PRESSURE MOUNTS ON PM

PHILPOTT ADDS VOICE TO CALLS FOR PRIME MINISTER TO ISSUE APOLOGY TO CANADIANS

OTTAWA • Justin Trudeau doubled down Thursday on his refusal to apologize for his handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair even as opposition parties tried to ensure a scathing report that found the prime minister broke ethics law remains top of mind when Canadians head to the polls on Oct. 21.

During an event in Fredericton, Trudeau reiterated that he accepts Dion’s report and takes full responsibility for what happened. But he added: “I’m not going to apologize for standing up for Canadian jobs, because that’s my job — to make sure Canadians and communities and pensioners and families across the country are supported, and that’s what I will always do.”

Pressure is nevertheless mounting on Trudeau to say he’s sorry to former attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould and former minister Jane Philpott, both of whom quit the cabinet over the affair and were subsequently booted out of the Liberal caucus. Both are now running for re-election as independent candidates.

For her part, Philpott said Trudeau owes an apology not to her or Wilson-Raybould, but to Canadians.

“I do believe that the people of Canada deserve an apology,” she told The Canadian Press.

The fact that Dion found Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act — “that would be one of the things he should apologize for,” she said.

Trudeau maintains his only interest in the SNC-Lavalin affair was to protect innocent employees, pensioners and suppliers who would be negatively impacted if the company were to be convicted of corrupt practices and thereby banned from receiving federal government contracts for 10 years. He and his senior aides wanted Wilson-Raybould to reconsider her refusal to overturn a decision by the director of public prosecutions to not negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin, which would have allowed it to avoid a criminal trial.

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion ruled that there was no way to separate the company’s private interest from the broader public interest and, therefore, Trudeau should not have had any contact with Wilson-Raybould on the matter.

“I disagree with the ethics commissioner’s conclusions, but he is an officer of Parliament doing his job and I fully accept his report, which means I take full responsibility,” Trudeau said again Thursday.

Trudeau is casting the affair as a failure to find the right balance between respecting prosecutorial independence while standing up for the jobs that were at stake. “To make sure this government and no future government gets in this situation again,” he said the government will implement the recommendations of a separate report from former Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan on the merits of having the justice minister and the attorney general under the same cabinet portfolio.

That report recommends keeping the two jobs together, but better educating parliamentarians, cabinet ministers and staff members on how best to consult with federal attorneys general.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, who held a news conference Thursday in Nova Scotia, was asked whether she believes Trudeau should apologize to Philpott and Wilson-Raybould. The prime minister already gave a “full and clear response,” she said, calling his acceptance of responsibility a “really important act of leadership.

“Those are important things the prime minister has said and steps he’s taken and I think he’s done the right thing.”