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CANADA’S BUDGET MINISTER Jane Philpott has abruptly resigned, saying she no longer had confidence in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, which is embroiled in a major political crisis.
“I have been considering the events that have shaken the federal government in recent weeks and after serious reflection, I have concluded that I must resign as a member of Cabinet,” Philpott said on Twitter.
“The solemn principles at stake are the independence and integrity of our justice system.
Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised.
The current scandal (you can find more detail in our Explainer here) centres around claims that Trudeau’s former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, was inappropriately pressured by the Prime Minister to prevent the prosecution of a major Canadian engineering firm accused of fraud and bribery.
The affair has been politically costly to date. Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s closest adviser and a longtime friend, resigned two weeks ago, according to The Guardian. Wilson-Raybould has also resigned.
Stating that concerns had been raised by her constituents and other Canadians, Philpott said tonight:
“It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our Attorney General should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases.”
- with reporting from Hayley Halpin.
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Such integrity to have the courage and conviction to resign , over here they are only worried about their pensions.
@Al Madzer: the sock is on the other foot now
Time for Leo to swim across the ocean to help his bestie,
Emerging from the ocean, James Bond style, except with his socks still on, he will surely be able to convince Justin’s cabinet that lobbying is not putting pressure on people to not do what they want to do, it’s simply an everyday occurrence, nothing to see here……. except the Socks.
Macron, Trudeau, Varadkar , all the nautious clamour for younger “Hip” leaders is starting to backfire, they haven`t got the experience or brains to lead a country without something going tits up. Nothing but sock puppets for big business and being used by more experienced leaders who run rings around them.
Week 16 of the yellow vest unrest in France, but you`d think it was all sunshine and daffodils over there going by the media
@Pixie McMullen: And the older ones did any better? Ahern, Cowen or Kenny? Their really is no pleasing some people. The economy is growing, job creation all over the country from these so called “big business” as you like to call them. People on here can’t see beyond the negatives. Some people on here calling the country a kip? We do not have the same political issues as France. They have massive social division with anti semitism on the rise, Migrant tent cities in the capital city and a big problem with terrorist organizations. Yeh we have our issues but every other modern developed economy has them too.
@Pixie McMullen: OR…. it turns out they are no different to the old guard. Still as crucked as ever? #curcked politics crucked forever?
@Greg Cavey: This to a tee. As if the predecessors were any better. I still have venom for Kenny and his views on property tax and austerity.
@Greg Cavey: But that is just not good enough. We are a small country with a small population and our peoples expectations are rock bloody bottom! We have the potential to be the best country in the world to live in but it is simply not true. The majority of people in this country live paycheck to paycheck. They have no savings or anyway of putting money away for retirement. Do you call that living Greg?
Our country is run like a kip due to how it is managed. There is simply no getting away from that cold hard fact.
Res-ig-nat-ion. Something thats alien to our shower of politicians. The financial rewards are too good to give up for this bunch who know they’ll never have it as good anywhere else.
Hope so.
@Daniel J. Somers: @Elia
Hoisted on his own petard …. socks and all
strange to have your AG be your justice minister too, open to more political pressure?
Aww, do u wanna bail out your socky friend Leo.
We need to rid ourselves of Varadkar, Coveney, Murphy and co while we still have a country left
Surely the Canadian people will have the good sense to get rid of this idiot Trudeau now.
have your say