SNC-Lavalin

Paul Wells talks to the former clerk of the Privy Council about his advice to Prime Ministers, the time pressures of governing, and political exits

Scott Gilmore: Canada needs men and women in power who are afraid to lie to us, who would be embarrassed to be caught out, who blush and fear the consequences

Andrew MacDougall: With the Trudeau Liberals reduced to a minority, the opposition parties must use their newfound leverage to demand a judicial inquiry into the affair

Philippe J. Fournier: Three new polls conducted after the ethics commissioner’s report was released show the race still deadlocked

Paul Wells: Under the proposed ‘McLellan protocol’ the incessant piling-on the attorney general by staffers would not have been possible

Philippe J. Fournier: Pollsters are likely in the field on the heels of the latest developments in the SNC-Lavalin affair. Right now, Liberals and Tories are statistically tied.

Everyone was yelling on Twitter after the ethics commissioner report. Who yelled the the loudest? Negative Trudeau hashtags received more mentions than positive ones.

Anne Kingston: The PM reframed his ethics violation as a civic virtue—this government will protect jobs, even if lines need to be crossed.

The powerful engineering giant had two former Supreme Court justices, a former Privy Council clerk and the PMO on its side. It got everything it wanted—except a deal to escape a court fight

The ethics commissioner’s report contains multiple mentions of Wilson-Raybould’s offer to pass along the company’s public-interest arguments

Paul Wells: Another ethics report patiently explains to the PM that he does, in fact, make decisions and they do, in fact, have consequences

Andrew MacDougall: The government hasn’t ruled on the DPA question, and the company has stopped asking. It could all change in November.