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)

A Governmental Scandal Swallowing Justin Trudeau

"It is my conclusion and my assertion based on all the information that I have that there was no inappropriate pressure on the Minister of Justice in this matter."
"I conveyed to her [former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould] that a lot of her colleagues and the prime minister were quite anxious about what they were hearing and reading in the business press about the future of the company [SNC Lavalin, Quebec-based engineering giant], the options that were being openly discussed in the business press about the company moving or closing."
"So I can tell you with complete assurance that my view of those conversations is that they were within the boundaries of what's lawful and appropriate; I was informing the minister of context."
"She may have another view of the conversation, but that's something that the ethics commissioner could sort out."
"I am here to say to you that The Globe and Mail article [that first raised the alert over political interference in Canada's justice system] contains errors, unfounded speculation, and in some cases is simply defamatory."
"I worry about the rising tides of incitements to violence when people use terms like 'treason' and traitor' in open discourse. These are the words that lead to assassination."
Michael Wernick, Clerk of the Privy Council

Trudeau and Wilson-Raybould attend a swearing in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

The Quebec-based engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin Inc. with its global reach employing an estimated 50,000 workers internationally and just under ten thousand throughout Canada, has been growing its business exponentially, with the aid of millions it has paid out in bribes to foreign authorities to enable it to win contracts abroad. Quebec itself has a wholly-deserved-and-earned reputation for graft and criminal proceedings in its own construction projects; this fast-and-loose business atmosphere seems congenital.

SNC-Lavalin is facing a trial it would much rather not be involved in, since the evidence available will assuredly ensure that it will be found guilty of criminal offences under Canada's laws penalizing Canadian corporations that bribe foreign officials. Should it indeed be found guilty, under that law which will exact a financial penalty, the other, far more injurious penalty to the company will be shutting it out of the privilege of bidding for government contracts within Canada for a decade.

Executives with the company undertook to lobby the prime minister's office and any other Members of Parliament that could be useful to their case of avoiding trial; no fewer than 50 high-level lobbying meetings took place. The company lobbied for an act of Parliament to bring in a dispute resolution, effectively a remediation agreement that would allow the company to evade trial, plead guilty, pay a fine and promise to reform its corrupt business practices.

That convention, otherwise called a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), was tucked into an omnibus economic bill presented to Parliament, but never identified much less debated, and was approved along with the complex add-on bill. Leading SNC-Lavalin to believe they were 'home-free'. But the Public Prosecution Service informed them that a trial was set to proceed nonetheless. The-then Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould refused to intervene, preferring for justice to take its course.

Despite which, she was pressured on a number of occasions by the prime minister's chief adviser, Gerry Butts, the prime minister himself, and eventually the Clerk of the Privy Council, a civil servant who had reached the pinnacle of civil service as head of the entire civil service, a non-elected official taking it upon himself to lecture an elected Member of Parliament and one of the most senior of the government's Cabinet Ministers. A man who spoke, astoundingly, of the danger of 'assassination'.

The DPA is clearly not meant to be utilized as a get-out-of-jail-free passport to any company which, like SNC-Lavalin has engaged in truly criminally egregious business practices that embroiled their top executives in handing out millions in bribes to foreign movers-and-shakers for lucrative contracts. In any event, one of the issues that the DPA warns it cannot be used for, is the protection of jobs. In that the issue of supporting employment is a non-starter in evaluating who may qualify for a DPA.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, under questioning by the official opposition and other political parties, much less journalists, continues to engage in circumlocution rather than respond directly to the questions put to him, questions such as why it was that he chose to yank a Minister of Justice whom he assured a decision on the matter was hers to make, out of the ministry and given instead a relatively minor ministry of Veterans Affairs. 

The timeline of meetings that took place between himself, the former Attorney General, his principal secretary Mr. Butts, (now resigned, falling on his sword as Trudeau's confidant and chief adviser; his Eminence Grise), and the Clerk of the Privy Council and the pressure placed on the Attorney General speak volumes of the government's desire to avoid a trial for an influential Quebec company at a time when a federal election looms close on the horizon, and Quebec votes are in danger of wavering should SNC-Lavalin face a guilty verdict.

The Prime Minister, his confidant Mr. Butts and Canada's senior civil servant all stressed the potential loss of thousands of jobs should SNC-Lavalin go under. They're talking about a possible 10,000 jobs nation-wide. On the other hand, Justin Trudeau's complete disinterest in building badly needed pipelines to ship Alberta oil to foreign destinations, much less to Eastern Canada to replace Saudi oil imports has resulted in a shutdown of investment and the loss of an estimated 100,000 jobs in the oil industry in Western Canada.

A government is meant to unify a country in a common purpose. Where's the justice?

SNC posted gloomy quarterly earnings that showed the company lost $1.6 billion in the past three months. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

"This is a crisis that has become all about Justin Trudeau. He has badly mishandled the affair from the beginning, driving one of his most important cabinet appointments into a rebellion over who is to be believed."
"He has undermined his oft-repeated claims of devotion to a feminist agenda and Indigenous reconciliation. He is seeking to control the damage via a wall of silence that belies his pledge of an open and transparent administration. He is forcing members of his caucus to choose sides, putting their fear of public fallout against the words of a colleague whose job was to protect and follow the law."
"And he has yet to answer why he demoted Wilson-Raybould from her job after she stood up to him. If not as punishment, then why? And if it was indeed punishment, what does that say about Justin Trudeau, his respect for women, and all the talk of higher principles we've had from this government?"
Kelly McParland, journalist, National Post

'Our employees are being used as the puck in a political hockey game,' Neil Bruce says   
Neil Bruce has been CEO of SNC Lavalin since 2015. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

A Country Divided

"I want to do all we can do to protect this headquarters and protect the thousands of good, well-paying jobs we have at SNC-Lavalin."
"We know that SNC-Lavalin, that they didn’t follow legal rules — in Libya especially — and they have to pay for that, especially the people that were involved. SNC-Lavalin, I met the president, they are ready to put on the table very large amounts of penalty [financial fines]."
"Right now there is no controlling shareholder, so there’s a real risk that this company could be bought by somebody, for example from the U.K. For me, it would be bad news for Quebec."
"Can you [Prime Minister Trudeau] settle as soon as possible in order that we keep those jobs? We need those jobs."

"When I discussed that with Justin Trudeau, I’m not asking him not to punish SNC-Lavalin, I’m just trying to say, can you settle as soon as possible, in order that we keep the jobs. We need those jobs."

Quebec Premier François Legault on the SNC-Lavalin criminal case controversy

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier François Legault before departing for Yerevan, Armenia, at the Ottawa International Airport on Oct. 9, 2018. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood

"There is no social acceptability for oil in Quebec. We have hydro electricity surpluses. So I'll try to sell them."

"There is no social acceptance for a pipeline that would pass through Quebec territory."

"I am not embarrassed to refuse dirty energy [from Alberta oilsands extraction] while we are offering clean energy [James Bay electricity] at a competitive price."

Quebec Premier Francois Legault

The “United We Roll” convoy of semi-trucks travels the highway near Red Deer, Alta., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, on its way to Ottawa. Jeff McIntosh/THE CANADIAN PRESS

"The main message we are taking to Ottawa with this convoy is that our oil-and-gas sector is in trouble."
"We need a prime minister to be a champion for the industry that has done so much to fuel this country’s prosperity."
"We need to get our pipelines in the ground and soon. We need to abolish Bill C-69 and Bill C-48 and we need the carbon tax abolished."

Glen Carritt, convoy manager

"The carbon tax is killing us, our small town of Bonnyville is curling up and dying."

We've been told to hang on from our government, from five years ago, many, many people that we know and love up there, that we considered newfound oilfield family have moved, they've gone home, bankrupt."

"They're not only bankrupt financially, they're bankrupt emotionally."

Roberta Graham, Alberta protester, United We Roll group

The “United We Roll” convoy of semi-trucks prepares to leave Red Deer, Alta., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, on its way to Ottawa to draw attention to a lack of support for the energy sector and lack of pipelines. Jeff McIntosh/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The six-day trip by road in large transport and semi-trailers has set out to mount their protest; a message from Alberta and Saskatchewan to Ottawa, that the Canadian Western provinces whose economy has buoyed Canada's economy and hugely, disproportionately supported Canada's equalization payments to the 'have-not' provinces like Quebec, are losing vital infrastructure, investment, employment and hope and will no longer stand for being shunted aside.

The trip from Red Deer to Regina, on to Kenora, Ontario, to Sault Ste. Marie, then Arnprior and finally Parliament Hill to be reached on the 19th is on its sway. The protest is not only about the shut-down of Canadian oil transport by pipeline then tanker, but includes complaints respecting 'open borders' and illegal migrants, and Saudi oil imports and the failure of the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau to build the Trans Mountain pipeline. 

In putting roadblocks in the way of pipelines to transfer oil to deepwater ports like British Columbia which ships out more dirty-burning, environmentally disabling coal than any other place in North America [yet adamantly refuses to allow an oil pipeline to go through the province from Alberta], Canada's oil industry is faltering, and income from discounted oil sales because of delivery failures has caused an economic crisis that is unsustainable. Pressure is on Ottawa to regard the fortunes of the Western provinces as fondly as the Liberals do Quebec/

The Liberal voting base is basically Quebec. There is a paltry three seats for the Liberals in Alberta, one in Saskatchewan and seven in Manitoba, a whisper of a presence in the Prairies. But the United We Roll convoy is determined to deliver their message to Ottawa in as forceful a way as possible: the future of the oil and gas industry is vital to the well-being of the country and the current stalemate that has crippled the industry has victimized too many Western Canadians with uncertainty about the future through mass unemployment. 

Glen Carritt, organizer of United We Roll convoy spoke of more trucks joining his convoy as it crossed Manitoba and entered Ontario. A convoy from Newfoundland estimated at 50-strong would also join up once in Ontario, making up for those lost to the convoy when it completed its first day rolling across the country because not everyone was able to take the requisite time it would take to drive across the country, after completing the first leg of the journey. Of the original number that set out 70 remained steadfast in the convoy. 

Along the route the convoy drivers came across supporters holding signs of encouragement and Canadian flags as they drove past. Those unable to join the convoy supported it financially through donations made with a GoFundMe campaign which gathered in $80,000 on the first day of the convoy's trip. "I can't make my own trip down to Ottawa myself, so I figured that the fuel I would burn I may as well hand it off to somebody else. It's just a little part that I figured I could do and try to help out I guess", explained Kelly Keil in his black Dodge pickup, handing out gallon containers of diesel fuel. 

While temperatures fell below -20C, even in the middle of nowhere supporters waited, waved, took photographs and cheered the convoy on. The carbon tax is a particular irritant to rural Canadians lacking an option to take public transit or those who depend on heavy machinery for work. The cancellation of the Energy East pipeline and the Northern Gateway, then the halt of the Trans Mountain expansion by a Federal Court of Appeal ruling has disheartened all too many.

Leader of the Parliamentary official opposition, Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer is scheduled to join Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in Moosomin, near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border for an associated rally. Polling in January from the Angus Reid Institute found almost two-thirds of Canadians view the lack of pipeline capacity in Canada as representative of a crisis. Quebec, with no agreeing majority saw 40 percent in agreement.

The Quebec Premier wails about the possibility of the corrupt activities of SNC-Lavalin earning it a guilty verdict in its criminal trial, resulting in a ten-year loss of government contracts, ending up with bankruptcy and thousands of jobs being lost for Quebecers. This is the same provincial leader who scorned the need for an energy east pipeline contaminating Quebec soil, a province that yearly takes in millions of tax dollars extracted from Alberta in equalization payments, yet has no concern that Alberta is suffering a loss of revenues and jobs.

More than 150 vehicles of various sizes took off from Red Deer Thursday morning en route to Ottawa. Robin Grant/Red Deer Express

Liberals "Investigating" The Liberal Government

"This is not an investigation, that is simply going through the motions. Liberals seem to think that this should be just a sort of study group, a book club to look at all sorts of interesting ideas about the law rather than the scandal that's right in front of Canadians."
"At the end of the day, this is really not that complicated. This is about the fact that certain officials in the PMO [prime minister's office] were alleged to have put pressure on the former attorney general to interfere in a criminal investigation, nothing more, nothing less."
"The Liberals aren't interested in that. They're interested in covering this up."
New Democratic Member of Parliament Nathan Cullen

"Everyone within the Indigenous community, rank and file, grassroots, in every single community, Facebook, social media, everyone is talking about how upset and angry they are at the prime minister's callous dismissal of such a committed, dedicated and principled person such as Jody Wilson-Raybould."
Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould during a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall, Wednesday Nov. 4, 2015 in Ottawa. (CP/Adrian Wyld)

The House of Commons Justice committee committed to looking into allegations of political interference with law and justice on the part of the prime minister's office and perhaps the prime minister as well. Because this is a majority Liberal government, the Liberal members of the committee are in the majority, with five Liberals to override the objections of the Conservative and the NDP members of the committee. The hearing investigating the issue of alleged wrong-doing on the part of the prime minister and/or his closest advisers has now refused to hear from any of the involved principals.

Choosing instead a more obviously anodyne investigation to protect and exculpate the governing Liberals, inviting only the Clerk of the Privy Council, the Deputy Justice Minister and the current Minister of Justice who was appointed when Jody Wilson-Raybould was taken off the file and given a backhanded penalty as Minister of Veterans Affairs. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refuses to allow his previous Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould to speak to the issue of claims his government attempted to suborn justice.

SNC Lavalin spent years lobbying to change sentencing rules to escape heavy penalties in a fraud and bribery case. (The Canadian Press)

Governments in the Province of Quebec are notorious for corruption and bribes with officials in the construction industry with whom contracts are signed to undertake vital infrastructure projects. Scandals pop up here and there, now and again, pointing out just how taxed the province is to distinguish between normal business practise and engaging in unlawful criminal acts. What is typical and 'normal' -- albeit illegal and unethical -- for Quebec is not generally reflected to the same degree outside the province in greater Canada.

Certainly, Quebec-based SNC-Lavalin, built into one of the world's largest engineering-construction firms, with global employees of around 50,000 would qualify as a case in point. A company now charged under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, for its $160-million in kickbacks and bribes offered for contracts to the former Moammar Gadhafi regime in Libya. This certainly wasn't a one-off by any means; for SNC-Lavalin this was business-as-usual.

An associate with SNC-Lavalin, Riadh Ben Aissa was convicted after pleading guilty to forging documents and came away with a 51=month prison sentence after he secured hundreds of millions in kickbacks for contracts with the Gadhafi regime. The former chief executive officer, Pierre Duhaime pleaded guilty to breach-of-trust charges in the bribery scandal connected with construction of the $1.3-billion McGill University hospital related to $50-million paid out in bribes for the hospital contract.

Michel Fournier, former president of the Federal Bridge Corp. pleaded guilty last year to taking $2.3 million in bribes from SNC-Lavalin which then won a $127-million contract to upgrade the bridge. The RCMP has just now laid charges. Last November Normand Morin, former SNC-Lavalin vice-president pleaded guilty to reduced charges in a fraud to circumvent federal election financing laws in a scheme where employees were invited to make donations, submit fake invoices and the company reimbursed them; $100,000-worth of donations to the Liberals.

Oh, and just by the way, the World Bank instituted a ten-year contract ban on the Montreal construction firm in connection with bribes that took place in Bangladesh in 2013. Ah, and incidentally, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2012 found Canada to rank as the worst of the G7 countries in bribery while last September, Transparency International found Canada to have closed in on the "back of the pack" in foreign bribery enforcement.

Despite all this -- because of this corrupt history -- SNC under its new management, strenuously lobbied the Liberal government to bring in an amendment to the Criminal Code. And the Liberal government did just that, following on no fewer than 80 intervention lobbying meetings between officials of SNC-Lavalin and the federal government, including the prime minister's office. In September of 2018 the new remediation agreement amendment came into effect, and SNC-Lavalin breathed a sigh of relief.

They anticipated that they would be seen to qualify for a remediation agreement whereby they would pay a fine, promise to behave in future, and go on with their business, instead of facing a scheduled criminal trial where, if convicted as they would be on the clear evidence, they would fail to qualify to bid on government contracts for a decade. This amendment was brought in on a complex omnibus bill, piggy-backing on a huge budget bill and no one in Parliament was aware they were responsible for bringing in a Criminal Code amendment that never saw debate in Parliament.

But, oh dear, The Minister of Justice's director of the Public Prosecution Service felt secure in evaluating the situation through the lens of the law, denying the company's expectation; they would go to trial. To begin with, under conditions stipulated in the new amendment a company would have had to bring to the attention of authorities on their own the existence of illegal activities to qualify, and SNC-Lavalin certainly did no such thing; in fact, denied they had done anything wrong when the RCMP began their investigation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or his trusted servants in the prime minister's office put pressure on then-Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould to override the decision of her director of the PPS. It may be that the prime minister exerted pressure on the Attorney-General in the matter of implementing the provisions of the UN-sponsored Rights of Indigenous Peoples to announce that it would be unworkable as "law" in Canada despite Canada having signed on to it. This was a bitter pill for an Indigenous woman of the law given the status of Minister of Justice to have to state.

Still from video of former Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould resigning from the Liberal Cabinet

Her resulting alienation from her aboriginal community after speaking at the AFN's general assembly in June of 2016, no doubt affected her familial and activist relations with her father, a renowned chief and committed Indigenous-rights activist. "Respectfully, it is a political distraction to undertaking the hard work required to actually implement it", she solemnly informed the gathered Indian chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations, who would most certainly have been stunned that one of their own delivered that unexpected message.

Quite possibly, being guided toward how she should respond in the criminal charges against SNC-Lavalin, a giant engineering-construction employee of thousands of Canadian workers, the bulk of them in Montreal, abutting Justin Trudeau's electoral riding, rankled her sense of justice on top of the still-painful memories of her previous declaration. Jody Wilson-Raybould would not be used again, to surrender to a demand on her position to fail to uphold the law when the prime minister would prefer she see the matter his way.

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

His Record Catching Up With Justin Trudeau's Sunny Ways

"We spoke about our shared goals for our country and for this government."
" She confirmed for me a conversation we had this fall where I told her [then-Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould] directly that any decisions on matters involving the director of public prosecutions were hers alone."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Jody Wilson-Raybould attend a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa last month. Wilson-Raybould, the former justice minister, announced on Tuesday she is quitting the federal cabinet. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Famously, when being interviewed about a newly-emerged item in the news that years earlier he had physically assaulted a journalist, then apologized by stating if he had known at the time that she was with a prestigious newspaper he would have acted with greater circumspection, he pardoned his behaviour by claiming there was nothing untoward to how he had behaved, though the woman accused him of manhandling her, because, in his words: 
"Obviously this is a situation that has been very much on my mind over the past few weeks. It's a issue that I have been deeply engaged with, not just as a leader, but all my life, since my early 20s in university ... active on issues around sexual assault and behaviours."
"I've been reflecting very carefully on what I remember from that incident almost 20 years ago and again, I am ... I feel I am confident that I did not act inappropriately."

"Part of this awakening we're having as a society, a long awaited realization, is that it's not just one side of the story that matters. That the same interactions can be experienced very differently from one person to the next."
"I am not going to speak for the woman in question. I would never presume to speak for her. But I know that there is an awful lot of reflection to be had as we move forward as a society on how people perceive different interactions."

Prime Minister Trudeau now has another issue with yet another woman. Jody Wilson-Raybould was elevated by him to the ministerial post she was summarily dismissed from several weeks ago and given a minor ministry instead. Another variance in perceptions at play. Where he insists that no one in his office nor did he 'direct' the-then Attorney-General to effectively exonerate SNC Lavalin from potential criminal convictions for corruption and bribery which would shut them out of government contracts for a decade instead of allowing them to admit guilt, pay a fine, claim to change their corporate culture and all would be well.

Instead, Jody Wilson-Raybould chose, in the name of fairness and justice, to do nothing, but to allow the law to proceed as it should and it must when the giant engineering and construction company was informed it would not be permitted to avoid a criminal trial, even though their strenuous lobbying of the government had resulted in the passing of deferred prosecution agreement legislation. The government's Prosecution Service was clear and adamant that justice be done, and the Attorney General agreed, placing her at odds with the government she served as minister of one of its most important portfolios.

Her replacement as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, David Lametti has been swift to deny that either he nor his predecessor had been 'directed' to give SNC Lavalin a free pass in an election year where thousands of its employees live and work in Trudeau's electoral riding in Montreal. "It is important to remember that while the attorney general sits at a certain distance from his cabinet colleagues, in Canada, unlike in other countries, he does not work in isolation from them", Mr. Lametti lectured at a Canadian Bar Association conference. "But there is a line that cannot be crossed. Telling the attorney general what a decision ought to be: that would be interference", he said, in support of the government, denying any effort to suborn him while leaving open the possibility he would choose to override the Public Prosecutor's decision.

How strange it is that a furtive, secretive campaign was launched by unnamed sources to cast doubt on the veracity and teamwork commitment, much less integrity of the former attorney general. Unnamed "insiders" speak of Jody Wilson-Raybould as "difficult to get along with", a woman who had "always sort of been in it for herself". On the other hand, those same sources infer, the patient and generous prime minister "still has confidence" in his former attorney general, despite the "damage" she was intent on blackening the government with "by allowing the speculation about alleged corruption to hang out there".

Discrediting the honesty and pointing out the evil designs of an adversary is an old, old tactic, one worthy of conspiracy theorists, certain to gain adherents among those refusing to contemplate that Justin Trudeau, who has failed in so many indices of competence and adherence to ethics, could be at fault for any reason speaks volumes about the man and his supporters. The dodgy way that the legislation bringing into law the provision for a remedial agreement whereby SNC Lavalin could neatly sidestep charges of fraud and corruption and accountability for both, also speaks volumes about a man who pledged his government would be transparent and open to the benefit of all Canadians.

Jody Wilson-Raybould ✔ @Puglaas

With a heavy heart I have submitted my letter of resignation to the Prime Minister as a member of Cabinet... https://jwilson-raybould.liberal.ca/news-nouvelles/statement-from-the-honourable-jody-wilson-raybould-member-of-parliament-for-vancouver-granville/ … 11:34 AM - Feb 12, 2019

Now, however, the other shoe has dropped. Jody Wilson-Raybould has announced she is stepping away from her ministerial position with Veterans Affairs, leaving the Liberal cabinet, but not her elected position as Member of Parliament for Vancouver-Granville. And, she advised the prime minister, who continues to "have confidence" in a woman whose appointment nicely balanced his commitment to gender parity in his cabinet, she is seeking legal advice from an expert she has consulted, to advise how she may within the law finally speak to the issue that has galvanized the country.

Power & Politics ✔ @PnPCBC

.@JustinTrudeau says he is surprised & disappointed by @Puglaas resignation. On SNC-Lavalin "Gov't of Canada did its job and to the clear public standards expected of them. If anyone felt differently they had an obligation to raise that with me. No one, including Jody, did that." 6:23 PM - Feb 12, 2019

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.