Apr 30 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Conservatives accused Liberals of a different sort of SNC-Lavalin cover-up in question period Tuesday after a report revealed the names of employees involved in the Montreal firm’s illegal attempts to influence Canadian politics between 2004 and 2011.
Apr 29 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — The Conservative Party has broken a record for the best-ever first quarter fundraising result by a federal political party, which they are taking as a sign Canadians have been paying attention as the SNC-Lavalin scandal has unfolded. The party hauled in just over $8 million from the beginning of the year to the end of […]
Apr 25 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — The president of the Philippines was threatening to declare war on Canada this week if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doesn’t take care of a big pile of garbage. Following years of calls from environmental groups, anger from local politicians and a Filipino court order, dozens of shipping containers full of Vancouver trash are still sitting […]
Apr 10 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — A week before Easter, the temperature in Ottawa was finally above zero and spring, or at least spring fever, seemed to have reached the House of Commons chamber. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer wore rosy ties for the International Day of Pink, and a sea of MPs behind them sported yellow […]
Apr 5 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Even as Liberals in the House of Commons try to move past allegations senior government officials tried to interfere in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, a more thorough public airing of the scandal is looming in the Senate. An independent senator, Sen. André Pratte, moved Thursday evening to strike a special Senate committee to study […]
Mar 21 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — At a time when the federal Liberals are under attack over alleged political interference in the SNC-Lavalin affair, a B.C. regional district appears to have asked two cabinet ministers to intervene in an Competition Bureau investigation because they share the same goals on climate policy. Metro Vancouver, which provides services to 21 municipalities and a […]
Mar 18 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — On the same day that Liberals are set to unveil their last federal budget before the next federal election, the House of Commons justice committee will hold a hotly anticipated, private meeting to discuss where to go next with its investigation into the SNC-Lavalin affair. During a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning, opposition party MPs are […]
Mar 14 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — When the Senate starts broadcasting its proceedings live on Monday evening for the first time, it will be, for senators, an exercise not only in public transparency but also in remembering to take off their lanyards for the cameras. “The first time that somebody gets caught picking their teeth, people are, you know, we fidget, […]
Feb 28 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — After weeks of sympathizing with his plight to save SNC-Lavalin from the potential penalties of criminal prosecution, Quebec’s pundit classes have now concluded that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau crossed the line in his dealings with former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould. In the hours after Wilson-Raybould’s scathing testimony at a Commons justice committee Wednesday evening, commentary […]
Feb 13 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — Postmedia — In the ongoing debate over the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin and what kind of “pressure” was put on ex-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to prevent it, the pundit classes of Quebec and the rest of Canada are singing different songs. Since the Globe and Mail published a report last week alleging the Prime Minister’s Office pushed Wilson-Raybould […]
Feb 6 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Maxime Bernier, leader of the nascent People’s Party of Canada, is defending his right-hand man Martin Masse amid accusations the top party official fomented “antisemitism, misogyny, and racism” in his past writings. Jewish-Canadian group B’nai Brith Canada released findings from their “independent investigation” of Masse on Wednesday, based on a review of his work for […]
Feb 6 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — When reporters asked him who the president of the country is, unlike his representative, Singh wouldn’t name one. Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh caused further confusion about his party’s position on Venezuela when he refused to say who he recognizes as the country’s president — putting him out of line with his own foreign affairs […]
Feb 5 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — The Canadian government spent more than $12.7 million on vehicle rentals for last year’s G7 summit in Quebec, new documents show. That’s on top of the $23 million that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police spent on new cars, only to sell them again through a government surplus website within months of the event. Although the […]
Feb 5 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Four Canadian unions helped fund a private delegation to observe the Venezuelan presidential election last year, even as Canada, the United States and President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents decried the results as illegitimate. With many of Maduro’s opponents in jail or barred from running for office and the country’s legislative system already weakened under his rule, […]
Feb 1 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — A narrow majority of Canadians disapproves of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is navigating a tense downward spiral in Canada-China relations, a new poll has found. The arrest of a Huawei executive in December for possible extradition to the United States is what triggered the current decline, but a similar majority said in late January […]