Since retiring from electoral politics I have been commenting on Canadian, Indian and international politics. I have refrained from writing too much or too critical of the Trudeau government, I have criticised it on some issues. While I happily remain a Laurier Club member of the Liberal Party I have acted more like an independent commentator than a political partisan for the last several years.
Justin Trudeau's latest suggestion to liberalise the Liberal Party by having no membership or membership privileges has come as quite a liberating gift to the commentator in me. I understood his suggestion to mean that Canadians who thought of themselves as Liberals could simply self register as such and will be able to participate in the intra party selections or elections. This is a welcome revolutionary change from the registered supporters that were introduced in the last leadership campaign that chose Trudeau as our Liberal leader.
I have just returned from a trip to India and therefore lately have not written on Canadian politics. But after watching The National's (CBC) story on my friend the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould insisting on proceeding with a $500.00/plate private fund raiser at the Tory's law firm in Toronto I feel compelled to write these lines.
Justin and the Liberal Party have defended the fundraiser as being within the four corners of the federal law and its reasonable donation limits. In the days when the influence of big private money is being debated everywhere - from the Panama Papers to the current US presidential campaign to Queens Park in Ontario -- it is totally incomprehensible to me how a Minister of our Federal Crown, the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General at that, participating in a private fund raiser with lawyers can be said to escape either the reality or the appearance of a conflict of interest. If the current law allows our minister of justice to be placed in the improper position of at least the appearance of a potential conflict of interest, the law is wrong and must be changed.
If the law is wrong and the appearance of a conflict is real and persistent the minister should cancel the fundraiser even if the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party think otherwise.
An Attorney General is not just any minister. She is the Attorney General of Canada and in significant number of her functions she must remain and be seen to remain independent of the office of the Prime Minister. In those of her functions where she is independent she must act independently in exercising those functions and providing advice in relation to them. If the Prime Minister doesn't like her advice or actions he/she can fire her but can't tell her what to do.
The Prime Minister should reconsider his position. He might one day need the independence of the Attorney General to support his position on some important issue.
A wrong law can't and mustn't provide an excuse for ignoring a real or apparent conflict of interest --not for an Attorney General.
It is for the sake of preserving not just her own independence and integrity but also the integrity of her office that minister Wilson-Raybould should seriously reconsider her position and cancel the proposed fundraiser.
