The leaders’ debate produced one moment of surreal political theatre when Conservative leader Andrew Scheer accused Justin Trudeau of lying to Canadians when the SNC-Lavalin allegations first surfaced.
“You looked Canadians in the eye and told Canadians that the allegations in the Globe and Mail were false,” Scheer said to Trudeau. To which the Liberal leader replied: “They were false.”
This will surprise the ethics commissioner who ruled otherwise. And after the commissioner’s ruling Trudeau said: “We recognize the way that this happened shouldn’t have happened. I take responsibility for the mistakes that I made.” There are many scandals associated with the SNC-Lavalin saga, Vanmala Subramaniam and Stuart Thomson look at the top five.
Bribing the Gadhafi regime
The Montreal construction giant stands accused of two major crimes related to its association with the Gadhafi regime — paying $48 million in bribes to Libyan government officials, and defrauding the Libyan government and other entities of “property, money or valuable security or service” worth $130 million.
The corporation itself was charged by the RCMP in February 2015, but the charges stem from shady dealings involving a number of SNC employees years prior, particularly one Riadh Ben Aissa, an old acquaintance of Gadhafi’s son Saadi.
“My dear friend, make sure that this project will be ours,” wrote Ben Aissa to Saadi regarding a construction contract in Libya, according to a June 2009 email obtained from Swiss authorities by the Financial Post, back in 2015.
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See Also:
(1) Rumours, the truth and Trudeau
(2) It’s best to treat all party platforms like the works of fiction they are
(3) The NDP’s dream of winning in Quebec is dying without dignity
(4) RCMP shuns lie-detector tests for top security clearances despite federal rules
(5) Power half the time rather than power all the time
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