‘THIS HAS BEEN A TOUGH FEW WEEKS’

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he should have been aware there was “an erosion of trust” between his former principal secretary, Gerald Butts, and former attorney general Jody Wilson-raybould over the criminal case against SNC-LAVAlin, but he stopped short of apologizing for the way the matter was handled

In his first press conference on the issue that has cost him two cabinet ministers and dominated the headlines for a month, Trudeau admitted he had asked Wilson-raybould to revisit her decision not to cut a deal with the Montreal engineering giant, but he continued to insist that he and his staff did not apply “inappropriate pressure.”

“This has been a tough few weeks,” he said. “But I can tell you without a doubt that I have taken and will continue to take many lessons from these recent days and weeks.”

Asked bluntly whether he was apologizing, he said he planned to deliver one that afternoon — to the Inuit for federal mistreatment during a tuberculosis outbreak in the 1940s.

His comments largely mirrored Butts’s version of events that he described for a parliamentary justice committee on Wednesday.

Both come in the wake of bombshell testimony from Wilson-raybould in which she alleged a “consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government” to persuade her to order the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with Snc-lavalin, which would have allowed the firm to avoid a criminal prosecution. Snc-lavalin is charged with offering Libyan government officials $48 million in bribes between 2001 and 2011 and would face a 10-year ban on federal contracts if convicted.

Trudeau acknowledged that during a meeting with Wilson-raybould on Sept. 17, she told him she’d made up her mind not to intervene with the public prosecutor’s decision. “I said to her that I was preoccupied by the number of jobs involved in this in Quebec and obviously across the country,” he said. “I asked her if she could revisit that decision, if she was open to considering, to looking at it once again, and she said that she would.” He said he reaffirmed “that the decision was hers alone.”

Trudeau also conceded he had mentioned being the MP for the Montreal riding of Papineau, which WilsonRaybould raised last week as an example of her being asked, inappropriately, to take into account political considerations. But Trudeau said he only brought it up because it’s the job of parliamentarians “to defend the

W H A T WA S SAID AT PRIME MINISTER’S PRESS CONFERENCE

“What has become clear through the various testimonies is that over the past months there was an erosion of trust between my office, and specifically my former principal secretary (Gerry Butts) and the former Minister of Justice and attorney general (Jody Wilson-raybould). I was not aware of that erosion of trust. As prime minister and leader of the federal ministry, I should have been.” “We considered that (WilsonRaybould) was still open to hearing different arguments and different approaches on what her decision could be. As we have learned through this testimony that was not the case.” interests of the communities we were elected to represent.”

The prime minister said he didn’t realize at the time that Wilson-raybould had “reconfirmed her decision for herself ” after their meeting, and was not open to further discussions on the matter.

In her testimony, Wilson-raybould said she had looked Trudeau in the eye during that Sept. 17 meeting and asked if he was trying to interfere politically with her independence as attorney general, and he had said no. On Thursday, Trudeau said Wilson-raybould did not go to him with her concerns about inappropriate pressure, and he wishes she had.

In her testimony, the former attorney general spoke of a “barrage of people hounding” her. Butts and Trudeau said they just want-

“Conversations were perceived in different ways and I regret that.”

“There’s one theory that the most effective leaders are adversarial and almost tough to a fault. That’s not what I believe. I believe that real leadership is about listening, learning and compassion. It’s about the push and pull of robust discourse and honest debate. It’s about transparency and accountability. One of the things central to my leadership is fostering an environment where my ministers, caucus and staff feel comfortable coming to me when they have concerns. Indeed, I expect them to do so. In Ms. Wilson-raybould’s case, she did not come to me, and I wish she had.” ed Wilson-raybould to accept an outside legal opinion.

The prime minister called the discrepancy in the two accounts a “difference in perspective.”

“Over the past months, there was an erosion of trust between my office and specifically my former principal secretary and the former minister of justice and attorney general,” Trudeau said. “I was not aware of that erosion of trust. As prime minister and leader of the federal ministry, I should have been.”

Wilson-raybould told the committee she believes she was shuffled to the Veterans Affairs ministry in January for refusing to budge on the Lavalin prosecution.

She quit the new post in February. Butts resigned soon after.

Last week, Treasury Board

“This has been a tough few weeks. Canadians expect and deserve to have faith in their institutions and the people who act within them. Almost every day as prime minister I learn new things. So I can tell you without a doubt that I have taken and will continue to take many lessons from these recent days and weeks … Ultimately, I believe our government will be stronger for having wrestled with these issues.” Asked about making an apology:

“I will be making an Inuit apology this afternoon. But in regards to standing up for jobs and defending our integrity of the rule of law, I continue to say there was no inappropriate pressure.” president Jane Philpott quit cabinet because she said she had lost confidence in how the prime minister was handling the SNC affair.

Trudeau said Thursday the government will seek expert opinions on a number of issues related to the SNCLavalin controversy, including whether the dual role of justice minister and attorney general should be divided, in order to reinforce the independence of the attorney general from political considerations. “Ultimately, I believe our government will be stronger for having wrestled with these issues,” he said.

But he insisted that Canadians can have faith in the institutions of government. He said the justice committee’s study and an ongoing investigation by the ethics commissioner are evidence of the government’s commitment to transparency.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh both rejected Trudeau’s explanation, saying the real erosion of trust is between the prime minister and Canadians.

“Justin Trudeau would like Canadians to believe that all of this took place simply because different people had different experiences of events,” Scheer told reporters in Toronto. “The truth cannot be experienced differently. There is such a thing as right and wrong and real leaders know the difference between them.”

Singh said he was “disappointed” Trudeau didn’t apologize. “Canadians will continue to believe that he will work in the interests of those who are powerful and well-connected,” he said.

The Conservative and NDP MPS on the justice committee have sent letters to the committee clerk requesting an emergency meeting in the next five days to debate calling Wilson-raybould to testify a second time. She issued a statement on Wednesday saying she was willing to appear again to “provide further clarity.”