Good morning,
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has shuffled his cabinet for the third time in 2019.
Mr. Trudeau named veteran Liberal MP Joyce Murray the new President of the Treasury Board Monday, filling the vacancy left by former cabinet minister Jane Philpott, who resigned earlier this month over the government’s handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair. Ms. Murray, who also becomes Minister of Digital Government, was first elected in Vancouver Quadra in 2008.
As The Globe’s Laura Stone reports, Ms. Philpott’s political future is uncertain. Those close to Ms. Philpott say she will be assessing her role in the federal Liberal Party over the next few months.
“I can picture it either way,” said her sister Karen Congram. “She does still support the policies of the Liberal Party, but given what’s happened recently, it might be harder to run again.”
All of the cabinet shuffling has been necessitated by a series of events that began with a shuffle in January, in which Jody Wilson-Raybould was moved to veterans affairs from the justice portfolio. Ms. Wilson-Raybould subsequently resigned from cabinet and said she believed her demotion was a result of her failure to give in to pressure from the Prime Minister and other high-ranking officials to help SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. avoid a criminal trial on charges of bribery.
Political interference with front-line prosecutors is a problem in Canada, says the head of a national group of Crown attorneys in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Mr. Trudeau and senior officials in his office have retained outside legal counsel to advise them as the federal Ethics Commissioner probes allegations of political interference in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Bill Morneau is set to release the Liberals’ pre-election budget this week. The Globe’s Joe Castaldo, Bill Curry and Barrie McKenna report on how the Finance Minister has struggled to make his mark.
Canada is in talks with the United States to close a loophole that has allowed more than 40,000 asylum seekers to cross the border at unauthorized points of entry.
The Liberal government will not announce a wide-ranging review of Canada’s tax system in Tuesday’s federal budget.
Leaked e-mails from United Conservative staffers show Jason Kenney’s 2017 leadership campaign helped a rival who was also in the race to take over the merged party.
British Columbia’s Court of Appeal will consider a key question in the political battle over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project during a five-day hearing.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia authorized a secret campaign to silence dissenters more than a year before the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, according to U.S. officials who have read classified intelligence reports about the campaign.
U.S. President Donald Trump attacked Senator John McCain, who died in August, over his role in the Justice Department investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to prevent countries from using Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications equipment in their next-generation wireless networks has faltered.
Sarah McLachlan kicked off the Juno Awards with a subtle jab at Donald Trump as she ushered in Canada’s annual celebration of music.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on the federal budget: “Expect the Liberals to redouble their sloganeering about the ‘middle-class and those working hard to join it.’ That means we can expect a budget full of measures that are supposed to reassure middle-class Canadians about their anxieties: paying for prescriptions; buying a first home; retraining to keep up with a changing labour market; and collecting a pension.”
Barrie McKenna (The Globe and Mail) on the federal budget and economic forecasting: “Every percentage-point miss means billions of dollars in tax revenue that Ottawa won’t have in order to pay for its promises.”
Kelly McParland (National Post) on the budget and SNC-Lavalin: “For now, all eyes will be on Morneau, in hopes he can spread around enough money to divert attention from the sad state of party principles. He has billions at his command. He’ll definitely need it.”
Jessica Davis (The Globe and Mail) on right-wing extremism: “Canadians need to be reassured that the government is taking the threat of right-wing extremism and violence seriously. ... Canada’s leadership on this issue internationally will be critical.”
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on Canada’s grounding of the Boeing 737 Max: “Commercial air travel may be the safest form of transportation in the world, statistically speaking, but its overseers must still be willing to move proactively when a serious issue presents itself. Evidence suggests [Transport Minister Marc Garneau] should not have waited as long as he did to act.”
Adam Foulds (The Globe and Mail) on Brexit: “Brexit can stand as a warning. Canada, like every democracy, should be vigilant against populist rhetoric offering simple solutions to complex problems, historical amnesia and subversions of the electoral process.”
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on Brexit: “For the past three years, the choices made by the United Kingdom’s political leaders have been abysmal. Never in the field of political conflict have so few caused so many self-inflicted wounds.”
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