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It’s not something we really talk about much here in Canada. Thankfully. Because there hasn’t really been any need.

It’s more an issue that preoccupies activists in Asian countries worried about the influence of China and those in Eastern European countries concerned about being brought further into Russia’s embrace.

In a nutshell, democratic backsliding is when something happens in a country that erodes its stability of governance. This can take many forms — undermining free elections, bribing government officials or messing with the impartiality of the justice system.

Basically think about all of those things that happen in shady countries. Think about how lucky we are that they don’t happen here. Then think about how bad it would be if they suddenly started happening here. That’s democratic backsliding.

The phenomenon applies in this case because there cannot even be the lingering impression that the Prime Minister of Canada is someone who can insert himself into a judicial matter and get criminal charges dropped.

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It sends a message to other companies that they can conceivably push the Prime Minister’s Office to do the same. It sends a signal to other countries that Canada’s supposedly ironclad laws and system of due process are in fact flexible. It can start a feeding frenzy.

Brian Lee Crowley wrote about this in a recent Postmedia column, putting together the SNC-Lavalin affair with the Mark Norman trial and the Huawei debacle.