Former AG says she can’t discuss allegations
OTTAWA (CP) — Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould says she cannot discuss allegations that she was pressured by the Prime Minister’s Office to help SNC-Lavalin avoid a criminal prosecution.
In a statement Friday morning, Wilson-Raybould says she is bound by solicitor-client privilege and cannot publicly talk about aspects of the case.
The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Wilson-Raybould was demoted in a cabinet shuffle early last month because she wouldn’t intervene in the case of SNC-Lavalin.
The Quebec engineering and construction giant has been charged with bribery and corruption in a bid to secure government business in Libya and wanted a deal, allowed under the law, to pay reparations rather than be prosecuted.
Toronto MP Arif Virani, the parliamentary secretary to current Justice Minister David Lametti, answered a question in the House of Commons with the most sweeping denial of the story the government has issued so far.
“Mr. Speaker, at no point has the current minister of justice or the former minister of justice been directed or pressured by the prime minister or the Prime Minister’s Office to make any decision on this or any other matter,”Virani said.“The attorney general of Canada is the chief law officer of the Crown and provides legal advice to the government with the responsibility to act in the public interest. He takes those responsibilities very seriously.”
Asked whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would waive the rule that prevents WilsonRaybould, as the government’s former top legal adviser, from saying what she did in the job, Virani repeated that the allegations of improper influence are false.