The Globe and Mail - 11.09.2019

(HDFFC|00003S/d.g

MON-FRI:$4.

SATURDAY:$6.

PRICESMAYBE

HIGHERINSOMEAREAS

THEGLOBE'SSECUREDROPSERVICEPROVIDES

AWAYTOSECURELYSHAREINFORMATIONWITH

OURJOURNALISTSTGAM.CA/SECUREDROP

INSIDE A-SECTION B-SECTION

KONRADYAKABUSKI....................A
SARAHHAGI............................A
JOHNDOYLE............................A
DAVIDROSENBERG.......................B
ROBCARRICK............................B
ANNASHARRATT.........................B

FOLIO ................................A10-

EDITORIAL&LETTERS...................A

OPINION................................A

LIFE&ARTS............................A

FIRSTPERSON..........................A

WEATHER&PUZZLES...................A

REPORTONBUSINESS....................B

OPINION&ANALYSIS....................B

GLOBEINVESTOR........................B

SPORTS .................................B

COMICS .................................B

OBITUARIES............................B

OTTAWA/QUEBECEDITION ■ WEDNESDAY,SEPTEMBER11,2019 ■ GLOBEANDMAIL.COM

H

ere comes a culture war.

There will be issues in

this election campaign.

Important ones, such as carbon

taxes and climate change, or def-

icits and taxes and the economy.

But this isn’t the free-trade elec-

tion of 1988, with one issue dom-

inating. It’s not one of those

fourth-term elections that revolv-

es around a pent-up demand for

change. There is a less policy-spe-

cific, more visceral contest com-

ing about who’s on your side. Or,

put another way, which of these

gangs you identify with.

You might have noticed that a

lot of federal politics isn’t exactly

about federal government poli-

cies. Partisans tell you Justin Tru-

deau had a trust fund. Or that An-

drew Scheer never marched at

Pride. They are sending messages

about who they are – and who

their opponents are – as much as

what they will do. Expect a lot of

that between now and Oct. 21.

Even the concrete policy

planks will be mustered in large

part to describe who the politic-

ians are. Liberals talk about cli-

mate change to tell you they’re

the kind of folks who intend to

save the world rather than let it

burn. Conservatives talk about

scrapping carbon taxes to tell you

they’d let you keep your money

rather than use it for some big

government scheme.

Of course, on its face, this cam-

paign is about Mr. Trudeau:

whether he disappointed believ-

ers in the heady promise of

change he made in 2015, or

whether he is, to Canadians who

will cast ballots, better than the

alternatives – notably Mr. Scheer,

the Conservative Leader, who is

neck-and-neck with the Liberal

incumbent in opinion polls.

And yes, both Conservatives

and Liberals have framed this

campaign as a battle over what’s

best for the middle class. But

that’s because most Canadians

think that label applies to them.

The question is how voters will

judge what’s best for the middle

class, for them and for their aspi-

rations. No single issue has

emerged as the litmus test. Politi-

cal parties have been talking a lot

about what they call “values,”

and whether they share yours.

That’s always important in elec-

tions, and this time, more so.

CLARK,A

Thefederal

campaign

shapesupto

beaculturewar

CAMPBELLCLARKOTTAWA

OPINION

For nearly a decade, U.S. spies reportedly
had a mole inside the Kremlin feeding
them inside information on high-level de-
cision-making by one of America’s most
powerful foreign adversaries. The intelli-
gence included everything from President
Vladimir Putin’s personal involvement in
a campaign to help Donald Trump
win the U.S. presidency to photographs
of documents on the Russian leader’s
desk.
But as scrutiny of Russia’s 2016 election
interference campaign intensified, U.S. of-
ficials worried their source would be ex-
posed. So they arranged for him to escape
Russia – an “exfiltration” in the jargon of
spies – and begin a new life in a quiet
Washington exurb.
The extraordinary tale, first reported
this week by CNN and The New York
Times, demonstrated the depth of the
United States’s penetration of Mr. Putin’s
government, even as the mole’s extrac-
tion from the Kremlin raised fears of a
blind spot in American intelligence ahead
of the 2020 presidential vote.
And it revived questions about Mr.

Trump’s sharing of foreign intelligence

with Russian officials, which CNN report-

ed helped prompt the decision to pull the

source from Moscow.

Neither the Times nor CNN named the

alleged mole, but Russian media on

Tuesday identified him as Oleg Smolen-

kov, a former Kremlin official who van-

ished with his wife and three children in

June, 2017, during a holiday in Montene-

gro.

Mr. Smolenkov reportedly worked for

Yury Ushakov, Russia’s ambassador to

Washington from 1999 to 2008. When Mr.

Ushakov returned to Moscow as a foreign-

policy adviser to Mr. Putin, Mr. Smolen-

kov came with him.

The Times reported that the Central In-

telligence Agency recruited the mole dec-

ades ago when he was a mid-level official.

He ultimately rose to a position in the

Kremlin that included direct access to Mr.

Putin. The mole was even able to take

pictures of the Russian President’s papers

and pass them to his U.S. handlers, CNN

said.

Among the most important informa-

tion the source passed on to Washington

was intelligence about Mr. Putin’s hands-

on role in Russia’s attempts to tip the 2016

election to Mr. Trump.

SPY, A

TheKremlin,themoleand

ascrambletosafetyintheU.S.

ADRIANMORROWWASHINGTON
MARKMacKINNONMOSCOW
COLINFREEZETORONTO

DYLANMARTINEZ/REUTERS

BOOKS

Atwoodsayscurrent

politicalclimateinspired

Handmaidsequel A

ISRAEL

Netanyahumakes

electionpledgetoannex

occupiedJordanValley

A

MANITOBAELECTION

VotershandBrian

Pallister’sTories

reducedmajority A

2019FEDERAL

ELECTION

The RCMP has been looking into potential ob-

struction of justice in the handling of the pros-

ecution of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., but its ex-

amination has been stymied by the federal

government’s refusal to lift cabinet confiden-

tiality for all witnesses, The Globe and Mail has

learned.

This means individuals involved in the mat-

ter cannot discuss events or share documents

with police that have not been exempted from

the rule of cabinet confidentiality, according to

sources, whom The Globe agreed not to identi-

fy so they could discuss the RCMP inquiries.

In Canada, the principle of cabinet confi-

dentiality is intended to allow ministers to de-

bate decisions freely in private. As a result, dis-

cussions involving cabinet matters must be

kept secret unless a waiver is granted. In the

SNC matter, the Liberals say that the Clerk of

the Privy Council, who heads the bureaucratic

agency that serves the Prime Minister’s Office,

made the decision not to offer a broad waiver

to either the RCMP or to the Ethics Commis-

sioner, and that the PMO played no role.

A source who was recently interviewed by

the RCMP told The Globe that investigators in-

dicated they are looking into possible obstruc-

tion of justice.

The Criminal Code says obstruction of jus-

tice occurs when an effort is made to “obstruct,

pervert or defeat the course of justice in a judi-

cial proceeding.”

The national police force will pause the op-

eration because of the coming election cam-

paign.

SNC, A

OttawablocksRCMP

onSNCinquiry

Mountiesinvestigating

possibleobstructionof

justice,sourcesays

ThePrimeMinister’sOfficesaysithadnoroleinthedecisionbythePrivyCouncilClerktoprevent

individualsfromtalkingwiththeRCMPabouttheSNC-Lavalinaffair.BLAIRGABLE/THEGLOBEANDMAIL

[SNC-LAVALIN]

Governmentcitescabinet

confidentiality,deniesaccess

towitnessesanddocuments

Probetobefrozenduring

electioncampaignunder

RCMPinternalguidelines

Howreaderscanhelp

TheGlobemonitor

politicaladvertising

onFacebook A

Trudeautokickoff

campaignwithmorning

visittoRideauHall A

Howthepoliticalparties

plantotackleclimate

change A

Leadersneedtotone

downclimaterhetoric,

KonradYakabuski

writes A

DANIELLEBLANC

ROBERTFIFEOTTAWA