FELDSTED: Political cronyism appears to be a small world. The longer this goes on the worse it smells

Crown waited 2 years to charge federal procurement official with links to Mark Norman case.  Crown accuses Matthew Matchett and Vice-Admiral Mark Norman of separately leaking cabinet secrets

Murray Brewster ~~ CBC News ~~ Mar 19, 2019

A federal procurement official charged with breach of trust was told by the RCMP roughly two years ago that he also was a suspect in the same investigation into the alleged leaking of cabinet secrets which had ensnared .

Matthew Matchett's lawyer, Matthew Day, revealed that fact in court Tuesday as a date for a preliminary hearing was set in an Ontario Court of Justice.

Marchett was charged with one count of breach of trust on Feb. 13, while Norman, the former commander of the navy, also faces one count of breach of trust and was charged in April 2018.

Day tore a strip off the Crown saying his client has yet to see all of the evidence gathered against him despite the time it has taken to investigate.  

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It is no surprise that the Admiral Norman preliminary hearing set for August has been moved to much later -- after the October election.

It is a surprise that a second person is accused of leaking the same shipbuilding ‘secrets’ Norman is accused of leaking. Why did it take two years for that to come out?

Those who have followed the Norman development, know that the government has been reluctant to disclose evidence held against Admiral Norman. Full disclosure is a fundamental principle of our criminal justice system, and a few people convicted of murder have been freed because of the prosecution failure to disclose relevant detains to the defense.

We would have less interest in the Norman affair except for what has been revealed, and not revealed, during the n scandal.

That started the ball rolling.

Since the story broke on the PMO pressuring the Attorney General, we have had numerous revelations:

• The Prime Minister told us that the Globe and Mail story on pressuring the Attorney General was baseless.

• the Commons Justice Committee undertook and investigation into Lavalin.

• Jody Wilson-Raybould spoke to the CJC and made it clear there had been pressure. She mentioned that Wernick had told her there was a possibility that Lavalin might leave Quebec without a DPA.

• Privy Council Clerk Wernick spoke to the CJC and confirmed conversations and communications had taken place but were not pressure as the government had just reason for speaking to the AG.

• During his comments to the CJC, Wernick let it drop that Wilson-Raybould had issued an order to Justice Department staff not to aggressively defend against indigenous legal actions which is odd since it is entirely separate from the Lavalin scandal.

• Gerald Butts spoke to the CJC, again confirming that communications with the AG had taken place but were misconstrued as pressure since the government had just cause for communicating.

• The Prime Minister assured us that his interest was in preserving (Lavalin) jobs.

• The President of SNC-Lavalin maintains that Lavalin jobs were never discussed with the government and that SNC-Lavalin had no intention of leaving Quebec.

• We discover that there is a second person charged in leaking secrets in the Admiral Norman affair.

• We now discover that there were apparent tensions between the AG and PMO dating back to 2017.

• We discover that Senate Committee on Transport and Communications is curtailing its visits to ensure that most testimony it receives is from coastal supporters of C-48.

• Two senior Cabinet Ministers have resigned their posts. A third Liberal MP has resigned to sit as an independent.

• We now find Wilson-Raybould is alleged to have promoted a Manitoba judge as replacement for Beverly McLaughlin, as Chief Justice on the Supreme Court, except that Justice Glenn Joyal had withdrawn his application to sit on the Supreme Court.

The legal community is in an uproar over the breach of confidentiality of the appointment process for judges.   

We have discovered interesting links between the Trudeau Foundation, SNC-Lavalin, McCain Foods, the Bronfmans and government Ministers. Political cronyism appears to be a small world.

The longer this goes on the worse it smells. The idea that the AG may have interfered with the administration of justice adds another potential scandal to those already on the boil.

This gets worse, not better, as time passes. 

The Justice Committee has been shut down ... the Ethics Committee has been shut down ... the Prime Minister answers pertinent questions with a script written by his lawyers ... we are united ... all is well ... we are doing our best for you ... nothing to report that you don’t already know.

Move along.

The problem for most of us it that we have a wealth of unproven allegations to confound us.

To quote Sir Winston Churchill: “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”

We will not ‘move along’. We are not subjugated slaves. We will dump corruption and cronyism to save Canada. We will do whatever it takes by whatever means it takes.  

John Feldsted

Political Consultant & Strategist

Winnipeg, Manitoba