The Prime Minister and the Attorney General

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The recent controversy about the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould has been front-page news for days. Was this a casual conversation or improper interference with the administration of justice? This blog post by former lawyer Andrew Roman discusses the issues from a legal standpoint. The bottom line is that there is no law prohibiting either of them from speaking publicly about their conversation.

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DPAs: Meet the legal tool central to the Prime Minister’s Office controversy

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What are deferred prosecution agreements (or remediation agreements), how did Canada get them, what are the potential benefits and what are the down sides? Patricia Adams of Probe International is firmly in the latter camp: “… they turn the prosecutor into the prosecutor, the judge and the jury. Because of that they are undermining the rule of law — they are essentially political instruments.”

People’s Daily growls over Meng arrest

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An editorial published by China’s People Daily makes clear its position on the arrest in Canada of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. The threats to Canada are unambiguous, writes David Bandurski, the translator of an English version of this editorial for China Media Project, a research project of the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. Behold China’s warning to Canada: “The various illegitimate methods employed to attack the Chinese company Huawei have exposed the dark psychology of certain shameful people, but it will ultimately be a stone dropped onto their own feet. The Canadian side must think clearly. Between justice and shamelessness, there is no grey area.”

Repeal the Act and privatize this Canadian SOE

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In its submission to Ottawa’s 2018 Legislative Review of the Export Development Act, Probe International calls for a repeal of the Act and the privatization of Export Development Canada (EDC). Probe argues the federal government’s export-financing agency shares many of the same characteristics as China’s controversial state-owned enterprises (SOEs), characteristics that ensure market distortion and stunt private development.