Category Archives: Politics

Decision Canada | Consult. Ask Questions. Listen. Decide.

May 1, 2019Decision Canada 2019, PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

That good looking man you see above is David Eby, member of the British Columbia legislature representing the riding of Vancouver Point Grey, the province’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, otherwise known as the man for whom sleep is a foreign concept, and the hardest working member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party government.

Kasari Govender, West Coast LEAF (Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund)

At present, West Coast LEAF (Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund) Executive Director Kasari Govender is acting as co-counsel on a suit filed against Mr. Eby, as B.C.’s Attorney General, on behalf of the Single Mothers’ Alliance BC. Ms. Govender is currently arguing in the British Columbia Supreme Court that B.C.’s legal aid scheme violates the Canadian Constitution by failing to provide adequate support for vulnerable women and their children fleeing violent relationships.
Meanwhile, the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia argues that “years of underfunding and shifting political priorities have taken their toll on the range and quality of legal aid services, and especially on the people who need them. One of the fundamental problems is that legal aid has been starved for funding for many years by successive governments, and there’s been a lot of political interference in legal aid over the years.”

Don't miss Part 1 of the series on former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould's fitness for office

Try to imagine, if you will, what it must be like for David Eby, father, husband, feminist, and outstanding person of principal and integrity to be sued by one of his valued and cherished constituents (Ms. Govender), and the oversight body of which he has long been a member. Imagine how many conversations Mr. Eby has had with the Premier, members of his caucus, members of the Cabinet, the lobbyists in Victoria working on behalf of both of the above mentioned advocacy organizations, staff in his Victoria office, his constituents, women’s advocacy organizations, and a myriad of other advocacy organizations, as he works to develop a plan to once again return proper funding to legal aid in the province of British Columbia.
And try to imagine, as well, David Eby running to the press to decry “interference” by Premier John Horgan or his Chief of Staff, Geoff Meggs, or Finance Minister Carole James, or even B.C. Liberal party leader Andrew Wilkinson, for encroaching on the autonomy of the office of the Attorney General by dint of simply speaking to him on a matter, when all each sought to do was bring a new and perhaps compelling perspective to an issue before the Attorney General for consideration, with a chuffed Mr. Eby subsequently painting himself in a 2000-word published screed on his BC NDP MLA website, calling out his colleagues in the BC NDP as miscreants, he as the only principled elected official in the BC New Democratic Party provincial government, on the side of God and all that is right and proper.
Perhaps you don’t know David Eby, but we’re here to tell you that the above untoward scenario would never unfold. Mr. Eby simply has too much integrity and grit to ever allow such a discordant circumstance to occur.

From everything Canadians have read this past three months, and according to the woman herself, former federal Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould would consider the ‘par for the course’ interactions David Eby takes for granted daily as part of the business of being the province’s Attorney General, as interference with her autonomy.

Don't miss Part 2 of the series on former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould's fitness for office

As we pointed out in yesterday’s column, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of the PMO proposed that Ms. Wilson-Raybould meet with the most distinguished lawyer in Canada, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Honourable Beverley McLachlin, she refused. “Interference” with her autonomy, don’thca know.

Clayton Ruby, civil rights advocate, and one of Canada’s most well-respected lawyers

Clayton C. Ruby is one of Canada’s leading lawyers, an outspoken proponent of freedom of the press, and a prominent member of the environmental community, who specializes in criminal, constitutional, administrative and civil rights law, who has devoted his professional career to ensuring that those who are underprivileged and those who face discrimination are given equal access to the legal system of this country, in an April 12th article in The Star, wrote …

I think I know what advice she (Wilson-Raybould) might have gotten from McLachlin. And that explains why she didn’t want, and never accepted, that offer of legal advice.

She would have been told that over the last number of years the courts of Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada, have pretty consistently been striking down mandatory minimum penalties in criminal sentencing because they give a judge no choice about the sentence. The law under which anyone is punished must allow sufficient discretion by the trial judge to give justice to offenders.

The law that would apply to SNC-Lavalin if they were convicted provides … no discretion to lower the 10-year prohibition on bidding for government contracts in Canada …

Mr. Ruby goes on to argue that the penalty of a 10-year ban “would be cruel and unusual and a violation of section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and be deemed to be disproportionate.”
Yet, then Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould demanded her ‘autonomy’ be respected, refused to consult, asked no one any questions on the state and impact of the law concerning mandatory minimum sentencing, refused to listen to outside advice, and set about to make her decision to proceed with a prosecution of SNC Lavalin as a “matter of principle” — when in fact there was little or no chance that SNC Lavalin would be convicted, or that the case would even make it to court — which is to say, the matter would be settled out of court, with severe and proper penalty for SNC Lavalin.
Arising from Wilson-Raybould’s intransigence, our government is in crisis.

Brian Greenspan, well-respected criminal defence attorney, graduate of Osgoode Hall

In a well-reasoned article written by past president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association and founding chair of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, Brian Greenspan (pictured above), and published in the Globe and Mail on April 17th, Mr. Greenspan argues that Jody Wilson-Raybould did not understand her role as Attorney General and Minister of Justice …

In a free and democratic society, the prosecutorial function does not operate in a vacuum, in isolation and immune from debate, discussion and, indeed, persuasion. Isolation breeds tyranny. Access to justice requires those who administer justice to be accessible, to be open to advocacy on behalf of clients and causes. Advocacy in the adversarial process does not undermine independence. In fact, the public interest is best served by ensuring that the decision-maker has meaningfully examined the conflicting positions and has been exposed to a comprehensive review of all relevant considerations.

Mr. Greenspan goes on to argue …

An Attorney General can receive vigorous advocacy and remain objective — her objectivity can most assuredly withstand collegial conversations with government colleagues and bureaucrats, in which they share their views and opinions on the merits of a prosecution. Thoughtful reconsideration and sober second thoughts do not threaten the independence of the Attorney General, nor do they jeopardize the integrity of our justice system.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould has expressed the position that any intervention by the Attorney General with the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) would have been automatically suspect, and that it would risk calling into question prosecutorial independence and the rule of law. The DPP, in fact, fulfills her responsibility under and on behalf of the Attorney General, and the act which governs her authority empowers the Attorney General to assume carriage of a prosecution or to direct the director. The Attorney General’s power to superintend prosecutions is an important aspect of our system. The former Attorney General treated the DPP as essentially unreviewable. Politically accountable oversight in ensuring that the public interest is properly taken into account isn’t anathema to the rule of law. The Attorney General’s power to superintend prosecutions is an integral part of our justice system.

VanRamblings will allow Mr. Greenspan’s words to ring in your ears.

The above testimony concludes VanRamblings’ three-part series on how Jody Wilson-Raybould failed Canadians, threw our government into an unnecessary, untenable and divisive constitutional crisis, did not fulfill her mandate, and failed to properly administer Canada’s justice system.
VanRamblings will publish a wrap-up column on the series tomorrow, where we will ask as we did yesterday, “Is Jody Wilson-Raybould a quisling?”
For now, we’ll leave you with the following re-creation of a conversation between Prime Minister Justin Pierre James Trudeau, and JWR aka Puglaas …

Decision Canada | Dancing With the One That Brung Ya, Part 1

April 29, 2019BC Politics, Decision Canada 2019, PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

Loyalty is a scarce commodity in politics.
When an individual decides that they’re going to go into politics, generally there’s both a fair bit of ego and ambition involved.
A novice candidate first has to secure the nomination, which takes organizational ability, and an energized, experienced and crack team behind her or him. Once the nomination is achieved — no mean feat, that — there’s a whole campaign team that needs to be put into place, competent, organized professionals who know how to get the candidate’s message out.
A bit of history concerning Justin Trudeau

Justin Trudeau, age 24 in 1996, as a student at the University of British Columbia

After attaining a bachelor of arts degree in literature from Montréal’s McGill University at age 22 in 1994, Justin Trudeau traveled to British Columbia — the province where his mother was raised, continues to live, and where he had spent a great deal of time with his mother’s family — to enrol in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Education, where he went on to attain a Bachelor of Education degree in 1998, and a teaching certificate, securing employment post graduation at the West Point Grey Academy, where he taught both French and math, later going on to employment with the Vancouver School District, as a much-beloved teacher and colleague at Winston Churchill Secondary, in Vancouver’s Oakridge neighbourhood.
Active always in politics, and long committed to a reconciliation process with Canada’s indigenous peoples, Mr. Trudeau first met Jody Wilson-Raybould when both were students at UBC, continuing their relationship when he was teaching school in our city, and after passing the bar in 2000, she was employed as a provincial Crown prosecutor in Vancouver’s Main Street criminal courthouse for three years, from 2000 to 2003.
Colleagues of Ms. Wilson-Raybould, like respected criminal defence lawyer Terry La Liberté described Ms. Wilson-Raybould as a smart, fair, and a skilled prosecutor, who treated defendants with compassion, saying …

“She has actually talked to the people who are affected. She has worked with these people and made choices about their future in a really meaningful way.”

In respect of the federal Liberal party, after almost a decade in the wilderness, when newly-elected Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau ran to become Canada’s 23rd Prime Minister in the 2015 federal election, in the lead up to the election, he made it a point to approach and speak several times with Jody Wilson-Raybould, asking her to consider running as a candidate in the newly-created riding of Vancouver-Granville, promising that he would put the full weight of the Liberal party campaign apparatus behind her campaign to secure her run for office.

Mr. Trudeau made it clear to Ms. Wilson-Raybould, on numerous occasions, that he believed it was past time that a Prime Minister elevate an indigenous woman into a federal cabinet, which was exactly what he did when he appointed his first Cabinet on Wednesday, November 4th, 2015, appointing Jody Wilson-Raybould as Minister of Justice & Attorney General.
At present, Justin Trudeau is Canada’s Prime Minister. Let’s take a look at those two latter words: Minister, means Mr. Trudeau is a Minister of the Crown. In respect of the word Prime, according to the Oxford dictionary, prime means primary, chief, principal, foremost, first, paramount, major, dominant, supreme, overriding, cardinal, pre-eminent and number one.
Politically, it is understood federally that Cabinet Ministers serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, and in the case of provinces, the Premier.
Read what Sonya Savage — a star candidate for Alberta’s United Conservative Party and respected Calgary lawyer, with a master of laws in environment and energy, who has worked in senior positions with Enbridge and the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, the MLA-elect for Calgary-North West and the likely choice to take on the energy portfolio — has to say in this CBC article on who will make the cut when Alberta Premier-elect Jason Kenney announces his cabinet tomorrow morning …

“You serve at the pleasure of the premier-elect and I’ll be happy to serve in any capacity,” Savage said on Wednesday. “First and foremost is to represent the people who elected you.”

Exactly. Should Ms. Savage make Jason Kenney’s first Cabinet, as is likely, she will serve at the pleasure of the Premier, as all of the Ministers of the current British Columbia NDP government serve at the pleasure of Premier John Horgan. That is Politics 101. Canada’s is Justin Trudeau’s government. British Columbia is John Horgan’s government, plain and simple.
Baleful that Jody Wilson-Raybould never grasped this basic political precept, in place across every government, in every country across the globe.

Justin Trudeau shares a moment with this wife Sophie Gregoire on election night 2015

On October 19th, 2015, the Justin Trudeau-led Liberal Party won 184 seats in the 338 Parliament, gaining an unexpectedly large majority government. One of those seats belongs to Mr. Trudeau. When it came to appointing his first cabinet, Mr. Trudeau had an embarrassment of riches from which to choose, of the 183 returning or newly-elected Members of Parliament in Canada’s 23rd national government, ambitious and accomplished all, and possessed of the belief that s/he would make a superb Minister of the Crown and serve the people of Canada well in such capacity, 153 of whom were to be sorely disappointed when Mr. Trudeau announced his cabinet.
Note should be made that Canadians heard no whinging or public gnashing of teeth from the 153 Liberal members of Parliament who failed to make Justin Trudeau’s first cabinet.
At least for most Liberal Members of Parliament, loyalty to the party under whose banner they ran, and the Prime Ministerial candidate they had committed to support and (they did, and with the exception of Jane Philpott, Jody Wilson-Raybould and Celina Caesar-Chavannes) still do, remains of paramount importance, as does loyalty to the Prime Minister.

VanRamblings’ studied & informed supposition as to the outcome of this year’s election

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the leader of the country, and the leader of the Liberal Party, the political figure who offers the Liberal Party of Canada, its many thousands of members, the sitting and supportive Members of Parliament and the people of Canada, the best opportunity to retain government, to continue to work on behalf of all Canadians, even if the win this coming October 21st is to result in a reduced majority, the latter thanks to the imprecations of Jody Wilson-Raybould, a sentiment of condemnation many members of the Liberal caucus, in every province and territory, have expressed to attentive and heedful members of the press.

Let’s take a look at the qualifications of Canada’s current Attorney General and Minister of Justice (pictured above), the Honourable David Lametti …

Prior to his recent appointment, Dr. Lametti was a full, tenured Professor in the Faculty of Law at Montréal’s McGill University (Mr. Trudeau’s alma mater), specializing in property, intellectual property as well as private and comparative law. He was also a member of McGill University’s Québec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law and a co-founder and member of the McGill Centre for Intellectual Property Policy. He served as the Associate Dean (Academic) of the Faculty of Law, McGill University, from 2008 to 2011. Multilingual, Minister Lametti has taught at the university level in French, English, and Italian.

In addition to his responsibilities as a professor, Dr. Lametti was a member of McGill University’s Senate and a Governor of the Fondation du Barreau du Québec, as well as president of the governing board for his children’s — André, Gabrielle, and Dominique’s — school.

Dr. Lametti holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Civil Law and Bachelor of Laws from McGill University, a Master of Laws from the Yale Law School, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Law from Oxford University. Prior to starting his doctoral studies in law, he served as a Law Clerk to Justice Peter deCarteret Cory of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Clearly, Minister Lametti is a piker, and unqualified to become, and now serve as, Canada’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
When Justin Trudeau appointed his first cabinet, did he appoint the accomplished Dr. Lametti as Canada’s new Attorney General and Minister of Justice? Nope, he didn’t. He appointed a former junior Crown Counsel, Jody Wilson-Raybould, who went on to believe that she had the divine right to serve in that capacity for as long as she remained interested in doing so.
Humility and forbearance, thy name is not Jody Wilson-Raybould.
Part 2 of 3 of Dancing With the One That Brung Ya, tomorrow.

Decision Canada | Passover | Liberation, Freedom & Democracy

April 23, 2019BC Politics, Decision Canada 2019, PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

Passover is a major, biblically derived Jewish holiday, a commemoration of Jewish liberation by God from slavery in ancient Egypt, their (our, for VanRamblings is a Jew) freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses, commemorated by the story of the Exodus as described in The Five Books of Moses, most especially in the Book of Exodus.
As with Passover and the theme of liberation and freedom, that too is what our democracy promises us, and that is what Canadians will be voting for come this October, in Canada’s 43rd general election.
As Canadians find themselves at the beginning of our country’s quadrennial federal election season, those of the Jewish faith today celebrate the midway point of Passover, which commemoration began this past Friday evening, and will end late on this upcoming Saturday evening.
As the Jewish celebration of liberation, freedom and democracy draws to a close in just a few days, Canadians’ celebration of the three central tenets of democratic life across our nation is just now beginning.
Commencing with publication of VanRamblings columns effective this upcoming Monday, April 29th, VanRamblings will provide our own idiosyncratic insight into a variety of subjects, including the recent Jody Wilson-Raybould ‘scandal’ (sure not to please many), the state of our provincial governance (ditto, although overall, we’re supportive of our New Democrat government), and Vancouver’s municipal government — of which we will be somewhat critical, but much less so than you might imagine.
In the interim, we’ll leave you with our early prediction as to how the federal election will unfold late in the evening of Monday, October 21st …

With the Jody Wilson-Raybould ‘scandal’ fading back into the deep recesses of the consciousness of fickle Canadian voters, come Monday evening, October 21st, 2019, while the Liberals will end up losing seats in BC (5 – 8), Ontario (23+) and the Maritimes (6), they’ll pick up seats in Québec. The Conservatives will gain seats in BC (8 – 10), Ontario (23+), Québec (5 or more), and perhaps as many as a half dozen seats in the Maritimes.
Meanwhile, the NDP will be all but wiped out in Québec, taking their seat count down in that province from 16 (as of election night 2015) to one lone seat, that of the much-beloved Ruth Ellen Brosseau, in the riding of Berthier — Maskinongé. Meanwhile, the Greens are set to gain additional seats on Vancouver Island and in the Maritimes, and if Jane Philpott joins newlywed Elizabeth May’s ascendant Green party, a seat or two in Ontario.
Although we’re looking at an ugly election, as Justin Trudeau has predicted for months, the Liberals possess the most experienced and effective campaign team, are well-financed, and have in Justin Trudeau a born campaigner, who lives to interact with the electorate.
Andrew Scheer, sad to say, simply lacks Trudeau’s charisma, and although the Conservatives will gain seats in the next Parliament, we predict Scheer will not catch on with most of the electorate.
Jagmeet Singh, as with Trudeau, will also prove to be a first-rate campaigner, but what with 17 resignations and defections from his caucus in recent months, unless Mr. Singh catches fire with the electorate, the woefully underfunded federal New Democratic Party will find themselves having one helluva not-so-good time on the campaign trail.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth May’s political star is in its ascendancy, which will translate into votes for her from disaffected members of the Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic parties, resulting in an effective rump Green caucus in Canada’s next Parliament.
Take note: you read it here first.

After completing the writing of the above post, a friend posted a text message at the conclusion of a lengthy text tête-à-tête we were having on the upcoming federal election, resulting in the writing of the following …
For another, not too dissimilar projection, the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy’s Barry Kay last evening published his seat projection on the Global News website, giving one seat to Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party, and only two seats to Elizabeth May’s Green Party.

Source: Laurier Institute. Blend of polls from Nanos, Forum, Angus Reid, Leger and Mainstreet between mid-March and mid-April, derived from over 15,000 individual interviews. Link provided by VanRamblings reader (friend and politico), Jacob Kojfman.

Decision Canada | Earth Day 2019 | A Present Climate Emergency

April 22, 2019BC Politics, Canada, Decision Canada 2019, PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

Record-breaking cold temperatures across Canada and the U.S. Midwest this past winter had most easteners cranking up the heat and wishing they could hibernate.
Climate change is creating extreme conditions on both ends of the spectrum. With eastern Canada caught in the midst of a series of record cold snap throughout the winter, on the other end of the planet more than 50 wildfires were raging in Tasmania, Australia’s tiniest state. In fact, Australia has had eight of its ten hottest summers since 2005.
Last summer, the failure to pass legislation that would have reined in greenhouse gas emissions resulted in the ouster of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Meanwhile, according to the New York Times story linked to above …

” … (Turnbull’s ouster) could be a bellwether for the 2019 Canadian election, set for October 21st, in which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces a powerful challenge from politicians aligned with the country’s oil industry. Conservatives have pledged to undo Mr. Trudeau’s plans to put a price on carbon nationwide if they take power. At the provincial level, Conservatives have won majority governments in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick after campaigning against the federal government’s carbon tax programme.”

Perhaps the fact that Prince Edward Island Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker is leading in the polls and on the threshold for a majority win in tomorrow’s 66th Prince Edward Island general election might be seen as a necessary and fitting backlash to the Trump-like, decidedly right-of-centre Conservative Party sweep that seems to have our nation in its grip.

April 22, 2019 poll for Maclean’s magazine indicates an historic win for the PEI Green Party in tomorrow’s precedent setting 66th Prince Edward Island general election.

All of which begs the question: with less than six months to go to the upcoming 43rd Canadian general election when is the Andrew Scheer-led federal Conservative Party planning on releasing the party’s climate change plan, particularly when as recently as December he refused to commit the Conservative Party to meeting Paris targets?
As the Star Editorial Board published earlier this year …

The Conservatives’ critique of carbon pricing has become increasingly incoherent.

On the one hand, they say, the Liberal plan is a tax grab. On the other, since 90 per cent of what’s collected by Ottawa will be rebated back to taxpayers and most will actually come out ahead, it amounts to “bribing people with their own money.” Again, on the one hand a levy of $20 a tonne to start is an onerous “tax on everything.” At the same time, they insist, it’s a paltry amount that won’t cut GHG emissions nearly enough. As the old joke goes, the food here is terrible — and such small portions!

Amid all this politicking and confusion, the advantages of carbon pricing continue to stand out.”

Make no mistake: the environment is very much on the minds of the electorate this year. The federal Liberal, New Democrat and Green parties have, each and every one of them, developed coherent and forward thinking strategies to fight climate change, and preserve our planet.
Andrew Scheer’s Conservative Party has not.
On this Earth Day 2019, that’s something for all of us to think about.