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http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/24/caitlyn-jenner-halloween-costume-sparks-social-media-outrage-.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...een-costume-labeled-817515?utm_source=twitter

It's nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015.

Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete's Vanity Fair cover earlier this year.

While Jenner's supporters condemned the costume as "transphobic" and "disgusting" on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup.

"At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes," said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. "We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that."
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Dr. Tran said:
Either this is what started all this degeneracy or the director of this movie was one of these degenerates.

Not really sure what's worse tbh.
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Actually, a genealogical study of this fetish shows that most of the "first wave" of people on the internets into it were at the right age to have seen the Wilder version of Willy Wonka when they were children. Given that studies have shown that most paraphilic attractions have a link to specific childhood incidents, you're half-right: just got the wrong incarnation of the film.
 
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First it was Governor Ralph Northam, then Virginia AG Mark Herring and now it's Joy Behar of The View did some blackface as well. https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/photo-of-joy-behar-dressed-as-beautiful-african-woman

A long forgotten video clip from ABC's "The View" resurfaced on Wednesday that showed co-host Joy Behar trying to explain a Halloween costume from when she was younger.

The clip was shared by The Wrap media editor Jon Levine. Behar was seen discussing a New York Times op-ed about the resurgence of curly hair during the show in 2016. Behar showed her colleagues and the audience a picture of herself with curly hair when she was 29 years old.
https://twitter.com/LevineJonathan/status/1093272835076837377
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Incel storks getting mogged by Chad storks

Extremely Sad Birds Show How a Population Can Die From Loneliness
"Waiting for a partner. Often in vain."
Black storks in Estonia are experiencing a situation all single people have lived through: Taking stock of your life and realizing that you’re completely, utterly alone. Unlike lonely millennials, these monogamous birds don’t have the option of swiping right for a last-ditch hookup, which is deeply unfortunate. As new research on this threatened species indicates, it could be possible for an entire population to die from loneliness. Bird watchers in Estonia had noticed for years that some populations of the elegant black storks, with their spindly red legs and pointed beaks, have been declining for a long time, but nobody was sure whether it was predators, changing climate, or another factor altogether. “The reasons behind these declines are unknown but identifying these are of utmost conservation importance,” write the authors of the study in the ornithology journal Ornis Fennica, published Tuesday. But by investigating the various factors affecting the reproductive success of one population living at the northern reaches of stork territory, the team discovered that the bird species is declining because many of the birds have no one to mate with.

Returning from their winter migration, male storks scramble to repair their nests to win the hearts of incoming females, but sometimes all that effort ends up wasted. Ülo Väli, Ph.D., a researcher with the Estonian Environment Agency and corresponding author of the article, snapped the photo below and summed up the situation in its caption: “Black stork at the nest waiting for a partner. Often in vain.” Installing automated cameras at over 20 known nesting sites in Estonia and snapping nearly 450,000 photos between 2010 and 2015, the team discovered that 35 percent of nests were occupied by “single, non-reproductive birds.”

These sad singles, the researchers write, might be responsible for the mysterious decline of the population. In the 41 different breeding territories they tracked, they found that the productivity (the ability to make babies) was low compared to populations in nearby Latvia and Lithuania, at only 1.1 fledgling chicks per occupied nest. And in total, only 37 percent of occupied nests managed to produce a chick.

“Indeed, our most striking result is that currently about one third of nests are occupied by single birds, and this explains the low proportion of (successfully) breeding territories at the distributional margin,” the team writes. The question lonely individuals can’t help but ask is: Why am I single? The most plausible reason for all those single storks, the team writes, is that there’s an unbalanced sex ratio in the population — likely too many single males compared to females. This hypothesis is consistent with how some of the frustrated singles were acting: harassing neighboring couples at their nests. (It’s hard to get a clear answer about sex ratios, however, because in this species, both sexes look the same.) There doesn’t appear to be any biological reason why this population has more males than females, so one possible explanation for this skewed sex ratio is that the females, perhaps fed up with sub-par living conditions, looked to breed in a different region. A more tragic possibility is that they died during migration.

No matter what the reason for all the single storks in this population, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: It’s slim pickings for birds looking to mate, and if only 37 percent of nests are producing fledglings, it doesn’t look like things are going to get better anytime soon. The team hopes the new data will help them design better breeding interventions for the birds, which will hopefully boost the population’s numbers and make life for all of them a little less lonely.
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Grandma beats clown mask robbers with kid’s scooter
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The robbers in clown masks had the element of surprise, but the Texas couple they threatened fought back, police say.

Two men wearing clown masks and wielding machetes pulled up alongside a couple sitting in their truck in their driveway in Texas City just before 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 1, according to a police report obtained by KPRC.

Texas City is a town of nearly 50,000 residents that sits along Galveston Bay near the Gulf Coast.

One of them, wearing a white mask, orange hair and a big red nose, went to the truck’s driver side, placed his machete on the neck of the man sitting at the wheel and said, “You’re gonna give it up, or I’m gonna cut you,” according to the report.

The man in the driver’s seat, Joseph Nelson, told KTRK he “couldn’t believe what was happening.”

“He reached his hand through the window, put it on my throat like this and I’m like ‘Dude, you serious, you trying to rob me with a machete?’”

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Thomas told his wife, Aretha Cardinal, who was sitting in the passenger seat, to get out and find a weapon, as he began to struggle with his attacker, according to KRIV. So she grabbed her granddaughter’s scooter from the front yard and started swinging, the station reported.

Cardinal started hitting both of the machete-wielding clown robbers with the child’s two-wheel scooter, the Galveston County Daily News reported, and Thomas eventually took his attacker’s machete away.

“It was really scary, but it was like, it was either us or them, you know, and not us. You not gonna steal no money. We ain’t got no money,” Cardinal told KRIV. “Me and my husband held them down, you know, commence to beating them until the laws came.”

She also used the scooter to bust out one of the windows of the suspects’ car as they ran back to the car and fled, the Daily News reported.

Texas City police arrested the alleged clown-masked assailants just a few minutes later, according to jail records. Jose Noel Lugo, 35, of Texas City and Luis Jiminez, 32, of nearby La Marque remained in Galveston County Jail Thursday, facing aggravated robbery charges.

Their bond is set at $100,000 apiece as they await trial.
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You not gonna steal no money. We ain’t got no money,” Cardinal told KRIV. “Me and my husband held them down, you know, commence to beating them until the laws came.”

“Me and my husband held them down, you know, commence to beating them until the laws came.”

Fuck yeah. I think this should be the standard instructions for dealing with criminals. "Just commence to beating them until the laws come."

I don't give a shit about her not so great english, this lady rules. The husband also sounds pretty bad ass.
 
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http://archive.li/mRaK3
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office attempted to press Jody Wilson-Raybould when she was justice minister to intervene in the corruption and fraud prosecution of Montreal engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., sources say, but she refused to ask federal prosecutors to make a deal with the company that could prevent a costly trial.

SNC-Lavalin has sought to avoid a criminal trial on fraud and corruption charges stemming from an RCMP investigation into its business dealings in Libya. Prosecutors alleged in February, 2015, that SNC paid millions of dollars in bribes to public officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011 to secure government contracts. The engineering company says executives who were responsible for the wrongdoing have left the company, and it has reformed ethics and compliance rules.

After the charges, SNC-Lavalin lobbied officials in Ottawa, including senior members in the office of Mr. Trudeau, to secure a deal known as a “deferred prosecution agreement” or “remediation agreement” that would set aside the prosecution. In such deals, which are used in the United States and Britain, a company would accept responsibility for the wrongdoing and pay a financial penalty, relinquish benefits gained from the wrongdoing and put in place compliance measures. “It is unfair that the actions of one or more rogue employees should tarnish a company’s reputation, as well as jeopardize its future success and its employees’ livelihoods,” SNC argued in a brief to federal officials in October, 2017.

But in October, 2018, SNC-Lavalin hit a major obstacle. The federal director of public prosecutions refused to negotiate a remediation agreement that would have resolved the Libyan fraud and corruption charges without prosecution. SNC-Lavalin has asked for a judicial review of the decision, citing “the extremely negative consequences the underlying legal proceedings have had and will continue to have [even in the event of an acquittal] on [SNC] and innocent stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, pensioners and stakeholders, in the absence of an invitation to negotiate.”

Read more: Quebec vows to protect HQ as SNC-Lavalin’s woes mount
Read more: Former SNC-Lavalin CEO pleads guilty in fraud case
Opinion: Trudeau fills some round holes in his cabinet with square pegs

Sources say Ms. Wilson-Raybould, who was justice minister and attorney-general until she was shuffled to Veterans Affairs early this year, came under heavy pressure to persuade the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to change its mind.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould was unwilling to instruct the director of the public prosecution service, Kathleen Roussel, to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin, according to sources who were granted anonymity to speak directly about what went on behind-the-scenes in the matter.

The Prime Minister’s Office issued a short statement when asked to comment on efforts to persuade Ms. Wilson-Raybould to intervene.

“Prime Minister’s Office did not direct the attorney-general to draw any conclusions on this matter,” press secretary Chantal Gagnon said in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail on Wednesday evening.

Sources say officials from Mr. Trudeau’s office, whom they did not identify, had urged Ms. Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first Indigenous justice minister, to press the public prosecution office to abandon the court proceedings.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada’s website says with the exception of Canada Elections Act matters, the attorney-general "can issue a directive to the director of public prosecutions about a prosecution or even assume conduct of a prosecution, but must do so in writing and a notice must be published in the Canada Gazette.”

Ms. Wilson-Raybould trusted the judgment of the public prosecutor and did not believe it was proper for the attorney-general to intervene, especially if there could be any suggestion of political interference, sources say. The Trudeau Liberals had criticized the former Harper government for undermining independent agencies and vowed to respect their decisions. The government has also invoked the independence of the judicial system as a reason for not intervening in the case of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested at the Vancouver airport on an extradition request from the United States.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's issued a short statement when asked to comment on efforts to persuade Ms. Wilson-Raybould to intervene. 'Prime Minister’s Office did not direct the attorney-general to draw any conclusions on this matter.' a spokesperson said.

ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS

SNC-Lavalin, Canada’s largest engineering and construction management company, is one of Quebec’s biggest corporations and has a reputation for holding political sway in Quebec City and Ottawa.

One well-connected Liberal with close ties to SNC-Lavalin said Ms. Wilson-Raybould “blew off the PMO” requests. The company had told the government it was in dire circumstances and required a suspension of criminal charges to ensure it continued on a solid footing.

The Trudeau government in 2018 amended the Criminal Code to allow deferred-prosecution agreements that let prosecutors suspend criminal charges against Canadian companies found to have committed wrongdoing. The measure was inserted in the 2018 budget after a brief consultation in 2017.

Liberal insiders said Ms. Wilson-Raybound knew this legislative change was meant to help SNC-Lavalin out of the legal troubles that were weighing on the price of its shares. A conviction on the fraud and corruption charges could result in a 10-year ban from federal government contracts – a development that would lead to layoffs.

Since the beginning of 2017, representatives of SNC-Lavalin met with federal government officials and parliamentarians more than 50 times on the topic of “justice” and “law enforcement," according to the federal lobbyists registry. This includes 14 visits with people in the PMO. Those they met included Gerald Butts, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, and Mathieu Bouchard, Mr. Trudeau’s senior adviser on Quebec – whom they met 12 times. Mr. Trudeau’s senior policy adviser, Elder Marques, also met with company representatives.

Sources at SNC-Lavalin told The Globe the PMO was furious with the justice minister’s intransigence on the remediation agreement and that the company was pleased to see her moved out of the portfolio.

After a request from The Globe, Ms. Wilson-Raybould was unwilling to discuss the political pressure she endured aimed at persuading her to arrange a remediation agreement for SNC-Lavalin.

“That is between me and the government as the government’s previous lawyer,” she said in an interview.

Asked if she had been approached to direct the Public Prosecution Service to negotiate a remediation agreement, Ms. Wilson Raybould said: “I don’t have a comment on that.”

The Globe also asked whether she had refused such a request. “I cannot comment on that. That is legal advice between me and the government at the time.”

Sources said the justice minister was also encouraged to hire an outside legal expert to furnish an opinion on the suitability of a remediation agreement. Ms. Wilson-Raybould said she could not comment on whether such a request was made.

Montreal Liberal MP David Lametti, a former law professor, became Justice Minister and Attorney-General when Mr. Trudeau shuffled his cabinet on Jan. 14. Mr. Lametti’s promotion from the backbench bolsters Quebec’s representation in cabinet and could encourage SNC-Lavalin’s hopes for a remediation agreement, although the company said it is pursuing the judicial review at the moment.

Asked whether SNC-Lavalin believes Mr. Lametti might revisit the decision, Daniela Pizzuto, the company’s director of external communications, said: “I cannot provide you with any guidance on this topic.”

A lawyer for SNC-Lavalin, William McNamara of the law firm Torys, filed an application in October aimed at overturning the ruling and seeking a court order requiring the director of public prosecutions to invite the company to negotiate a remediation agreement. In the Oct. 19, 2018, filing in the Federal Court in Montreal, Mr. McNamara called Ms. Roussel’s decision an “unreasonable exercise of her discretion." Last week, federal prosecutors asked that SNC-Lavalin’s appeal be dismissed.

It is a pillar of our democracy that our system of justice be free from even the perception of political interference and uphold the highest levels of public confidence,” she wrote. “As such, it has always been my view that the attorney-general of Canada must be non-partisan, more transparent in the principles that are the basis of decisions, and, in this respect, always willing to speak truth to power. This is how I served throughout my tenure in that role.

— Jody Wilson-Raybould, in an online post on the day of her move from Justice to Veterans Affairs
After the cabinet shuffle, Ms. Wilson-Raybould released a lengthy statement listing her legislative accomplishments during her tenure at Justice. In an unusual move for a member of cabinet, she also underlined the need for independence in the portfolio.

“It is a pillar of our democracy that our system of justice be free from even the perception of political interference and uphold the highest levels of public confidence,” she wrote. “As such, it has always been my view that the attorney-general of Canada must be non-partisan, more transparent in the principles that are the basis of decisions, and, in this respect, always willing to speak truth to power. This is how I served throughout my tenure in that role.”

As justice minister, Ms. Wilson-Raybould ushered in the legalization of cannabis with an expansion of police powers to conduct roadside testing on drivers in what she described as among the world’s toughest impaired-driving regimes. She introduced the first major reforms in a quarter-century to the law that protects sexual-assault victims from intrusive questioning, and redesigned the judicial-appointment process to stress diversity, and the numbers of women applying for the federal bench soared.

But sources say the B.C. politician angered the PMO in four speeches last fall that suggested politicians had engaged in doublespeak on Indigenous issues. The speeches earned her a private rebuke from Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick, the top federal civil servant, sources say.

While she did not point at anyone in particular, Ms. Wilson-Raybould did nothing to dispel the impression that she was talking about the government.

“Too often, we see the tendency – especially in politics – to use important words that have real meaning and importance carelessly,” she said in the first speech of the four, at the University of Saskatchewan, and also in Comox, B.C., on Sept. 27. “We see ‘recognition’ applied to ideas that actually maintain denial. We see ‘self-government’ used to refer to ideas or processes that actually maintain control over others. We see ‘self-determination’ applied to actions that actually interfere with the work of Nations rebuilding their governments and communities. We see ‘inherent’ in the same breath as the contradictory idea that rights are contingent on the courts or agreements.”

In the third speech, in Ottawa on Oct. 30, she implied she has not always received the respect she deserved from cabinet. “Indeed, in my own experience serving as the first Indigenous person to be Canada’s minister of justice and attorney-general, I have unfortunately had it reinforced that when addressing Indigenous issues, no matter what table one sits around, or in what position, or with what title and appearance of influence and power, the experience of marginalization can still carry with you.”

SNC TIMELINE
2015: The RCMP charge SNC-Lavalin and two subsidiaries with paying nearly $48-million to public officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011 to influence government decisions under the Moammar Gadhafi regime. The RCMP also charged the Montreal-based company, its construction division and a subsidiary with fraud and corruption for allegedly defrauding Libyan organizations of about $130-million.

May, 2015: Then-SNC Lavalin chief executive Robert Card says the company would like to arrange a deferred prosecution agreement with Ottawa to avoid prosecution and developments that might jeopardize the company’s work.

2016-2017: Federal lobbyist registry shows SNC-Lavalin representatives registered more than 50 meetings with federal officials and parliamentarians at which subjects included “justice” and law enforcement.”

September, 2017: Trudeau government launches consultations on whether to introduce deferred prosecution agreements, also called remediation agreements, as an “additional tool for prosecutors” to address corporate crime. Such deals suspend criminal prosecution if the accused admits to facts that would support a conviction, pays a penalty and co-operates with authorities.

February, 2018: The 2018 budget includes amendments to the Criminal Code to allow remediation agreements, which are already used in the U.K. and the United States.

June 21, 2018: Bill C-74, which includes remediation agreements, receives Royal Assent. Criminal Code amendments to take effect September 21, 2018.

Oct. 10, 2018: SNC-Lavalin announces the director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada advised the company it would not be invited to negotiate a remediation agreement.

Oct. 19, 2018: SNC-Lavalin files with Federal Court an application for judicial review of the director’s decision.

Jan. 14, 2019: Jody Wilson-Raybould is shuffled from minister of justice and attorney-general to Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence.
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http://archive.li/PESBF
http://archive.li/F1MaV

http://archive.li/zIemU
“The allegations in the Globe story this morning are false,” Trudeau told reporters when asked about the allegations.
“Neither the current nor the previous attorney general was ever directed by me nor anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter.”
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Largest Canadian engineering company in the biggest ever corruption scandal in Canada.

Female Aboriginal cabinet minister demoted over not letting Lavalin off the hook. Supposedly a hugely damaging report. So much for that $600 million media bribe!
Also, Canada/Trudeau megathread?

http://archive.li/cEuBZ - timeline of events

And now the Liberals want to block investigations!
http://archive.li/PDmMY

2019/02/12 - Raybould resigns and hires a former Supreme Court Judge as her counsel. Something's coming.
http://archive.li/bTgLx
Jody Wilson-Raybould has submitted her resignation from the Trudeau cabinet in the midst of allegations that the Prime MInister’s Office tried to pressure the former justice minister to abandon a corruption and fraud prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, sources say.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called an emergency cabinet committee meeting to deal with the fallout.
A statement from her was released around 11:30 a.m. ET.
With a heavy heart I have submitted my letter of resignation to the Prime Minister as a member of Cabinet... https://t.co/Ejjh8smwYO
— Jody Wilson-Raybould (@Puglaas) February 12, 2019
A source close to the B.C. politician said this was a really awful day for the minister and for her supporters who consider her to be a person of high integrity.
Her departure comes one day after Mr. Trudeau said Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s continued membership in his cabinet as an indicator to Canadians that she is not unhappy with his government.
"Her presence in cabinet should actually speak for itself," the prime minister had said Monday.
The Globe and Mail reported last week that as attorney general, Ms. Wilson-Raybould came under pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office to override the decision of the public prosecution service shelve court proceedings against SNC-Lavalin in favour of a negotiated settlement without trial. The company faces charges of bribing Libyan officials between 2001 and 2011 in exchange for contracts.
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http://archive.li/H9x48
OTTAWA — Veterans Affairs Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould is quitting the federal cabinet days after allegations became public the Prime Minister’s Office pressured the former justice minister to help SNC-Lavalin avoid criminal prosecution.
In a letter published on her website Tuesday (screenshot below), Wilson-Raybould says she has hired former Supreme Court judge Thomas Cromwell to tell her what she can say about “matters that have been in the media over the last week.”
Wilson-Raybould’s letter does not say exactly why she’s quitting. It does say she will continue to serve as MP for the riding of Vancouver-Granville.
With a heavy heart I have submitted my letter of resignation to the Prime Minister as a member of Cabinet… https://t.co/Ejjh8smwYO
— Jody Wilson-Raybould (@Puglaas) February 12, 2019
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office says Wilson-Raybould told the prime minister Monday night of her intention to resign from cabinet. Trudeau informed the rest of his cabinet Tuesday morning about her decision.
One of Trudeau’s spokespeople says Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan will take over the veterans-affairs portfolio temporarily.
The Globe and Mail newspaper reported last week that Trudeau or his staff pressured Wilson-Raybould to arrange a deal with SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal engineering and construction giant, that would have let it avoid a criminal prosecution on allegations of corruption and bribery in relation to its efforts to win government contracts in Libya.
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The resignation letter on Jody Wilson-Raybould’s site. Screengrab via jwilson-raybould.liberal.ca
Since then, Trudeau has denied he did any such thing. On Monday, he said in Vancouver that he’d told Wilson-Raybould that any decision on the subject was hers alone.
Trudeau also said he had “full confidence” in Wilson-Raybould and suggested she would have resigned from cabinet on principle if she had felt anyone had tried to improperly pressure her.
“In our system of government, of course, her presence in cabinet should actually speak for itself,” he said following a housing announcement — one that Wilson-Raybould didn’t attend, unlike a handful of fellow Liberals from the city.

Last month, Trudeau moved Wilson-Raybould out of the justice portfolio in a cabinet shuffle brought on by former minister Scott Brison’s departure from politics, elevating David Lametti as her replacement. Wilson-Raybould moved to Veterans Affairs.
In her letter, the MP says that her decision “is in no way a reflection” on veterans, their families or their service. “I only wish that I could have served you longer,” she writes.
“When I sought federal elected office, it was with the goal of implementing a positive and progressive vision of change on behalf of all Canadians and a different way of doing politics,” the letter says. “My resignation as a minister of the Crown in no way changes my commitment to seeing that fundamental change achieved. This work must and will carry on.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former justice minister Jodie Wilson-Raybould are seen at a swearing-in ceremony in Ottawa on Jan. 14, 2019, as Wilson-Raybold is sworn in as Minister of Veterans Affairs. Sean Kilpatrick/CP
She thanks her staff, officials and Canadians who supported her while in cabinet.
“Regardless of background, geography, or party affiliation, we must stand together for the values that Canada is built on, and which are the foundation for our future,” she writes.
Trudeau is scheduled to be in Winnipeg later today where he will face questions about Wilson-Raybould’s resignation.
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2019/02/12 - a new corruption charge featuring the company that supposedly already fired all of the nasty corrupt executives
http://archive.li/MJ2yi
Quebec prosecutors are working with the RCMP on the possibility of new criminal charges against SNC-Lavalin tied to a contract to refurbish Montreal’s Jacques Cartier Bridge, court documents show.
In December, Quebec court approved a request by prosecutors to retain until June thousands of documents seized by the RCMP in connection with an investigation that drew on more than two dozen witnesses.
If the provincial prosecution service pushes ahead with the four potential fraud charges outlined in court filings, the embattled engineering giant would face a legal battle on another front beyond the current controversy enveloping Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In court documents, the RCMP lays out a bribery scheme involving a $127-million Jacques Cartier Bridge contract in the early 2000s. Former federal official Michel Fournier pleaded guilty in 2017 to accepting more than $2.3-million in payments from SNC-Lavalin in connection with the project.
Following his arrest, RCMP officers seized more than 3,200 documents between August, 2017, and October, 2018, under an investigation dubbed Project Staple 2, according to a December court filing from Crown prosecutor Patrice Peltier-Rivest.
A search warrant – requested by RCMP officer Guy-Michel Nkili and granted by a Quebec court judge in Montreal last March 19 – states “there are reasonable grounds to believe that an offence under the Criminal Code” took place. It describes SNC-Lavalin’s possible offences as “four counts of fraud on the government.”
A statement from Nkili attached to the warrant application alleges: “Between 2001 and 2003, more than $2.2 million in bribes were paid to Swiss accounts controlled by Michel Fournier and his spouse, Judith Barkley Fournier, by SNC-Lavalin Inc., through the company Promotag.” Fournier is the former head of the Federal Bridge Corp. and of Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc.
SNC-Lavalin told The Canadian Press it will continue to work with authorities, noting the court files involve employees and third parties no longer affiliated with the company. Allegations in the latest court documents have not been proven in court, and SNC-Lavalin has not been charged in connection with them.
Jennifer Quaid, a criminal law professor at the University of Ottawa, said the latest RCMP investigation may have nudged federal prosecutors in the Libya case away from an agreement – under which the Crown wraps a criminal case by setting aside charges in return for fines and other penalties.
“That would seem logical if you have another corruption problem,” Quaid said in a phone interview. “It is perfectly legitimate for prosecutors to ask what perception of justice will be given to the public.” But she also pointed out the latest investigation involves incidents from years before SNC-Lavalin overhauled its management.
News of the latest investigation came as federal Veterans Affairs Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould quit cabinet Tuesday. Her resignation followed a Globe and Mail newspaper report that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured her to help SNC-Lavalin avoid criminal prosecution when she was justice minister.
The company’s shares have plunged three times in the past four months: in October, after federal prosecutors closed the door on a compensation agreement; in January, after chief executive Neil Bruce said ongoing diplomatic tensions between Canada and Saudi Arabia were hurting business; and on Monday, when a second revision to its profit forecast pushed shares to a 10-year low.
The company has struggled to move out from under the shadow of past scandals, despite a leadership overhaul, a major marketing effort and “fundamental changes” in its culture and governance that Bruce highlighted in a full-page newspaper advertisement last fall.
In February, 2015, the company and two of its subsidiaries were charged with paying nearly $48-million to public officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011 to influence government decisions.
The RCMP has also charged the company, its construction division and a subsidiary with one charge each of fraud and corruption for allegedly defrauding various Libyan organizations of roughly $130-million. If found guilty, it could be barred from bidding on federal contracts for a decade.
A former CEO, Pierre Duhaime, is serving 20 months of house arrest after pleading guilty Feb. 1 to a single charge in connection with a bribery scandal around the construction of a $1.3-billion Montreal hospital.
Yanai Elbaz, a former McGill University Health Centre senior manager, pleaded guilty in December to accepting a bribe and was sentenced to 39 months in prison. Former SNC-Lavalin executive Riadh Ben Aissa pleaded guilty to a charge of using forged documents last July and was sentenced to 51 months in prison.
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xxXDxx said:
Wait, why do we care if they paid off the Libyans? That's how Libya works. Even my fucking anthropology teacher pays bribes in the middle east.
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Fraud/corruption conviction would have resulted in a contract ban with Canada that would lead to layoffs.
SNC-Lavalin is also a Trudeau/Liberal Party donator. Can't possibly see any reasons why the PM would try to bury the prosecution...
 
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Cheetahman said:
Fraud/corruption conviction would have resulted in a contract ban with Canada that would lead to layoffs.
SNC-Lavalin is also a Trudeau/Liberal Party donator. Can't possibly see any reasons why the PM would try to bury the prosecution...
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No, I mean, why are we prosecuting this? Bribery is literally the established form of government in the region, so normalized that my anthropology professor casually talks about bribing his way across North Africa. It's like fucking prosecuting Nike for running sweatshops.
 
  • Agree
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