Trudeau: ‘She saw it differently’

PM admits he asked ex-minister to ‘revisit’ her decision on SNC

OTTAWA— Justin Trudeau’s admission that he asked his former attorney general to “revisit” the decision on the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin failed to quell a growing controversy as the prime minister’s political rivals demanded a public inquiry and the emergency resumption of a parliamentary probe.

Trudeau conceded on Thursday that he asked Jody Wilson-Raybould to “revisit her decision” against negotiating an out-of-court settlement of criminal charges against SNC-Lavalin, the first time he has acknowledged instructing her on the file.

In a nationally televised news conference, Trudeau said he raised the SNC-Lavalin file at a Sept. 17 meeting with Wilson-Raybould, flagging that he was an MP from a Montreal riding and was concerned that SNC-Lavalin jobs would be lost if the company were to be convicted in a criminal trial.

“This is something that I was clear on, and then I asked her — even though I heard that she had made a decision, she indicated to me that she had made a decision — I asked her if she could revisit that decision, if she was open to considering to (look) at it once again, and she said that she would,” Trudeau said.

However, Trudeau insisted again there were no ethical or legal lines crossed.

“There was no inappropriate pressure” applied to WilsonRaybould by him or his staff, he said. “There were many conversations on a delicate issue but there was never any inappropriate pressure.”

The news conference was the prime minister’s most revealing statement since the controversy broke a month ago, but he offered no apology for interactions that Wilson-Raybould has branded as “inappropriate.”

Instead, Trudeau said repeated discussions with her on the issue were justified to preserve jobs.

He explained away her concerns as a “different” interpretation of events and blamed an “erosion of trust” between her and his principal secretary, Gerald Butts. Trudeau also revealed: Wilson-Raybould told him directly on Sept. 17 that she had rejected the option of a “deferred prosecution agreement” or mediated settlement with SNC-Lavalin and supported the prosecution decision by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to proceed to trial. This confirms the former attorneygeneral’s testimony.

He didn’t regard her decision as final, that he asked her to take another look at it with a view to overruling the prosecutor, and he was unaware that she had quickly “reconfirmed her decision for herself” because she didn’t later communicate it explicitly to him.

He instructed his staff in the months that followed the Sept. 17 meeting to follow up “regarding Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s final decision.”

He believes the deferred prosecution law allows the attorney general to negotiate a deal “up until the very last minute of a trial,” meaning the option is still on the table for Wilson-Raybould’s replacement, current Attorney General David Lametti.

SNC-Lavalin warned Trudeau’s government of potential “consequences as dire as the company having to leave Canada altogether,” even though such a move appears unlikely under terms of a loan agreement SNC-Lavalin has with the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to remain headquartered in Montreal until 2024. Conservative and NDP MPs called for an emergency meeting of the House of Commons justice committee to have Wilson-Raybould resolve contradictions between her testimony and the statements of the prime minister, his former top aide Gerald Butts, and the Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer dismissed Trudeau’s explanation that Wilson-Raybould viewed the interventions “differently” and his assertion that job losses justified the ongoing discussions. JUSTIN TRUDEAU

The prime minister’s news conference came four weeks into the controversy which has cost him the cabinet resignations of Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, as well as Butts’s resignation as his principal secretary.

Trudeau said he regrets the “erosion of trust” that developed between Wilson-Raybould and his office, particularly with his longtime friend, Butts. “I was not aware of that erosion of trust. I should have been.”

Trudeau repeatedly emphasized that he and his staff were motivated by concern that SNC-Lavalin jobs might be lost if the company was convicted on criminal charges and banned from federal contracts for 10 years.

He insisted his reference to his status as Papineau MP in the Sept. 17 meeting with WilsonRaybould was not a comment that was “partisan” in nature, adding that politicians have a duty to “defend” communities that elect them.

He portrayed the entire affair as an “internal disagreement” over how to approach a difficult issue. From Trudeau’s perspective, officials from the Prime Minister’s Office simply had a series of “conversations” with Wilson-Raybould throughout the fall — conversations she characterized as a “barrage of hounding” and as “political interference.”

“We considered that she was still open to hearing different arguments and different approaches,” Trudeau said.

“I now understand that she saw it differently.”

Trudeau did not apologize for anybody’s actions, including his own. He said only that he should have followed up personally with Wilson-Raybould.

He said there was a “lack of communication” about Wilson-Raybould’s “state of mind” on the issue.

“I wish she had come forward to me in the fall subsequent to that meeting to highlight that, and that quite frankly is something I am reflecting on as a leader,” he said.

Trudeau said he is consulting legal experts about the prospect of splitting the dual role of the cabinet minister who acts as both justice minister and attorney general. There have been suggestions that placing the position of attorney general outside cabinet would immunize that person from political pressure.

But the Conservative government of Stephen Harper created the independent office of Public Prosecution Service of Canada in 2006 for that very reason — so that prosecution decisions would be immune from partisan meddling. Trudeau did not comment on testimony by Wernick at the justice committee. In a combative appearance, Wernick disclosed that he took a phone call on Oct. 15 from SNC-Lavalin board chairman Kevin Lynch — himself a former clerk of the Privy Council — who protested the decision to prosecute.

Lynch “expressed his frustration that he did not understand why a DPA was not being considered, and he knew that the board, in its trustee relationships for the shareholders in the company, was going to have to take some tough decisions in October and November,” Wernick said.

“My recollection of the conversation is he asked, ‘Isn't there anything that can be done?’ ” Wernick said. “I told him in the firmest, curtest possible terms, no, he would have to go through the attorney general and the (director of public prosecutions) through his counsel.”

Neither Lynch, a former public office holder, nor SNC-Lavalin registered that call on the federal lobby registry.