The recent controversy between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould over the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin 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: 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
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.”
Li Rui, a Mao confidant who turned party critic, dies at 101
Li Rui, who died on Saturday at 101, “saw himself as a conscience of the revolution and the party,” said Roderick MacFarquhar, the late Harvard scholar of Chinese history. “But he had grave doubts about the system he spent his life serving.”
“It’s hopeless but you persist”
An interview with Jiang Xue, a leading voice among China’s early-2000s investigative journalists leveraging emerging (though short-lived) digital freedoms to expose systemic social injustices.
Beijing’s behaviour shows why Ottawa needs to stop pushing Chinese trade
Better to develop trading relationships with tomorrow’s winners than to tie our fortunes to an economy that can pull us down.
Le volte-face climatique de la chine depuis l’accord de Paris
The French version of “The road from Paris: China’s climate U-turn” is now available!
People’s Daily growls over Meng arrest
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.”
China’s Great Leap Backward on climate change
What happened to China the climate champion? The Globe and Mail dives into Patricia Adams’ new report: Paris – China’s Climate U-turn.
Private carriers ‘crowded out’ of Canadian trade credit insurance market
A chief executive at a global trade credit insurance firm is calling for change after years of “unfair” market conditions in Canada.
Ottawa orders Export Development Canada to examine lending practices
Activists call the agency “essentially self-governing” in the areas of environment, human rights and anti-corruption.
Green China? The country could mine 400 million more tons of coal
“For all its talk about cutting coal mining capacity, China actually plans to add more,” reports Bloomberg News. Indeed, China’s greenhouse gas emissions increased 4 percent in the first quarter of 2018, so what gives?
Trump’s tariff war has one surprisingly strong supporter: Adam Smith
No political leader anywhere in the world is truer to Adam Smith’s prescriptions for free trade than Donald Trump.
Trump just unveiled the new trade world order. Canada not included.
Canada has been relegated to third-wheel status and now depends on Trump’s graces.
How a federal agency helps finance some of the world’s most corrupt regimes
Export Development Canada has perfected the art of lending billions of taxpayer dollars to scandal-ridden foreign buyers. But its transparency could use some work. Patricia Adams of Probe International shares her experience with EDC “disclosure”.
Shut the Pickering reactors down
Join Shawn-Patrick Stensil of Greenpeace as he focuses on the Pickering problem and why he wants nuclear power out of Ontario’s energy mix.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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Probe International 