Wilson-Raybould deserves respect for her actions

Former justice minister can leave with her head held high

Jody Wilson-Raybould’s term in office has gone from highs to lows as she took the high road and refused to allow her office to be used as an advocate for the Quebec construction company SNC-Lavalin.

She maintained that the Office of Public Prosecutions be independent and free from political interference.

It sounds noble and ethical, but because she allowed the Office of Public Prosecutions to carry on and take the company to court, she has left the Trudeau cabinet and is the subject of a whispering campaign.

Shadowy figures who haunt the corridors of power in Ottawa have been feeding the media lines such as, “She was hard to get along with,” “She was not a team player,” and so on.

I’ve seen this many times before; as long as you are onside and non-controversial you are OK, but as soon as you become a liability you are just another uppity Indian and you get thrown under the bus.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould was the attorney general of Canada and as such was chief law officer of the executive council and considered the guardian of the public interest. The role of the attorney general is unique in cabinet because it fills a semi-judicial role, and as such the AG must steer clear of political interference.

Because of this, the attorney general has a solicitor-client relationship with the government and the prime minister in particular. She can only make public statements with the approval of her client. This is an important, time-honoured practice to protect the client, but when the client is the prime minister, when does protection become a shield?

Now Wilson-Raybould is muzzled while the prime minister and his minions can run free, unencumbered by the rules.

So, what is the other side of the story? SNC-Lavalin is a huge international construction company that has built major projects such as the James Bay Hydro project and the Vancouver SkyTrain.

But SNC-Lavalin has also left muddy tracks all over the globe. In Bangladesh, the company was charged with bribing government officials to get a bridge-building contract. The World Bank also suspended the loan for the project, and suspended SNC-Lavalin from bidding on contracts funded by them. They referred to misconduct in Bangladesh as well as Cambodia.

Meanwhile back in Canada, the company was accused of bribing officials in the McGill University Health Centre construction contract. The police investigation resulted in charges for senior SNC-Lavalin executives for alleged kickbacks and commissions paid to hospital officials to win the $1.3-billion contract.

But the big one, and the one that has created a serious rift in cabinet and Quebec, is the bribery charges levelled against the company and the charges the RCMP laid in relation to SNC-Lavalin’s work in Libya.

The RCMP allege that between 2001 and 2011, the company paid out $47.7 million in bribes and commissions to government officials in the Gadhafi regime.

In addition, it has also been alleged that the company defrauded the Libyan government and other entities of “property, money or valuable security or service” worth approximately $129.8 million.

Officials from SNC-Lavalin were trying to get the government to drop the charges or negotiate a remediation agreement in which they would admit wrongdoing and pay a hefty fine. The prosecution has since argued that the offer should be struck down and SNC-Lavalin should face criminal charges.

SNC-Lavalin maintains that it is too big to be allowed to fail. The company has a workforce of about 50,000 and in 2015 did close to

$10 billion in contracts. Its failure would be a major blow to the Quebec economy in particular.

But is such an immoral company worth saving? Is this the face of Canadian business that we want the world to see? Is it worth throwing a respected First Nations leader under the bus to save the government’s hide?

Wilson-Raybould took her job seriously and maintained her ethics and reputation. She can leave cabinet with her head held high and the support of her people, and for us that is what really matters in the end.