Open and Transparent Government

"For a period of approximately four months between September and December of 2018, I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people in the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion."
"Leaving aside job losses ... where they became very clearly inappropriate was when political issues came up like the election in Quebec, like [the current Liberal government] losing the [October federal] election if SNC were to move their headquarters, conversations like that."
"Conversations like the one I had with the Clerk of the Privy Council who invoked the prime minister's name throughout the entirety of the conversation, spoke to me about the prime minister being dug in, spoke to me about his concerns as to what would happen. In my mind those were veiled threats and I took them as such. That is entirely inappropriate."
"At that point [Trudeau] jumped in, stressing that there is an election in Quebec and that 'I am an MP in Quebec -- the member for Papineau'. I was quite taken aback. My response, and I vividly remember this as well, was to ask [Trudeau] a direct question while looking him in the eye. I asked: 'Are you politically interfering with my role, my decision as the attorney general? I would strongly advise against it'. The Prime Minister said, 'No, no, no -- we just need to find a solution."
"He [Finance Minister Morneau] again stressed the need to save jobs and I told him that engagements from his office to mine on SNC [Lavalin] had to stop, that they were inappropriate."
Jody Wilson-Raybould, Liberal Member of Parliament for Vancouver-Granville, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Vancouver Granville MP Jody Wilson-Raybould participates in the Chinese New Year Parade in Vancouver. Interviews with constituents in her riding following her explosive testimony on Wednesday reveal support, as well as concerns.  (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press)

There it is, in black-and-white, no obfuscations, no denials, no pledges of loyalty to a government reeling in disbelief that one of their own would frankly call them out as she did, recalling the details from notes and keen memory of four months of unrelenting harassment and attempts at intimidation to have her change her mind about taking steps to overturn her Public Prosecutor Office's head's decision not to offer SNC-Lavalin the sought-after deferred prosecution, and instead proceed with a criminal trial against the engineering-construction giant on fraud and corruption charges.

"The Prime Minister asks me to help out, to find a solution here for SNC, citing that if there was no [deferred prosecution] there would be many jobs lost and that SNC will move from Montreal." This during a scheduled meeting set up to urgently discuss a completely unrelated matter, which Justin Trudeau kicked off by immediately bringing up the 'more urgent' need to discuss how she, as Minister of Justice could override her decision not to interfere with the director of the Public Prosecution's decision to go to trial. This from a man who consistently claimed he had made no effort to 'direct' his-then Minister of Justice in the matter.

The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Veterans Affairs Minister Jodie Wilson-Raybould attend a swearing in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Jan. 14, 2019.

The irony here for SNC-Lavalin is that they had strenuously lobbied the Liberal government at every level of influence to convince the Prime Minister and his Cabinet that Canada badly needed to rethink a law that the previous government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper under the Conservatives brought in to ensure that corporate malfeasance would not go unnoticed in the justice system. The adjustment to the law occurred as a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, brought in on an omnibus finance bill, the better to be unnoticed by Parliament.

That DPA was the work of SNC-Lavalin influencing government with respect to its need. And if all went as planned, Quebec-based SNC-Lavalin would become the first beneficiary of the new exculpatory device which requires that a company plead guilty to the charges against it, pay a fine, pledge to remediate its practices and be permitted to go about its business. Its business includes competing for government contracts worth billions. Without that DPA in their favour, and a trial at which given the evidence of millions in bribes to Libyan government officials they would be found guilty.

Found guilty of the charges brought against them one of the penalties exacted would be a ten-year moratorium on bidding for government contracts; effectively shut out of lucrative contracts at a time when government has pledged to pursue expensive and extensive country-wide infrastructure upgrades. Jody Wilson-Raybould was resolute and determined that justice would be served, irrespective of the situation which made the prime minister, her boss, very uncomfortable for the longevity of his government with a federal election looming.

The Clerk of the Privy Council, the highest-level civil servant whose job was to oversee the civil service and answer directly to the Prime Minister's Office in that regard, a position which is meant to be politically neutral, took it upon himself to lecture and to harass an elected Minister of the Crown in one of the most prestigious and powerful positions of State. When he testified before the same House of Commons Justice committee, he exonerated the prime minister, his staff and himself from any vestige of attempting to force Jody Wilson-Raybould to reverse her decision.

The Clerk, Michael Wernick, took it upon himself to warn the-then Minister of Justice that the Prime Minister was determined to override her decision and it was up to her to enable that to happen. Prime Minister Trudeau's senior adviser, Gerry Butts, since resigned, informed her that the Director of Public Prosecutions Act, separating the prosecution service from the Justice Department (to ensure freedom from undue political pressure) "was a statute passed by Harper", and thus expendable.

The public has now been fully apprised of the background to the firing of Jody Wilson-Raybould from her position as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Her demotion directly linked to her integrity and refusal to bend to political pressure, to bypass lawful and legal and needful prosecution of criminal acts. Once she had been advised she was removed from the position, and before it even took effect, her deputy minister was advised that her replacement as Minister of Justice would need to be fully briefed on the SNC-Lavalin affair, so that they could move forward on the file....

Adrian Wyld/CP

Jody Wilson-Raybould leaves a justice committee meeting in Ottawa on Feb. 27, 2019.