Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was in crisis on this date in 2019 with the resignation of Indigenous leader Jody Wilson-Reybould from cabinet. Her decision to leave cabinet came after she was demoted to Minister of Veterans Affairs the previous month after serving as Minister of Justice. She made her decision after she was pressured by the PMO and Privy Council to defer prosecution of SNC-Lavalin in an ongoing investigation of the company. Trudeau later expelled her from caucus. Jane Philpott resigned her cabinet post in solidarity with her Indigenous friend and colleague. She too would be expelled from the Liberal ranks.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.