After weeks of maneuvering by the Canadian government to secure a lucrative contract in Trinidad and Tobago for graft-tainted engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, the government of that Caribbean nation has announced that it isn't interested in dealing with a company that has "difficulty in passing the test of confidence." T&T can see that the company cannot be trusted, so why can't the Canadian government?

The Canadian government is doing what it can to help corruption-plagued SNC-Lavalin get a lucrative contract to build a $163-million hospital complex in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago. The injudiciousness of the decision by one Canadian federal government agency to arrange an untendered, closed-door deal for SNC-Lavalin while another, the federal police force, investigates the company for wrongdoing seems lost on government officials. Canadians would be right to charge that our government is failing to maintain proper standards in the handling of public projects.