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No one on the committee had asked him about this. It seemed evident he was simply trying to distract the committee from it real purpose, namely SNC-Lavalin.

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Wernick did not say specifically that he was worried about the “yellow vests” who had driven their oilfield service trucks from western Canada to Ottawa that week. But given that some of them had displayed placards with the words “traitor” and “treason” on them, it was not hard to figure out who Wernick meant.

And if he cannot distinguish between frustrated people letting off steam by using exaggeration and real conspirators plotting to commit crimes, then Wernick has no business being named as one of the five impartial monitors of our upcoming federal campaign.

He also has no business being put in charge of election fairness if, in his judgment, a bunch of oil patch workers are a greater threat to Canadian democracy than an orchestrated effort by the Prime Minister’s Office to undermine our federal justice system on behalf of a Liberal-friendly corporation and on behalf of Liberal party re-election hopes.

Worse yet, since Wernick’s own credibility-shattering testimony, Canadians have heard from Wilson-Raybould herself. If her testimony is accurate, Wernick is also guilty of serving as a surrogate for the PM in pressuring Wilson-Raybould to get a deal done for SNC or face personal political consequences (such as being demoted in cabinet, which she was).

Wernick is supposed to be entirely non-partisan. Entirely. Given his entanglement in the SNC affair, he probably shouldn’t keep his main job, but he definitely can’t keep his post as an impartial monitor of this fall’s campaign.