is a legal tool that allows a company to avoid a criminal trial by admitting wrongdoing, paying fines, giving up any money it earned in the commission of a crime and agreeing to be monitored for a period of time.

Denying 'inappropriate' pressure


Wilson-Raybould also testified that she told Trudeau she believed she was moved out of the justice portfolio because of the SNC-Lavalin matter.

In his testimony before the committee on Mar. 6, Butts denied there was any inappropriate pressure imposed on Wilson-Raybould and said internal discussions on the SNC-Lavalin file were all above-board and part of normal government operations.

Poilievre rejected repeated claims from the government that the issue boils down to a difference of "perspectives."

Watch the Power Panel discuss the Liberals shutting down Tuesday's committee meeting

Power and Politics
Opposition cries foul at committee | Power Panel
 Marcella Munro, Jen Gerson, Amanda Alvaro, and Tim Powers discuss the Liberals using their majority to shut down an emergency meeting of the committee probing the SNC-Lavalin affair. 11:29

"Either she's lying or Trudeau's lying, and I believe her," he said.

Parliament is not sitting this week, but the SNC-Lavalin controversy is still raging. On Monday, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the international body that oversees a global anti-bribery convention, issued a statement saying it is monitoring the political situation unfolding in Canada and it is "concerned" by claims the prime minister and his staff exerted pressure on the attorney general to defer criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

'Black eye' for Canada


Poilievre said the fact the OECD and renowned international news organizations are raising these concerns now is "a terrible black eye for Canada's reputation."

It's not clear if any of the Liberal committee members have changed their minds about whether Wilson-Raybould should be recalled to testify again, but they hold the committee majority and control its agenda.

Ramsey said Canadians are following the committee proceedings very closely. She also warned that any attempt to block efforts to hear further testimony from Wilson-Raybould could backfire on the Liberals.

"I think the Liberals controlling what's happening at the justice committee just underscores the need for an independent public inquiry to get down to the bottom of what is really happening," she told CBC News. "I believe that Canadians are watching the justice committee and are disappointed in a government that ran on transparency and openness and accountability, and at every turn is doing the opposite."

NDP demands inquiry


The NDP has been pressing for a public inquiry, while the Conservatives have been demanding an RCMP investigation and Trudeau's resignation.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion also launched an investigation into potential violations of federal ethics rules in the SNC-Lavalin affair. On Tuesday, his office announced Dion is stepping away for a prolonged period for medical reasons, but insisted the work of his office will continue in his absence.

Poilievre told CBC that if the Liberals use their majority to "shut down accountability," the opposition will use every tool in the parliamentary toolkit to force the government to "end the coverup."

"There are a lot of things that become very difficult in all of the committees of Parliament, and in the House of Commons itself, if the opposition is united in a singular focus to get to the truth," he said. "I also think there will be enormous public pressure if Trudeau decides that he's just going to cover this whole thing up."

Wilson-Raybould issued a statement last week saying she's willing give additional testimony, answer further questions and provide more clarity.

"I will note, as I indicated at the time, my statement to the committee was not a complete account but only a detailed summary," she said.

Last week, Trudeau blamed a communication breakdown and an "erosion of trust"between the PMO and Wilson-Raybould for the SNC-Lavalin matter.

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