Dear member of Parliament J. Wilson-Raybould,
For two reasons you are my political hero.
First, as you should, you understand Canada’s democratic tenets that the judiciary and the government legislators and/or executive branch are independent and separate from one another. The executive branch and/or legislators absolutely cannot interfere or attempt to influence the judiciary process.
As attorney general and Minister of Justice, having done your due diligence and made your decision on how to proceed with the SNC-Lavalin matter, you refused to allow the federal government’s executive branch and two MPs (Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau) to interfere with your decision. I am extremely grateful that you stood firm to protect our democracy.
The second reason you are my political hero is that you also understood that the SNC-Lavalin matter could have economic and political impacts. However you understood that these economic and political impacts were secondary, as they had to be, to preserving the independence of our judiciary and protecting our Canadian democracy and its fundamental tenets.
The prime minister and the finance minister were both prepared to sacrifice Canada’s democratic tenets and make Canada resemble a “Banana Republic” to protect SNC-Lavalin.
The prime minister’s statement that he will always work to protect jobs is, in this matter, comical for that statement does not withstand scrutiny. Jobs would be there whether or not SNC-Lavalin successfully secured federal contracts, for if SNC-Lavalin did not secure federal contracts, other firms would have secured these contracts and jobs would thus be available to execute the contracts’ requirements.
So the prime minister’s statement is hollow at best.
It was evident to me that your testimony yesterday (Feb. 27) before the Justice Committee was personally painful for you. Your clearly articulated testimony was supported by date, time and quotes from notes that you wisely kept; you frankly spoke without a hint of vengeance but rather with pride in having defended democratic tenets.
The same cannot be said of the statements made by the prime minister over this issue in the last 10 or so days. In my view, having changed his statements so often during that period Prime Minister Trudeau is now completely unreliable and an embarrassment to Canada.
MP Wilson-Raybould, I would happily vote for you were I living in your riding.
One thing for sure however, I will never vote for the Liberal party as long as Trudeau and/or Morneau are running for the Parliament of Canada.
Respectfully,
Paul Cloutier, St. Albert
