As the fun was winding down in Dildo, Jimmy Kimmel having
accepted the title of Honorary Mayor rather than face an Election, Judge
Richard LeBlanc was wrapping up the Inquiry into the Muskrat Falls Project. It
was time to begin the contemplation of a problem far harder than that which had
excited Kimmel’s viewers all week.
Likely, Kimmel had stolen even the “die-hards” who might have otherwise
tuned in for the Inquiry’s last inning. There was no pleasure to be had in
Goose Bay anyway. There was only the pained legal verbiage of banal lawyers
representing Nalcor and the venal politicians — the “culprits” — as well as the
“contractors” (Astaldi), the “silent” (Newfoundland
Power), and the senior bureaucrats, the “submissives”, whose practiced
deference helped create the debacle.
Judge LeBlanc will have the last word; unlike Kimmel, cautious
metaphor will be the least of his problems.
