More details to come on SNC-Lavalin affair
JODY WILSONRAYBOULD TO MAKE WRITTEN SUBMISSION
Liberals are urging former attorney general Jody WilsonRaybould to use her parliamentary privilege to tell the House of Commons whatever she wants about the SNC-Lavalin affair.
But they want her and her former cabinet ally Jane Philpott to tell their stories in full all at once, rather than dragging out the controversy with partial statements and hints of more to come, which have overshadowed all other aspects of the government’s agenda.
“That should happen right away,” Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Friday. “If there are serious concerns, we should all be concerned, but we’ve also got to continue delivering what we’re delivering for Canadians.”
McKenna made the comment shortly after WilsonRaybould informed the House of Commons justice committee that she intends to make a written submission revealing more about her accusation that she faced improper pressure last fall to avert a criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.
In a letter to the committee, Wilson-Raybould said she will provide “copies of text messages and emails” that she referred to last month when she testified for nearly four hours before the committee. She will also make a written submission, based on “relevant facts and evidence in my possession that further clarify statements I made and elucidate the accuracy and nature of statements by witnesses in testimony that came after my committee appearance.”
Her written statement will be “within the confines of the waiver of cabinet confidence and solicitor-client privilege” she was granted before testifying orally, she said. That waiver covers up until Jan. 14, when she was shuffled out of her dual role as justice minister and attorney general.
When she testified in person, Wilson-Raybould said she’d suffered a months-long campaign, pushed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office, to get her to order a “deferred prosecution agreement” be offered to SNC-Lavalin over its allegedly corrupt dealings in Libya. She was followed by former prime ministerial aide Gerald Butts, who said there were miscommunications but no improper pressure, and then-Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick, who denied Wilson-Raybould’s allegation that he’d issued veiled threats about her place in cabinet on the prime minister’s behalf.
Wilson-Raybould’s letter came the day after former cabinet ally Jane Philpott fanned the SNC-Lavalin fire in an interview with Maclean’s magazine, saying there is “much more to the story” — a report that landed in the midst of a 31-hour, Conservativeorchestrated filibuster over the controversy.
The filibuster, which continued until almost 1 a.m. Friday, was intended to protest Trudeau’s refusal to offer a blanket waiver of privilege and confidentiality that WilsonRaybould has claimed is necessary if she is to fully tell her side of the story — including things that occurred after her move to Veterans Affairs until her resignation from cabinet a month later.