LIBERAL MPS ON JUSTICE COMMITTEE UNDER SPOTLIGHT
Opposition looking for quick answers
OTTAWA • Parliament is on a break week, the House of Commons is quiet and a massive snowstorm has brought Ottawa to a standstill. But just across Wellington Street from Parliament Hill, a government committee building will see an intense political showdown on Wednesday as the Liberals battle the biggest crisis of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s tenure so far.
The Commons justice committee is set to debate an opposition motion to investigate whether the Prime Minister’s Office tried to pressure then Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in a corruption case against Quebec construction giant SNC-Lavalin. It appears increasingly likely some kind of committee investigation will happen, but the scope of it remains unclear.
“I am at this point fairly heavily leaning in favour that the committee should do a study,” said Anthony Housefather, the Liberal chair of the committee, in an interview Tuesday evening. “As I’ve said from the beginning, a partisan committee is a flawed body to do this type of work, but I have yet to be presented with a better option, and I think Canadians want clarity.”
The stakes were raised on Tuesday when WilsonRaybould announced her resignation as veterans affairs minister. Just a day earlier, Trudeau had said her presence in his cabinet shows she still supports the government. “Her presence in cabinet should actually speak for itself,” Trudeau told reporters. Later that night, Wilson-Raybould told Trudeau she was resigning. Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion is examining the allegations to see if the Conflict of Interest Act was breached, but it will likely be many months before a public report is produced. The justice committee represents the best chance to get quick answers on what happened.
An opposition motion, put forward by the Conservatives and the NDP, would have the committee hold “no fewer than four meetings” to study the events and report back by Feb. 28.
The motion — which could still change in its wording — calls for WilsonRaybould and other senior officials to testify, including David Lametti, the current attorney general; Michael Wernick, the clerk of the Privy Council; Kathleen Roussel, the head of the federal prosecution service; Jessica Prince, Wilson-Raybould’s chief of staff; and a group of senior aides in the Prime Minister’s Office including Katie Telford, Gerald Butts, Mathieu Bouchard and Elder Marques. The opposition may ask for Trudeau himself to be added to that list.
The question now is how the Liberals will vote. Having won a majority government in the last election, the Liberals have a majority on parliamentary committees. In the case of the justice committee, there are five Liberal votes, three Conservative votes and one NDP vote. The chair of the committee, who votes in the case of a tie, is also a Liberal. Housefather said he personally doubts the allegation of undue pressure being put on Wilson-Raybould, which is partly why he wants a committee study to clear the air. Liberal MPs have been debating how to proceed. Aside from voting yes or no, they could also vote to amend the motion before passing it, or come up with their own motion. Their majority means they can’t be stopped if they vote as a bloc.
Asked if this would be a whipped vote — meaning directed by the Liberal leadership — Housefather said it should be obvious that won’t be the case, given his own stand.
“As far as I know, there’s been no pressure put on anybody and it’s not a whipped vote,” he said.
The snowstorm that moved into Ottawa on Tuesday night will play a role in the debate, as some members of the committee may not be able to fly in, meaning a fellow caucus member will take their place. That could be the case for the NDP’s Murray Rankin, who was still in Victoria, B.C., when the National Post reached him on Tuesday.
He said Wilson-Raybould’s resignation increased the chance that some kind of committee investigation takes place. “It’s an enormously important day in Canadian politics when a former attorney general resigns,” Rankin said. “When we have an issue that might involve the fundamentals of our democracy, it’s appropriate that the justice committee would weigh in on that.
“To me, if it breaks down on party lines tomorrow, as a Canadian, I will be very upset,” he said.