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foreign
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[Music]
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into the allegations of irregularities
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in Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s more than
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eight billion dollar land swap aimed at
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building housing on the Greenbelt around
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Toronto this investigation was announced
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as we learned of this sudden resignation
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of Ryan Amato who is the chief of staff
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for Ontario’s housing Minister Amato was
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the staffer responsible for choosing
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which sites would be opened for
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development for a closer look at this
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investigation we’re joined by lawyer
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Tanya Walker good morning to you nice to
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see you
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good morning to you thank you for having
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me so the RCMP says it’s assessing
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whether or not to investigate this land
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swap after it was referred by the by
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Ontario’s provincial police why is this
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with the rcmpm what are they assessing
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well why this is with your CMP is
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because the Ontario Provincial Police
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asked your CMP to take over the Ontario
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Provincial Police said that they wanted
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to avoid any perceived conflicts of
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interest however particulars about the
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perceived conflicts of interest were not
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provided so I would expect our RCMP to
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determine whether or not any criminal
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charges would be laid as a result of the
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report that was released by the auditor
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general I want to expand on that a
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little bit because what will the rcmb
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investigation likely focus on
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uh I would I would believe that the
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investigation would focus on what could
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lead to criminal charge such as bribery
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so you would need evidence that
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um any of the developers bribed any uh
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government officials and um that might
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be difficult to prove you need it in
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writing
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um to definitely say you can prove this
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Beyond A Reasonable Doubt so you need
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access to records emails
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um any type of documentation to
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substantiate this and maybe even
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Financial records to see if there were
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any deposits made in government
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officials account bank account during
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the time that these land developments
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were rendered or given permission to to
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develop will that be difficult to access
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this this paper trail
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I’m not too sure I would think that the
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RCMP would be able to ask for this
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documentation or get it themselves I’m
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not sure if uh it would be easy to
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determine whether or not uh Financial
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deposit a large one would uh mean that
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someone was right it’s a bit of an
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uphill battle to demonstrate this and
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prove this Beyond a reasonable doubt
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that’s what that’s what I believe what
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could this mean for Ontario Premier Doug
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Ford
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well it would have to be evidence that
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Doug Ford uh knew or should have known
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um that this happened
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um and also in terms of bribery that
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Doug Ford was also bribed I think that
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would be difficult to demonstrate
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um because if there’s a donation made to
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his party it doesn’t necessarily mean
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that there was bribery so I I believe
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there will be a little bit of a
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challenge to prove this this story is
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just starting
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sorry I forgot to mention that uh the
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charges for bribing um an official it
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could be uh 14 up to 14 years in jail
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and an undetermined fine if someone is
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convicted of doing this well we’ll watch
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and see how this plays out Tanya Walker
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thank you
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thank you
