Canada's Liberal Government of Justin Trudeau

"There's never been two resignations in recent memory of people resigning on principle ... together."
"The difference here is that Trudeau explicitly promised in the last election to do business differently than previous governments [transparency, equality, ministers free to run their departments free from prime ministerial interference]."
"In the past, one of the things -- and there are exceptions to this -- that would have characterized the cabinet appointment would have been, at a minimum, vetting for pretty severe levels of loyalty to the party. In this case, that wasn't something the prime minister prioritized when he put his cabinet together."
"[Wilson-Raybould and Philpott hadn't been] socialized to that norm [of the leader-centric model that Trudeau has claimed he rejected]. When he tried to tell them what to do on a particular issue, they just said no."
Chris Cochrane, politics professor, University of Toronto

"Secret in-camera meetings or private notices should not be a shield to prevent the upholding of the law and members' [Members of Parliament] rights."
"We were expelled prior to the commencement of the Liberal caucus meeting. The prime minister's words that night to the Liberal caucus are important to underscore, because expulsion should not be his decision to take unilaterally. However, the decision had been already made."
"This is a constitutional convention [one codified in the Parliament of Canada Act]."
"[Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to eject former cabinet ministers Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould from the Liberal caucus represented] a breach of the Parliament of Canada Act."
Former Minister of Health and Treasury Board President Dr. Jane Philpott

Former cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott have been expelled from the Liberal caucus. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Dr. Philpott, now sitting as an Independent in the House of Commons since last week being ejected from the Liberal caucus by Justin Trudeau, and refused, along with Jody Wilson-Raybould, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, to run in the forthcoming federal election as Liberals as they had intended, accuses the Liberals of having failed to hold a legally required caucus vote in the wake of the 2015 election in recognition of expulsions from caucus, upholding the reality that MPs are not accountable to the party leader; the leader is accountable to Members of Parliament.

But then, bypassing legalities, particularly those that were passed into law by the previous Conservative-led government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is a favourite with this parliament. When Justin Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister he intended to fashion a new Canada and began by re-naming government departments to better reflect his agenda and his 'new direction' for Canada, while ironically proclaiming when abroad to his G-20 peers, "Canada is Back!"

He meant, of course, Liberal-led Canada. And like his father before him, his Canada would be socialist, progressive in orientation, with a kind eye toward repressive, socialist countries like China and Cuba. Trudeau was anxious to make his mark on the world stage and he began by demonstrating how cheerfully Canadian he is, open to progressive idealism that embraced the world at large, women and labour, the environment and refugees, Indigenous Canadians and the LGBTQ-2 community in an equal and open setting of mutual admiration.

He set out to cut a dashing figure in India, and succeeded. He somehow managed to ally himself repeatedly with those suspected of terrorist activities, sympathetically offering them 'understanding' and Canadian tax awards to ameliorate hurt feelings. He endeared himself to minority enclaves and brought into his cabinet ministers born in Afghanistan and Somalia, authorized to act in the very best interests of their adopted country. Muslims have pride of place in the Liberal caucus and "Islamophobia" does not.

Although the previous cabinet under Stephen Harper's Conservatives had almost equal representation between men and women, Justin Trudeau was quick to strut with pride and exclaim his 'feminist' credentials for dividing positions equally between men and women, issues such as experience and qualifications set aside as irrelevant. At every turn Trudeau made a concerted effort to set aside anything the previous government had brought into law, including the aforementioned Parliament of Canada Act with its amendment to decentralize political power back into the hands of ordinary legislators.

The deposed Wilson-Raybould had been a Crown prosecutor, a treaty commissioner, the regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations when she was crowned by Justin Trudeau as the first Aboriginal woman to hold the cabinet post of Minister of Justice. She has testified that she was hounded aggressively by order of the prime minister to have her change her mind about not instructing the prosecution service to offer engineering-construction giant SNC Lavalin a deferred prosecution rather than a criminal trial. She refused and was removed from her post.

Dr. Philpott's career was as a family doctor, an associate professor at University of Toronto, with advocacy work for HIV/AIDS in Africa in her portfolio. She decided to support Jody Wilson-Raybould with whom she had worked in close collaboration while both were in Cabinet, protesting that she had been dealt with unethically and unfairly, and calling upon the prime minister to do the honourable thing and admit his culpability. She resigned her post voluntarily, after Wilson-Raybould had resigned from her brief stint as Minister of Veterans Affairs to emphasize her claims of political interference.

There is a mystery to all of this. The Liberal caucus embarked on a smear-whisper campaign against both these women who have stood their ground, demanding accountability of the prime minister and his loyal henchmen for having pressured Wilson-Raybould to accede to Justin Trudeau's plan to save SNC-Lavalin from a criminal trial and the fall-out from conviction which would eliminate SNC from any government contracts for a decade, to which the company threatened a move of its corporate offices abroad, and the relinquishing of Canadian jobs.

Given the extent of what the public knows now about the behind-the-scenes, unethical behaviour and bullying on the part of the prime minister and his flunkies, and the associated condemnatory behaviour of the Liberal caucus in standing firm behind the prime minister as they are expected to do as ideologues and participants in a personality cult of a leader who will not be denied his way, why would both these women who resigned and spoke the truth on a matter of conscience and principle, insist they must be reinstated as Liberals?

• Jody Wilson-Raybould (far left) and Jane Philpott (second from left) were illegally bounced out of caucus without a vote, contends long-time Vancouver Liberal Bert Paul. MCPL MATHIEU GAUDREAULT, RIDEAU HALL

A Civil Servant's Interpretation of Canadian Law

"So while I typed out notes during the phone call, I took the extraordinary and otherwise inappropriate step of making an audio recording of the conversation without so advising the Clerk."
"This is something that I have never done before this phone call and have not done since."
"It does not matter how I would look in doing that -- I would be a mockery, and that is not the problem -- [in acceding to the persistent and frequent urging of principals in the PMO and the Clerk of the Privy Council to shelve her moral principles and go astride the law to satisfy the wish for the Prime Minister to shield SNC Lavalin from criminal prosecution], the bigger problem is what it would look like down the road for the government."
"One, it has never been done before, but two, this is going to look like nothing but political interference by the prime minister, by you, by everyone else that has been involved in politically pressuring me to do this."
"This conversation, previous conversations I’ve had with the PM and people around him are entirely inappropriate. It is political interference."
Jody Wilson-Raybould, former Minister of Justice

"You are not just the attorney general, you are the minister of justice in a cabinet. I am not seeing anything inappropriate here."
"That is not my recollection of the conversation [above]. I do not have an independent recollection of the event. I did not wear a wire, record the conversation or take extemporaneous notes."
Michael Wernick, former Clerk of the Privy Council

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould take part in the grand entrance as the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation commission is released on Dec. 15, 2015. (The Canadian Press)

"[The clerk of the Privy Council Office (PCO) never briefed Justin Trudeau on his talk with ex-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould."
"[The Prime Minister was] unaware of the full contents of this recording before today."
"[The prime minister] should have spoken directly with the former justice minister and attorney general about this matter — and wishes that she had come to him."
"[There was] clearly an erosion of trust over the past few months between PMO, the clerk of the Privy Council, and the former justice minister and attorney general."
Statement from the Prime Minister's Office

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau professed to being confused over his former Attorney-General's claims of having been relentlessly harassed by his executive assistants and advisers. They, evidently, took it upon themselves with no guidance whatever from him, much less orders, to press Jody Wilson-Rayboult to reconsider her decision not to intervene when the prosecutorial services decided not to extend a DPA agreement to SNC Lavalin over its criminal bribery (under Canadian law) of Libyan officials to secure contracts.

A Delayed Prosecution Agreement which would have resulted in the construction and engineering firm paying a fine, pledging to reform, and getting on with business rather than facing a criminal trial and being restricted from government contracts for a ten-year penalty period. The prosecution service, held to be immune from political interference had determined that SNC did not qualify under the provisions that might exempt it from a criminal trial, and the former Minister of Justice agreed. And she was not amenable to being badgered by anyone to reverse her judgement.

When Michael Wernick returned again to the subject with Wilson-Raybould he made it clear that he was intervening on the direct orders of the prime minister: "Alright...um...well I am going to have to report back before he leaves...he is in a pretty firm frame of mind about this so...I am a bit worried..." It takes no genius mind to infer from that statement that direct and immediate contact took place between himself and the prime minister and what the subject was. And the threat implicit in "Well...it is not a good idea for the Prime Minister and his Attorney General to be at loggerheads" speaks volumes of the reason for Wilson-Raybould's removal as Minister of Justice.

And certainly while Clerk of the Privy Council snapped at the Justice Committee interviewing him about the matter that he wasn't wearing a wire, that he hadn't made a recording, that he simply did not recall the type of details that in her testimony before the committee Jody Wilson-Raybould made it quite clear just how she was being pressured by all and sundry to change her judgement in favour of following the prime minister's line because "jobs were at stake", his recalcitrance to recall was laid bare by the simple reality that someone else recorded a critical conversation revealing absolute proof of malfeasance and false testimony.

And, as Wilson Raybould admitted when she realized that the fix was in and she was about to suffer the consequences: "I am waiting for big...the other shoe to drop, so I am not under any illusion how the Prime Minister has and gets things that he wants...I am just stuck doing the best job that I can..." presaging her dismissal and how wise she was in retrospect to record that damning conversation for posterity and an unfortunate legacy for this dismal failure of a Liberal government headed by a pretentious and unprepared-to-govern, egotistical dilettante.

"The prime minister stated publicly when issues about the propriety of the government's conduct in relation to the SNC matter arose that my ongoing presence in cabinet spoke for itself."
"I resigned the next day and I trust my resignation also speaks for itself."
Jody Wilson-Raybould

The Master Manipulator's Voice : Miscommunication

"The fact that the company [Montreal-based engineering-construction corporation SNC-Lavalin] involved employs so many people across the country heightened the public importance of the matter."
"That was the entirety of our advice to the attorney general [ex-attorney general Jody Wilson-
Raybould], which we made clear she was free to accept or not."
"We respected the attorney general's authority at all times and did our jobs with integrity at all times."

Gerald Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"The prime minister asked me to help out to find a solution here for SNC, citing that if there is no DPA [deferred prosecution agreement], there would be many jobs lost and that SNC would move from Montreal."
Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould

"Unfortunately, the evidence of efforts by politicians and/or officials to pressure the former attorney general to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence as to the content of those efforts have raised serious concerns for me."
"The solemn principles at stake are the independence and integrity of our justice system. It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our attorney general should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases. Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised."
Resignation letter, Treasury Board Minister Jane Philpott

"It does seem remarkably tone-deaf on the part of the government if they really were harping [on Wilson-Raybould] to this extent, knowing full well what the law says."
"If the OECD determined that Canada was making prosecutorial decisions for economic reasons] we would risk that Canadian companies would not get the benefit of equivalent provisions in other OECD countries, chiefly the U.S. and the U.K."
Jennifer Quaid, expert on corporate criminal liability, University of Ottawa

"It may not violate the Criminal Code, but it violates the rule of law. You're trying to influence [Wilson-Raybould] to make a decision based on a factor that has already been taken off the table."
"[Wilson-Raybould appears to have been counselled to consider something] explicitly prohibited."
Law Professor Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, University of British Columbia

Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould prepares to testify before a justice committee hearing on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on February 27, 2019. LARS HAGBERG/AFP/Getty Images

Under section 715.32(3) of the Criminal Code it is forbidden for prosecutors to consider the "national economic interest" when it comes to the determination whether to grant certain deferred prosecution agreements, and certainly in the case of SNC-Lavalin that would apply. Yet the former attorney general of Canada testified under oath before the Commons Justice Committee that she was explicitly informed she was expected to seek a DPA for the company related to potential "jobs lost".

It was Justin Trudeau's very own government that brought this new measure outlining the "national economic interests" measure into the Criminal Code. The text is taken directly from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Anti-Bribery Convention, signed and ratified by Canada, as a member of the OECD which monitors compliance. Any contravention of 715.32(3) while constituting a breach of a Criminal Code provision also affects Canadian participation in an international agreement designed to quash judicial favouritism of a country's corporations.

The independent public prosecutorial office reporting to the Minister of Justice had determined that it would not offer a DPA to SNC-Lavalin, and prepared to continue with a criminal trial relating to the construction company's $48-million bribery of Libyan officials to ensure it had entry to construction contracts in Libya. The officials in the Prime Minister's Office harried and hounded the attorney general to overturn the decision of the director of public prosecutions in the interests of 'saving jobs' at SNC-Lavalin which would be disciplined if found guilty at trial by being disqualified for a decade from pursuing government contracts.

The Attorney General refused to bend to requests directly from the Prime Minister, from his office staff, from the clerk of the Privy Council and others, including the Finance Minister, to alter her decision in favour of SNC-Lavalin's request for a deferred prosecution which would allow it to pay a fine, promise to reform its culture of corruption, and continue to compete for government contracts.
The Prime Minister then levied a fine of discipline upon his Minister of Justice, removing her from that post and moving her to head a less visible and vital ministry.

Now the Liberal government denies any such pressure having been placed on Wilson-Raybould; it was all just an unfortunate misunderstanding. A miscommunication that can occur when people talk past one another. All the times that the attorney general stated she was determined to ensure that justice prevail and she would under no circumstances change her mind and to please stop harassing her and her staff, appear not to have been noticed by those pressing her.

As for her surprise dismissal from her post as Minister of Justice, it had nothing whatever to do with the SNC-Lavalin affair; purely coincidental. As Prime Minister Trudeau said, when he was confronted with a charge that he had sexually manhandled a reporter years ago, people experience events differently. And as his principal secretary Gerald Butts said on this more recent occasion, no one is guilty of anything, we all just experience events differently.

Don't we just....

Safeguarding Canadian Jobs : Manipulating Voter Selection

"I and my team always acted in an appropriate and professional manner. So I am not in agreement with the characterization of events that the former attorney general gave in her testimony."
"We have always defended and looked to protect jobs in Canada and we will always do so."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gives remarks at the Labourers' International Union of North America, Local 183 Stewards Seminar in Toronto on Saturday, February 23, 2019.  (Christopher Katsarov / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

"I never raised this issue [proffering a Deferred Prosecution Agreement to SNC-Lavalin to avoid a criminal trial for fraud and corruption] with Ms. Jody Wilson-Raybould. She approached me to tell me that my staff was approaching her staff, which I think is entirely appropriate."
"My staff, appropriately, would make her staff aware of the economic consequences of decisions, about the importance of thinking about jobs."
"She is entitled to her opinion."
Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance

"[Was it empathy for workers that led Trudeau to save SNC-Lavalin?] No. Because Justin needs votes in Quebec to win his next election."
"Imagine if [former Conservative Prime Minister] Stephen Harper acted that way. The Red Cross would have to send doctors to Radio-Canada [French-language CBC] to treat journalist victims of apoplexy."
"[If Quebecers continue supporting Trudeau now, in spite of this attack on the independence of the justice system] we are imbeciles."
Journalist Richard Martineau, Le Journal de Québec

"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

Thos cartoon appeared in the March 1 issue of Journal de Montreal. (Ygreck/Journal de Montreal)

A political bombshell was dropped over Parliament, the Government of Canada and the country at large on Wednesday when former Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould, removed from her position weeks after she had informed Prime Minister Trudeau and all his subordinates who had incessantly hounded her to have her overrule her Director of Public Prosecutions in advising SNC-Lavalin, facing a criminal trial for corporate malfeasance that her directorate would not agree to a DPA which would permit the Quebec-based engineering and construction firm to plead guilty, pay a fine, assure its corporate culture swore off fraud and bribery to allow it to get on with its customary bidding for governmental projects.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould was enabled in her testimony before the Commons Justice Committee hearings to unburden herself of the stress of carrying her indignation and outrage at her Liberal colleagues beleaguering her to bypass the rule of law to satisfy the electoral chances of re-election in October for the Liberal Party, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues. They stressed the need to be a 'team player' by circumventing a law the previous government had installed to ensure that such scandalous Liberal illegal activities would not re-occur, by separating the Prosecutor's Office from the executive branch of government to make the former independent of the latter's potential interference.

As former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, this was a law that Ms. Wilson-Raybould was committed to upholding in the prosecution of her office. An office which in theory, was supposed to be free of any measure of interference by the Prime Minister or any members of the government, a code that they all breached with thoughts of impunity. A penalty was exacted upon the former Minister of Justice when it became evident she had no intention of doing their bidding to ensure a corrupt business venture's release from justice would result in the restoration of plentiful votes in Quebec.

SNC-Lavalin employs 50,000 people globally in its vast outreach as a competitive construction conglomerate, and 9,000 in Canada, almost 5,000 in Quebec alone. Canada's oil and gas industry whose economic value to the Canadian economy is vastly greater, employing far more workers directly and indirectly in the field and associated spin-offs, has faced resistance from this government, loathe to support the extraction and export of Canadian fossil fuels, preferring to import Saudi oil over providing Western Canadian fuel to eastern Canada. Prime Minister Trudeau's constant mantra of devotion to Canadian jobs rings hollow in light of reality.

SNC-Lavalin entered a "voluntary reimbursement program" with the Quebec government "to ensure mainly the recovery of amounts improperly paid as a result of fraud or fraudulent tactics in connection with public contracts". Once paid back the "participants could obtain a discharge that protected them from civil proceedings for fraud or fraudulent tactics", enabling them to continue bidding for government contracts. So much for changing the corporate giant's business culture.

In 2015 SMC-Lavalin and the African Development Bank Group reached a settlement "regarding allegations of sanctionable practices" by a company subsidiary in relation to two AfDE-financed projects, one located in Uganda, the second in Mozambique. The agreement "resolves allegations uncontested by the company of illicit payments ordered by former SNC International Inc. employees to public officials in order to secure contracts". "A conditional non-debarment for a period of two years and 10 months" ensued with the repayment of $1.5 million.

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. was forced to reimburse $117,803 in illegal contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada, to various Liberal riding associations and contestants in the Liberal Party's leadership race of 2006. The reimbursement was to its own employees for company-ordered contributions. The World Bank debarred SNC-Lavalin and 100 of its affiliates for a ten-year period in reflection of its corrupt business practices related to "the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project in Bangladesh" along with misconduct relating to another World Bank-financed Rural Electrification and Transmission project in Cambodia.

Its grasping, twisting tentacles reach near and far.

The currently-approaching criminal trials where the company is charged with fraud and corruption dates back to 2000 - 2011 for bribery to the value of $48-million in payoffs to corrupt Libyan officials in exchange for Libyan construction contracts, now awaiting trial in two Canadian courts. Despite all of this damning reality, several months after the Liberals assumed power in government, it signed an "administrative agreement" with SNC-Lavalin, giving it the freedom to bid and win contracts even though these criminal charges were pending.

An agreement, according to the federal Public Services and Procurement branch, particular to SNC-Lavalin, representing the only supplier in Canada fortunate enough to have been signed to such an agreeable compact.

Trudeau refuses opposition demand to recall Parliament over SNC-Lavalin affair

Stepping out: Trudeau will be far from Ottawa as the MPs look into the allegations; he is expected to attend a climate-change rally in Toronto Monday evening, the start of a number of events planned across the country next week.  (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Something's Happening Here ...What It is Ain't Exactly Clear 

"It is a pillar of our democracy that our system of justice be free from even the perception of political interference and uphold the highest levels of public confidence."
"As such, it has always been my view that the Attorney General of Canada must be non-partisan, more transparent in the principles that are the basis of decisions, and, in this respect, always willing to speak truth to power."
Jody Wilson-Raybould, former Minister  of Justice

A Globe and Mail story Thursday said Jody Wilson-Raybould was shuffled from her portfolio after she refused to ask federal prosecutors to make a plea bargain deal with Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

"At no time did I or my office direct the current or previous attorney general to make any particular decision in this matter [of the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavelin, Montreal]."
"The allegations in the Globe story this morning are false. Neither the current nor the previous attorney general was ever directed by me, or by anyone in my office, to take a decision in this matter."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during an event at the Toronto Region Board of Trade in Toronto on Feb. 7, 2019.    Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail

"We engage with companies of all sizes from different regions and we want to hear their concerns, so I have no doubt that [SNC-Lavalin] probably raised the issue with my team or my officials."
"But again, our policies are designed to be agnostic to any one sector or any one company."
Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development

Former SNC-Lavalin vice-president Normand Morin pleaded guilty to violating the Canadian election finance laws, related to a scandal where the company reimbursed its employees for the amount they donated to political parties. Over $117,000 was donated, most of it to the tune of $83,534 to the Liberal Party of Canada, along with $13,552 to Liberal riding associations,with an additional $12,529 to Liberal leadership candidates. Of the remainder less than $10,000 was donated to the Conservative party and its riding associations.

Clearly, as far as SNC-Lavalin is concerned as a corporate body out of Montreal, its best interests in accessing big-ticket public works projects is through the Liberal Party of Canada which has traditionally had its most solid voting base in that province. SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is billions of dollars entrenched in federal contracts as its long history of building major infrastructure projects in Canada attests. Found guilty of a bribery and fraud charge, the company would by law be barred from bidding on federal contracts for a decade, to the point where even current contracts would be cancelled.

Charges under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act -- that SNC-Lavalin funnelled $48 million in bribes to Libyan government officials and the Gadhafi family for government contracts in Libya are yet to be resolved -- the case in preliminary hearings, no date for trial yet set. SNC-Lavalin is anxious to avoid conviction on any charges that would lock them out of the infrastructure program the government is rolling out to the tune of $186.7-billion to improve roads, bridges, clean power facilities and telecom lines. And the Liberal government reciprocally would be pleased to contract it.

When Canada's first female of Aboriginal descent was appointed to the important position of Attorney General of Canada, little did it occur to Justin Trudeau that he was placing an indomitable will to justice in that position, one who would be unbending in her fidelity to the responsibility bestowed upon her with that title. Her summary and surprising removal as Minister of Justice has now been explicated with the suspicion that her decision to continue the case against SNC-Lavalin in the best pursuit of justice did not sit well with her boss and his cronies.

According to Frederic Bastien, an analyst at Raymond James, SNC -- the employer of thousands of workers in Montreal where Justin Trudeau's Papineau riding is located, and where the coming federal election sees a critical need for Liberal support in Quebec -- the company has some $8.6 billion-worth of planned infrastructure projects mostly in Canada. "If they're found guilty, they're barred from bidding on federal contract jobs. It's very critical to the business that that doesn't happen. The bulk of the work that they do in Canada is for the government."

On March 27, 2018 Bill C-74, one of those omnibus budget bills, was introduced in Parliament. Within that bill was an item on remediation agreements, which passed into law three months later. Under a remediation agreement, corporations are permitted to pay a fine in lieu of criminal charges, allowing them then to continue business operations as usual under condition they then put in place corporate compliance measures. CEO Neil Bruce of SNC appealed to Ottawa to allow his company to make its case for a DPA.

The Director of the Public Prosecutions, Kathleen Roussel, makes the ultimate decision whether to pursue a remedial agreement, and SNC-Lavalin was informed in October of 2018 that negotiation of an agreement would not be extended to it. The criminal charges would proceed. For this, it would now appear, justice-minded Jody Wilson-Raybould was relieved of her position as Minister of Justice. And Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, steadily asserts neither he nor his office 'directed' the former minister to do other than her duty to Canada.

"It was a surprise in the sense of the possible depth of what could be a scandal. It’s no surprise to us that she stood up to it. That’s the type of person she is—very strong-willed and determined. While I have never been elected at that level, I do know what goes on up there [Ottawa]."
"It’s the same old, same old. I spent some time in Ottawa, though not as an elected official, so it’s not a surprise that these things happen. There’s huge money involved. If you look at SNC-Lavalin, they represent the lifeblood of Montreal and the surrounding area. The outgoing [CEO]…freely admits to …[millions]… in bribe money. It seems to be the way things are done."
"But if the PMO told her [daughter Jody Wilson-Raybould] that she should shut up about Indian Affairs and reconciliation, now you’re really talking about the violation of one’s integrity. The reality is that with Trudeau and this government, reconciliation is more a farce than the Conservatives. They’ve been dancing around the table, just as the old man [P.E. Trudeau] did with me."
Bill Wilson, Musgamagw hereditary chief, Campbell River, B.C.