PM’s SNC-Lavalin wounds are all self-inflicted

If the SNC-Lavalin/Wilson-Raybould scandal proves the undoing of the Trudeau Liberal government — as it very well could — they will have no one but themselves to blame.

From the outset, the government could not have handled this more poorly. Think back to when the Globe and Mail first broke the story alleging the Prime Minister’s Office had pressured then Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to help SNC-Lavalin avoid criminal prosecution.

SNC-Lavalin, a huge multinational construction company based in Quebec with Liberal ties and a massive global reach, is charged with offering bribes and fraud related to work it did in Libya. It sought a deferred prosecution arrangement, under which it would have paid hefty fines but not faced criminal prosecution. Federal prosecutors denied that request.

But the justice minister has the authority to overrule that decision. It’s unusual, but not unheard of, for politicians to overrule legal decisions. Doug Ford did it with the notwithstanding clause. Extradition decisions are made by the courts but have to be authorized by the appropriate minister.

Justin Trudeau’s first public comments after the Globe story were that neither he nor anyone in his office “directed” Wilson-Reybould to act one way or the other. That stilted, opaque response didn’t satisfy anyone. The allegation wasn’t that the PMO “directed,” but rather that it pressured.

Imagine if instead of that lawyered statement, which only aroused more suspicion, Trudeau had said something like: Of course the minister and I discussed the SNC-Lavalin situation, just as the leaders of both opposition parties met with the company for similar discussions. I never pressured the minister and always made it clear the decision to move in any direction was hers alone.

Interestingly, Trudeau has by now said most of that on the record, but instead of full disclosure immediately, the information has come out in dribs and drabs and only served as more blood in the water for government critics. A good university public relations student could have handled it better.

It doesn’t matter whether Trudeau talked about the situation with Wilson-Raybould. It would be more surprising if he had not, given it is probably the most significant legal matter facing the government. All that matters is whether he or PMO staff put pressure on her to act. That’s the line most legal experts agree shouldn’t be crossed.

Thanks to Trudeau’s fumbled public responses and Wilson-Raybould’s silence on the matter (she is bound by solicitor-client privilege since as Attorney-General she was, in effect, the government’s lawyer), we don’t know if that line was crossed or not.

Now, the situation continues to go south, both for the government and Wilson-Raybould, who resigned from cabinet and is seeking legal counsel about what she can and cannot say. She’s being portrayed as a victim, but there are troubling questions that should be answered before that label is fully applied. Chiefly, if she was indeed pressured, why didn’t she resign from cabinet immediately? Trudeau claims she never raised the matter, suggesting that she was comfortable with how it was proceeding.

But the big losers are Trudeau and his government. He has lost a minister who should have been a rising star. He faces claims of both racism and sexism from communities whose support he relied on to get elected. And his administration is accused of unethical and possibly illegal meddling, charges which, if proven, render Trudeau and his government unfit to govern. It’s a mess, but it’s one of the government’s own creation.