Thanks to a scandal, Canada gets a historic first.

The WE scandal has been steadily dripping in the background of Canadian and North American news for some weeks. It’s easy to understand why we might lose sight of it: between the pandemic, the theatrics of our southern neighbour’s leader, and a global uprising against racial discrimination, the Canadian prime minister’s most recent dip into petty nepotismNepotism: The habit of a leader giving out money, positions, or titles to family. E.g. I fully expected the president to be guilty of nepotism when he got elected, but let’s face it, I’m not shocked that Trudeau is guilty of it as well. —wherein members of the Trudeau family were paid handsome sums by the WE charity for speaking engagements—might be understandably overlooked.

  But on Monday, August 17th, Trudeau’s finance minister Bill Morneau stood down. Morneau likely knew about the speaking engagements and looked the other way. Morneau insisted that the resignation was voluntary, that the sword he fell onFall on your sword: to sacrifice yourself so that the rest of a group or team might escape blame. This time the origin appears to be Roman: an unsuccessful military leader might remove themselves by committing suicide by falling on a sword. E.g. Trudeau obviously asked Bill Morneau to fall on his sword this week, even if neither of them didn’t want to say so out loud. —as the English expression goes—was the sword he’d been keeping around for quite some time for just this purpose. Mr. Morneau made it clear that he wasn’t a scapegoatScapegoat: a person blamed so that others can avoid blame. The word comes from an ancient Jewish tradition wherein a goat was symbolically associated with the sins of a community and then sent into the desert to starve. E.g. Bill Morneau is a scapegoat for Trudeau’s involvement in the WE charity. ; he was just ready to move on to other things, like maybe going for a long walk in the desert. The correspondent at the Washington Post—translating Canadian things for American people—sounded a bit skeptical about these claims.  And The New York Times was equally skeptical, and even managed to quote NDP leader Jagmeet Singh on Twitter, who said out loud what a lot of people were thinking: “Every time he gets caught breaking ethics laws, [Trudeau] makes someone else take the heat,”
  The CBC quickly provided a list of the usual suspectsThe Usual Suspects. A line from one of my favorite films Casablanca became so famous that it became the title of another favorite, The Usual Suspects. English speakers sometimes still use the line to refer to any set of people already well-known, famous, or infamous, or when a search or an investigation is not being conducted in earnest. Perhaps the best example is in the clip from the film, linked above. —to borrow the line from Casablanca—to replace Morneau: Chrystia Freeland, Jean-Yves-Duclos, and Mark Carney. Tuesday, August 18th brought news that the CBC must have had some good intelligence, as Chrystia Freeland was named minister of finance. Coming from its usual centrist perspective, The Globe and Mail seemed, for the most part, pleased with the choice. The National Post, coming from somewhere further right, appeared more skeptical, and even managed to throw in some amusing speculation about court intrigue behind the scenes. 

by Nathan R. Elliott

i. Canada has a new finance minister. Will that mean change? The Washington Post. August 19th, 2020. 5 mins. Intermediate. 

ii. Canada Finance Minister Quits Post Amid Charity Scandal. The New York Times. August 17th, 2020. 5 mins. Intermediate. 

iii. Who’s in Line to Replace Morneau as Trudeau’s Finance Minister? CBC. August 17th. 2020. 7 mins. Intermediate. 

iv. As Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland’s toughest job will be dealing with Justin Trudeau. The Globe and Mail. August 20th. 8 mins. Intermediate/Advanced. v. The finance minister and the PM: Trudeau and Freeland face a political dynamic that breeds friction. The National Post. August 22nd. 9 mins. Intermediate/Advanced.