It’s this attitude that has made voters question whether the Trudeau government was ever serious about cleaning up politics
Well, wasn’t that kind of Gerald Butts? In his testimony on SNC-Lavalin before the House of Commons justice committee Wednesday, the prime minister’s former principal secretary made it clear that he didn’t want to call anyone names. He had a completely different take from Jody Wilson-Raybould on much of what was said and what had happened in the months leading up to the Liberal cabinet shuffle, but he deliberately shied away from calling her testimony false or calling her a liar.
In fact, he was so mellow about the whole thing that it came as a bit of a shock when, towards the end of the question and answer period, he noted with what seemed like frustration and a hint of anger: “Had everybody on the team done what the prime minister asked of them, then we would not be having this conversation today.
Butts had no answer. He replied, “I cannot recall anything specific. … I cannot cite a specific study being done on a specific day by a specific person.” He insisted he’d just been — in general — briefed.
Which is convincing for a few seconds until you realize that it was Butts’ government that drafted the legislation in the first place.
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