{"id":326143,"date":"2025-10-23T09:36:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/326143\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T09:36:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:36:30","slug":"poilievre-defends-rcmp-comments-denies-saying-trudeau-should-be-in-jail-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/326143\/","title":{"rendered":"Poilievre defends RCMP comments, denies saying Trudeau should be in jail – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre<\/a> defended his comments about the RCMP<\/a> Wednesday and denied saying former prime minister Justin Trudeau should be in jail.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s not what I said,\u201d he said on Parliament Hill when asked about a recent interview on a YouTube channel.<\/a><\/p>\n

In that interview, which ran on the Northern Perspective channel last week, Poilievre called the RCMP\u2019s leadership \u201cdespicable\u201d and accused it of covering up for Trudeau.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the scandals of the Trudeau era should have involved jail time,\u201d he said. \u201cTrudeau broke the Criminal Code when he took a free vacation from someone with whom he had government business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the RCMP had been doing its job and not covering up for him, then he would have been criminally charged,\u201d Poilievre added in the interview.<\/p>\n

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Poilievre was referring to cases where Trudeau was found to have violated conflict of interest rules, including his acceptance of a family vacation on the Aga Khan\u2019s private island in 2016, and the SNC-Lavalin saga in 2019.<\/p>\n

The RCMP investigated both the vacation and Trudeau\u2019s handling of the SNC-Lavalin file but did not lay any charges.<\/p>\n

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In the latter case, the ethics commissioner found Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act by attempting to influence then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to a Quebec-based engineering firm.<\/p>\n

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The RCMP investigated but ultimately determined there was not enough evidence to lay criminal charges in the SNC-Lavalin affair. In 2023, current RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said he agreed with that decision.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Poilievre said he thinks there were some scandals during Trudeau\u2019s time in office that should have resulted in criminal charges. He cited allegations of corruption against a government-funded technology fund \u2014 without mentioning Trudeau.<\/p>\n

He also said his criticisms of the RCMP were directed solely at former RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki. That statement echoed one issued by his office on Monday.<\/p>\n

During his scrum with reporters, Poilievre was asked whether he was confident all his MPs would remain in the Conservative caucus by the end of the day.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYes,\u201d he answered.<\/p>\n

Those MPs met Wednesday morning for the weekly caucus meeting. Walking in, some deflected reporters\u2019 questions about Poilievre\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

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