SNC-Lavalin Affair- Hey Quebec, Payback's a Bitch!

The ongoing political saga over possible political interference by Justin Trudeau and his inner circle of henchpeople has taken on a rather hilarious turn, with Quebecers furious that the rest of Canada seems superbly uninterested in saving the Quebec 'pearl' as it is known reverently in Quebec political circles as well as in the media.

SNC-Lavalin is more than just a company, it is a symbol of Quebec's emergence from a backward farm and natural resource economy to a modern mixed economy.

But SNC-Lavalin, which helped engineer a modern Quebec, did so with the business ethics of ENRON, bribing individuals with millions of dollars of payola as a matter of course, both here in Canada and abroad.
How depraved was SNC-Lavalin is revealed in another exposé of the company and its business practices

"New details have emerged about Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin’s cozy relationship with the son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, including the company allegedly hiring prostitutes for him during a visit to Canada a decade ago.
The sordid tale, revealed by Quebec newspaper La Presse...
Receipts gathered during an investigation of a former SNC-Lavalin executive show $30,000 in payments to Saadi Gadhafi for sexual services in Canada in 2008, La Presse reported."

Let us not single out SNC as the only Quebec bad corporate citizen, an anomaly which had a temporary lapse of executive oversight. The company only demonstrated the prevailing dubious business practices of the time that is was the hallmark of Quebec business society.

"For a Québécois, the SNC-Lavalin-Trudeau-government debacle is especially painful to watch. I can’t help but wonder whether English Canada’s punditocracy would be as indignant if the prime minister’s office had seemingly been trying to save a Toronto- or Calgary-based multinational corporation instead of a Quebec one."  Lise Ravary Montreal gazette

This opinion is repeated in the nationalist Quebec French media ad naseum, where the legal prosecution of misdeeds of SNC-Lavalin is seen as nothing more than Quebec-bashing.

For once I am of the concurring opinion that Canadians are not particularly unhappy to see Quebec get its comeuppance. The deafening roar of protest from Quebec over potential job losses is clearly falling on deaf ears in the rest of Canada.

What does surprise me is the interminable chutzpah of Lise Ravary et al in believing that Canadians owe Quebec a fair hearing and consideration. They are surprised and miffed that Canadians are unsympathetic, this after decades of Canada-bashing (a term unheard of in Quebec) and contempt shown by Quebec politicians and media.

According to Quebec,  Canada should be concerned about the effect of an SNC-Lavalin prosecution and to the potential job losses.

Really???

How concerned was Quebec when it put the kibosh of the Energy-East pipeline without much thought or concern for the economic impact or the job losses in Alberta.

Come to think of it, where were Justin Trudeau and his minion of crooked henchman in working the backrooms to secure said pipeline in an effort to secure Alberta oil-industry jobs and economic prosperity.

Could it be that electoral considerations and the political reality made expending political capital on saving jobs in Alberta just not worth the effort, considering the few seats held by the Liberals in that province?

Could you imagine that if during the pipeline debate a Quebec politician getting up and saying that in considering approval of the Energy-East pipeline, Quebec should consider the economic interest of Alberta and the attached jobs

HA! HA! HA!.

For Quebec politicians and pundits, lobbing political and economic bombs at Canada is just par for the course, business as usual.
Quebec's righteous indignation is almost laughable.

I am reminded of Shakespeare's Shylock, a Jew who has suffered discrimination and now turns the tables on his tormentors.

"The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction"

That's how Shakespeare termed it.
Today we say....

"Payback's a bitch!