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Reading the Ethics Commissioner's report while on vacation, because that's how I roll. Three things stood out: 1) nine relevant people could not be fully forthcoming due to cabinet confidences. Nine. The idea that JWR is the problem doesn't fly. 1/n
2) PM told the Ethics Commish he did not direct Wernick to speak to JWR or use the 'one way or another' language. So the former clerk of the PC took it upon himself to have a meeting with JWR and use language that could be reasonably interpreted as an implicit threat. Incredible.
3) The involvement of, and attempt to involve, former SCC justices to apply further pressure on JWR is - as others have noted - a whole other concern here. Time for a broader discussion about what former judges involve themselves in this country.
As I've said throughout this, the Ethics Commissioner's focus is on whether the PM attempted to further the private interest of SNC Lavalin. He's made his judgment. But this story is much bigger than that, and concerns broader ethical issues, with further Qs raised by his report.
It's too late for a proper inquiry before the election, something that should have been initiated. Because even if the PM wasn't trying to act in the private interest of SNC Lavalin, the actions taken to pressure JWR were STILL WRONG. That "no law was broken" is irrelevant.
And I take the PMO team's utter mystification at this being a scandal as genuine. It's reflective of a long-standing cultural problem among the political class in this country that there's nothing wrong with using connections or skirting lines so long as it's for 'good'.
