Last Week Today Episode 187 Show Notes for Monday, February 24th, 2025
Canadian Corruption, A Massive US News Dump & the Legal Basis for DOGE, Freedom Convoy “Organizer” Pat King Sentenced, Canada’s Upcoming Tariff Reckoning, "Open" Banking & DOGE Refunds.
Canadian Corruption
While the new American Administration is attempting to “drain the swamp,” no one in Canada seems to remember, except perhaps in passing, that we might be just as corrupt as our American cousins.
There’s the ongoing concern over Chinese influence over the Liberal party and Canadian politics, which we discussed most recently in the February 18th, 2025 Last Week Today post, “Canada’s Clueless Premiers & Territorial Leaders.”
But there’s also:
Other Ongoing Liberal Government Scandals which Never Go Away: For example, the 2019 SNC Lavalin scandal is back in the news.
On February 19th, 2025, transparency watchdog Democracy Watch filed an application in the Ontario Court of Justice seeking approval to launch a private prosecution against the Prime Minister, alleging obstruction of justice and breach of trust. The move comes after newly released RCMP transcripts revealed extensive pressure from Trudeau’s top aides on then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in SNC-Lavalin’s criminal case.
The Ethics Commissioner ruled in August 2019 that the Prime Minister's team had breached ethics rules and that Trudeau and his officials had tried in 2018 to undermine a decision by federal prosecutors.
The SNC-Lavalin scandal actually goes back farther. As noted in the August 30th, 2019 CBC News post, “Names of SNC employees, executives behind thousands of dollars in illegal Liberal Party donations revealed,” the 2019 ethics scandal was tied to illegal SNC-Lavalin employee donations of approximately $110,000 to the federal Liberal Party, over a period of 5 years ending in 2009.
Those donations were later reimbursed by the company, an action prohibited under Canadian election laws. For this, one executive was charged and a compliance agreement was signed with the company promising to not break the rules again in the future.
The September 2024 House Speaker’s Ruling: The September 2024 ruling by Parliamentary House Speaker Greg Fergus shut down all House of Commons debate until “unredacted” documents requested by RCMP and Parliamentary investigators relating to the so called “Green Slush Fund” scandal were turned over by the ruling Trudeau Liberals to the agencies requesting them.
The scandal refers to allegations of corruption, mismanagement, and conflicts of interest surrounding Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), a now-defunct Canadian federal agency established in 2001 to fund clean-tech and green research projects. Critics, particularly from the Conservative Party of Canada, have labeled it a "slush fund" for Liberal insiders under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, claiming that taxpayer money was improperly funneled to well-connected individuals and companies.
The controversy came to light following a series of investigations and reports, most notably a June 2024 audit by Auditor General Karen Hogan. Her findings revealed significant issues with SDTC’s operations between March 2017 and December 2023, during which the agency approved $856Mln CDN for 420 projects. The audit examined 58 projects and found that 10 were ineligible for funding but still received $59Mln CDN. It estimated that about 10% of all approved projects over that period didn’t meet eligibility criteria.
Additionally, the audit identified 90 instances—representing $76Mln CDN in funding—where SDTC failed to follow its own conflict-of-interest policies. A prominent example involved former SDTC board chair Annette Verschuren, who was linked to approving over $200,000 in grants to her own company, NRStor Inc., raising questions of self-dealing.
The January 2025 Parliamentary Prorogation: The forced shutdown of the Canadian Parliament in January 2025 by the ruling Trudeau Liberals, mostly to avoid any non-confidence, budgetary motion intended to force an early election.
As outlined in the February 13th, 2025 Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms post, “Federal Court will hear prorogation challenge this week in Ottawa,” not everyone agrees with this decision, since it prevents the intended function of Parliament, subverts democracy and could certainly be considered “unlawful.”
As noted in the February 19th, 2025 National Post piece, “Amy Hamm: Courts must not allow Trudeau to get away with his self-serving prorogation,” the court case is ongoing and no decision has been made as of press time.
Ruby Dhalla being kicked out of the Liberal Leadership Race: As outlined in the February 23rd, 2025 CBC News post, “Ruby Dhalla kicked out of Liberal leadership race after 'extremely serious' violations: party,” while Liberal party spokespeople agree that Dhalla was kicked out for “extremely serious” reasons, no one has yet gotten around to publicly explaining the specifics of those violations.
It could be her stance on immigration, as outlined in the January 28th, 2025 Economic Times of India post, “Indian-origin Liberal leader Ruby Dhalla outlines deportation plans if elected Canada PM,” is substantially different from the Liberal party consensus on the issue.
It could also have something to do with her not knowing French. As outlined in the February 13th, 2025 CBC News post, “Liberals deny Ruby Dhalla interpreter for French leadership debate,” its an issue she’s clashed with Liberal party organizers on previous occasions.
It could relate to her campaign funding. As outlined in the February 20th, 2025 CBC News post, “Liberals questioning Ruby Dhalla campaign over $21K in donations,” portions of her campaign contributions have been “temporarily withheld” from Dhalla’s campaign by Liberal party executives “to ensure compliance with Elections Canada rules.”
But Ruby Dhalla could also have been kick out of the Liberal party leadership campaign by the Mark Carney campaign, the front runners in the leadership contest. The February 24th, 2025 National Post story “Terry Newman: Was Ruby Dhalla too much of a threat to Mark Carney?,” goes into this theory in detail.
While all this is going on, current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues on his merry way, using edicts and his personal control over the internal Federal government bureaucracy to announce new funding initiative, define foreign policy and bypass Parliament.
As outlined in the February 24th, 2025 CBC News post, “Trudeau visits Ukraine to mark 3rd anniversary of Russian invasion,” everything is now on the table in the Ukraine, even the possibility of Canadian troops on the ground in the contested areas.
According to the February 19th, 2025 National Post story, “Justin Trudeau announces $3.9B high-speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto,” the PM has announced a major new funding announcement without the parliamentary approval normally needed for fiscal matters to move forward. It’s kind of like the classic Simpsons episode “Marge vs. the Monorail,” but with more corruption and without Lenard Nimoy.
Here’s the punch line. The Canadian public is well aware of its current corrupt government.
As outlined in the December 1st, 2024 True North News post, “Four in five Canadians believe political corruption is common in Canada and don’t trust government to solve it,” most Canadians believe “corruption in both the private sector and Canada’s governments is widespread. Nearly half believe corruption plays a “significant” role in the rising cost of living.”
The last ten years of fighting for “social justice” seems, in retrospect, as a cheap trick to avoid dealing with corruption charges and keep the Trudeau Liberals in power.
Also in the News this Week
A Massive US News Dump & the Legal Basis for DOGE
There’s massive news coming out of the US as the Trump Administration continues to use the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to route out corruption before installing new people in leadership roles who supportive of administration goals.
Here’s a few of the bigger stories:
The February 23rd, 2025 Zero Hedge post, “Pentagon Purge: Trump Fires Chairman Of Joint Chiefs, Navy Chief And Other Top Brass,” notes that “President Trump on Friday night took the extraordinary step of firing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and five more senior Pentagon officers,” in fulfilment of a campaign pledge “to shake up the senior military ranks to ensure a focus on his policy priorities.”
The February 20th, 2025 Blendr post, “The US and Europe Are at a Crossroads as a New World Order Takes Shape,” notes the growing perception that long-standing western alliances are being restructured.
In domestic US news, and as outlined in the February 22nd, 2025 NORTHAMERICANNEWS01 on Rumble post, “BREAKING VIDEO: Trump Has Officially Called For An Investigation Into Chemicals Being Sprayed In The Air Causing Autism & Other Diseases,” the US president has begun to support recently minted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his mission to “Make American’s Healthy Again (MAMA).”
The February 19th, 2025 The Front Page post, “How USAID Funded Ukraine’s Propaganda Machine. Plus,” notes how USAID seems to have funded the vast majority of “independent” media in Ukraine, subverting Ukrainian interests in favor of talking points favorable to American policy objectives.
New Trump appointees are taking control of their departments:
HHS Secretary Kennedy, as outlined in the February 18th, 2025 Canadian Independent post, “Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. announced the MAHA Commission will investigate the decline in American health, focusing on factors like the childhood vaccine schedule, pesticides, and more,” has outlined his mandate and is moving forward.
Kash Patel has been confirmed as FBI Director, as outlined in the February 21st, 2025 PJ Media post, “Kash Patel Is Already Making Huge Changes at the FBI,” he’s hit the ground running.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, as outlined in the February 22nd, 2025 NORTHAMERICANNEWS01 on Rumble post, “Here It Comes… AG Pam Bondi Is Now Reviewing Documents Related to Jeffrey Epstein: ‘They’re Sitting on My Desk Right Now for Review’” is reviewing documents related to Jeffrey Epstein blackmail case and is expected to begin to soon release lists of his associates, and likely blackmail targets. Many of them are expected to be well known business people and government influencers.
Others in the Trump administration, as outlined in the February 20th, 2025 Most Important News post, “The Answer To 1913 Is 2025: 3 Charts That Show Why The Income Tax, The IRS And The Federal Reserve Should All Be Abolished,“ are looking at the usefulness of other major US government departments.
According to the February 23rd, 2025 Economic Times of India post, “Trump to inspect US' 400 tonnes of gold reserves held at Fort Knox: Why is the repository making buzz?” the US president is expected to personally inspect US gold reserves held at Fort Knox, just to make sure the gold hasn’t been stolen.
DOGE head Elon Musk, has told US federal workers to explain what they achieved last week or be fired. As outlined in the February 23rd, 2025 The Guardian post, “Kash Patel tells FBI staff to ignore Elon Musk request to list their achievements,” not everyone agrees with Musk’s strategy.
But mostly, its going well, for now at least.
To celebrate their successes and reward their base, Musk’s DOGE Task Force has proposed $5,000 Rebate Checks for Americans, tied to finding $2 Trillion in total government savings. As outlined in the February 18th, 2025 Politico post, “Elon Musk expresses interest in sending out DOGE checks,” the rebate will be for about 20% of the expected savings.
Below is an overview of how the DOGE was set-up, structured and functions within the US government.
Freedom Convoy “Organizer” Pat King Sentenced
Also in the news tonight, ‘Freedom Convoy’ organizer Pat King has been given three month conditional house arrest sentence for his actions leading up to and during the February 2022 Freedom Convoy Protests in Ottawa.
According to the February 19th, 2025 Canadian Press post, “‘Freedom Convoy’ organizer Pat King given 3-month conditional sentence,” King’s sentence includes 100 hours of community service at a food bank or men’s shelter, and one year of probation.
The sentence comes on top of nine months King spent in custody while awaiting the trial and during his trial.
Curiously enough, King did not comment after his sentencing due to bail conditions imposed by the courts for outstanding perjury and obstruction of justice charges,.
These additional charges, likely added to his release conditions, essentially prevent the political prisoner from talking about the politics leading to his conviction for helping to organize a legitimate political protest.
The government wanted those conditions added to King’s record in such a was as to prevent the people for knowing the specifics of the “perjury” and “obstruction” alleged to have been committed.
Two other political prisoners, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber have not been sentenced for their participation in the February 2022 Freedom Convoy protests because the court has not yet determined an appropriate punishment after their trial concluded in September 2024.
Their verdict is still pending, six months after the trial officially concluded.
Both Lich and Barber are perceived of as being notable political prisoners by the Federal government, at least off the record, and any final verdict on this case might simply depend on who wins the next Canadian Federal election.
Canada’s Upcoming Tariff Reckoning
Also in the news tonight, Canadian institutions are slowly moving towards a reckoning with Trump’s tariffs.
The February 3rd, 2025 The Maple post, “Trump’s Threats Expose Canada’s Utter Dependency On The US,” notes that Canada’s future is almost entirely dependent on delinking the country form the US supply chain.
Leftist publication Canadian Dimension, in its February 9th, 2025 post, “Now is the time to turn the tide on the deindustrialization of Canada” notes one of the few public acknowledgements of the usefulness of tariffs to restore manufacturing productivity. It suggests that, as a weapon, its a weapon suitable for use by both the US and Canada.
As outlined in the February 23rd, 2025 Global News post, “The Bank of Canada governor’s tariff warning: ‘There won’t be a bounce back’,” notes that “If Canada is hit by sweeping, broad-based tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump, the hit to the Canadian economy could be permanent.”
And the February 20th, 2025 The Maple post, “Time to Think Beyond ‘Worthless’ Free Trade Agreements: Economists” notes the obvious, no one feels constrained by a free trade agreement any more.
Today, US president Trump said he’ll hit Canadian goods with a 25% tariff starting next week.
Open Banking
The Conservatives plan to move quickly to get open banking across the finish line if they form government after the next federal election, says the Tory critic focused on the file.
According to the February 19th, 2025 The Logic post, “Conservatives say they’ll go ‘huge’ on open banking if they win power,” it's part of a broader Conservative policy to bolster competition in Canada's banking sector by “empowering financial technology startups.”
But the Liberals like it too.
They mentioned it in their fall 2024 economic statement. They called it “consumer driven banking” even though the big Canadian banks were lobbying for it, not Canadian consumers.
But in practice, “open banking” means that a lot more people have access to your credit history and financial information.
It’s a system where banks share customer data with third-party providers (like fintech apps) through APIs, usually with the customer’s consent. The idea is to boost competition, give people more control over their financial data, and spark innovation—like better budgeting tools or cheaper loans.
But there are downsides. Privacy’s a big one. Sharing your data with third parties can feel like handing over the keys to your financial life—hacks or shady companies could exploit it.
Security’s tighter than it used to be, but breaches still happen. And if you’re not tech-savvy, you might accidentally opt into something you don’t fully understand. Plus, some argue it benefits big tech more than consumers, consolidating power in a few hands.
It’s also a good way to facilitate central bank digital currencies (CBDC) by tying the banking system into a coherent whole where anyone can steel your banking information.
DOGE Refunds
Finally tonight, we have the February 22nd, 2025 Mongo Minds on Bitchute post, “04 Fox News Talking About Giving Refunds To The Tax Payers For The Fraud And Waste-1.”
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