A brief summary of what is already the biggest scandal of 2019
Two months into 2019, a federal election year, the Trudeau administration is already dealing with a massive scandal. Ottawa has been abuzz with accusations and rumours about the SNC-Lavalin scandal. But what exactly happened?
This story begins in the Harper era. SNC-Lavalin is a major contracting company based in Québec that employs over 9,000 Canadians. In early 2015, the RCMP laid corruption charges against the company on the grounds that it bribed Libyan government officials with nearly $48 million in order to buy influence in the corrupt Muammar Gaddafi regime. The charges also allege that at the same time SNC-Lavalin defrauded the Libyan government of almost $129.8 million. The company plead not guilty to these allegations.
Fast forward to Jan. 14, 2019: the SNC-Lavalin prosecution is still ongoing, and the House of Commons still hasn’t returned from winter break. Before the House of Commons sits for the first time of the new year on Jan. 28, the Prime Minister announced an unexpected “shuffle” of his cabinet ministers. This shuffle saw Jody Wilson-Raybould, the first Indigenous woman to hold the position of Attorney General and Minister of Justice, moved to a less prominent role as Minister of Veterans’ Affairs. Wilson-Raybould released a statement on her website which explained that she would not be commenting on the shuffle. She did, however, state 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.”
Then, on Feb. 7, the Globe and Mail published a damning article alleging, based on unnamed and anonymous sources, that the reason for the last-minute shuffle was that Wilson-Raybould refused to help SNC-Lavalin avoid a criminal conviction, despite pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to do so. According to the article, Wilson-Raybould faced pressure from the PMO to allow for a “remediation agreement” between the company and the Public Prosecution Service, which is the federal service handling the company’s prosecution.
In a remediation agreement, corporations can essentially buy their way out of a criminal conviction by admitting wrongdoing and paying back their illegal profits. A criminal conviction would be financially devastating for SNC-Lavalin as it would prevent them from bidding on government contracts for a decade.
Notably, remediation agreements were only recently added to Canadian law. They were included in the omnibus bill C-74, which was tabled by the government in early 2018 and was granted Royal Assent last June. SNC-Lavalin has reportedly lobbied the government for this type of agreement to be legislated. However, in early September 2018, the federal prosecution service had contacted SNC-Lavalin to let them know that they would not be inviting them to negotiate a remediation agreement.
According to the Globe article, the PMO pressured Wilson-Raybould to override the prosecution service and offer SNC-Lavalin a remediation agreement, to avoid losing the company as a contractor. The article reports that Ms. Wilson-Raybould and her staff met with members of the PMO numerous times in the weeks after the prosecution service let the company know that a remediation agreement was off the table.
CBC reports that SNC-Lavalin also met with Finance Minister and the PMO on several occasions during this time. The purpose and content of these meetings are not public records, but in his testimony to the Justice and Human Rights Committee, the Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick claimed to have warned Wilson-Raybould of the economic consequences of criminal proceedings, although he said that no inappropriate pressure had been put on her. Further, in a public statement on Feb. 11, Trudeau said he had spoken to Wilson-Raybould and had confirmed that the decision regarding the SNC-Lavalin prosecution was hers alone to make. He also said that Wilson-Raybould’s “continued presence in his cabinet speaks for itself.” Wilson-Raybould resigned her cabinet position the next day.
Wilson-Raybould has not yet commented publicly on the situation, citing her solicitor-client privilege as the reason for her silence. The legal principle of solicitor-client privilege is to prevent a professional legal advisor like an attorney (in this case, Wilson-Raybould) from disclosing information about a case without the consent of the client (in this case, SNC-Lavalin). However, Wilson-Raybould appeared at a cabinet meeting last week and has asked to be able to “speak her truth” and explain her side of the story at the justice committee. She is expected to appear there this week. Despite her highly-anticipated appearance, it is unclear whether she will be able to offer new insight into the situation due to her need to respect solicitor-client privilege. This privilege could be waived by the Prime Minister.
To add to the confusion, the Prime Minister’s principal secretary and longtime friend Gerald Butts resigned on Feb. 18. In his resignation letter, Butts says that he “categorically” denied that he or anyone else in the PMO pressured Wilson-Raybould. It remains to be seen how the rest of this tumultuous affair will play out, but as time counts down to election day, every second this scandal carries on bodes ill for the Liberals.
Writer’s note and disclaimer: My name is Ella; I’m a U of G alumna, and I intern for Elizabeth May — MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands and the leader of the Green Party of Canada (GPC). As Ms. May’s intern, I attend parliamentary committees, correspond with constituents, attend legislative affairs, and work closely with her legislative assistants. The catch is, I have no prior experience with or knowledge of politics. This column details my experiences learning about the political culture and proceedings on Parliament Hill. My views are my own, and do not represent those of the GPC or of The Honourable Elizabeth May, MP.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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