{"id":12343,"date":"2019-08-28T15:45:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T18:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=12343"},"modified":"2019-08-28T15:45:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T18:45:11","slug":"samson-ng-stand-with-prime-minister-despite-ethics-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=12343","title":{"rendered":"Samson, Ng stand with Prime Minister despite Ethics report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FALL RIVER:<\/strong>\n For Liberal MP Darrell Samson, it\u2019s time for people to move on from \nEthics Commissioner\u2019s Mario Dion Report on Prime Minister Justin \nTrudeau\u2019s handling of the SNC Lavalin affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samson was responding to a question from The Laker<\/em>\n on his reaction to the report, released Aug. 15, He was speaking \nalongside Mary Ng, who looks after files as the Small Business and \nExport Promotion Minister during a stop in Fall River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the \nEthics Commissioner is saying all contact is out of bounds, I do not \nagree with that,\u201d said Samson, who represents \nSackville-Preston-Chezzetcook. \u201cAs an MP, a Cabinet Minister, it doesn\u2019t\n matter. We have the responsibility of representing our people and I \nhave and will continue to speak on behalf of my constituents to Cabinet \nMinisters and to the Prime Minister about what\u2019s some of the needs and \nchallenges are in my riding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Dion\u2019s report, it says Trudeau \nviolated the Conflict of Interest Act through his attempts to influence \nthen-attorney general and justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould on the \nSNC-Lavalin file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commissioner found\u2014directly or through \nothers under his direction\u2014Trudeau sought to pressure Wilson-Raybould to\n grant SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement. That would have \nallowed the Quebec engineering firm to avoid a trial on corruption and \nfraud charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samson said a review by former Justice Minister Anne McLellan has some things he would like to explore further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\n are some great things in her review such as having the departments name\n changed from the Justice Department to the Department of Justice and \nOffice of the Attorney General; saying we need some education for \nCabinet Ministers; staffers; and Parliamentarians about the role of the \nattorney general and related issues be implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not forget being a Cabinet Minister is political. Being the AG is not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samson\n said keeping the focus on the report, which the Prime Minister has \ntaken responsibility for while not accepting all of the conclusions, is \ndistracting from the work the government has to continue to do in \nrunning the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do need to move because right now \nCanadians have a choice to make, and that choice is very important,\u201d \nSamson said. \u201cThat choice is which direction do they want Canada to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ng said she has no problem keeping her support with PM Trudeau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\n PM has said that he accepts the report, but he doesn\u2019t agree with some \nelements of it but he stands behind the decision he made,\u201d said Ng. \n\u201cWe\u2019re going to take a serious look at McLellan\u2019s review so we can \nunderstand those recommendations and make improvements as they need to \nbe made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI absolutely stand with the Prime Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FALL RIVER: For Liberal MP Darrell Samson, it\u2019s time for people to move on from Ethics Commissioner\u2019s Mario Dion Report on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s handling of the SNC Lavalin affair. Samson was responding to a question from The Laker on his reaction to the report, released Aug. 15, He was speaking alongside Mary Ng, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[93,723,2,724,116,720,264,725],"class_list":["post-12343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-darrell-samson","tag-ethics-report","tag-fall-river","tag-justice-minister-anne-mclellan","tag-justin-trudeau","tag-mary-ng","tag-politics","tag-snc-lavalin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}