Liberals block push for new probe
Liberals block push for ethics committee probe
OTTAWA • Liberal MPS have blocked the latest attempt to provide a venue for former cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-raybould and Jane Philpott to testify on the Snclavalin affair.
On Tuesday, the battleground moved to the Commons ethics committee, which considered a Conservative motion to launch a study after the Liberal-dominated justice committee voted to conclude its investigation without calling more witnesses.
But the six Liberals on the ethics committee out-voted the Conservatives, who had two votes, and the NDP, who had one, and the motion failed. Conservative MP Pierre
Poilievre called the result ironic given recent comments from some Liberal MPS that
it was time for Wilson-raybould to just say her piece, rather than dribbling out news day-by-day. In the most prominent example, Liberal MP Judy Sgro said in a radio
interview over the weekend that Wilson-raybould needed to “either put up or shut up.”
“Today, the Liberals got together and voted against giving her the chance to say it,” Poilievre told reporters. “You know, this is a cavalcade of contradictions and coverup.”
Parliament has been seized by the Snc-lavalin affair for nearly two months now, after The Globe and Mail published an allegation on Feb. 7 that Wilson-raybould had been politically pressured while attorney general to intervene and defer the corruption prosecution of the construction company.
Toronto MP Nate Erskine-smith was the only Liberal who spoke during the ethics committee meeting. Although Erskine-smith has a track record of challenging the party line, and had even previously cast a vote in favour of holding a public inquiry on the matter, he told the committee he felt launching the study was premature.
He noted Wilson-raybould planned to provide a written submission to the justice committee that included further evidence, including text messages and emails.
“To me, it makes far more sense to see what is said in that public statement, to see how justice (committee) reacts to that, frankly, and whether they think any of that new information is something worth reconsidering their previous decision to close off their study,” Erskine-smith said.
The NDP’S Tracey Ramsey rejected that, saying the Liberals blocked multiple attempts to keep the investigation going. “No one in Canada believes that the justice committee is going to revisit that,” she said. “There is absolutely no indication that they will entertain any further
conversation.”
It is not known when Wilson-raybould will make her submission, but justice committee chair Anthony Housefather has said it will be made public.
Erskine-smith also pointed out that Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion was
already studying the matter, and said the committee should support Dion’s study rather than launch a parallel process.
Finally, Erskine-smith argued that the waiver provided by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Wilson-raybould on cabinet confidence privilege and solicitor-client privilege only covered testimony to the justice committee, not the ethics committee.
That waiver has become its own source of conflict, however. Wilson-raybould has pointed out it does not apply to events after she was removed as justice minister, and opposition parties have demanded Trudeau provide an expanded waiver to cover that time period. Philpott also said in an interview in Maclean’s magazine last week
that there was “much more to the story that should be told.”
After the meeting, while other Liberal MPS left without making their position clear, Erskine-smith stayed and said he believed an expanded waiver may be necessary — depending on Wilson-raybould’s evidence to the justice committee.
“If still, to get at the truth, there is additional information that Ms. Wilson-raybould and Ms. Philpott need
to provide that they are unable to provide because of the confines of the existing waiver, then yes, to get at the truth there should be a broadening of that waiver,” he said.
He said he believed that was only a fair position, given the comments from some of his colleagues that “we should get all of this information out in the open as quickly as possible and deal with it and move on.”
Both the Conservatives and NDP — and even Erskine-smith — condemned two stories that came out Monday that contained leaks
about the Supreme Court of Canada appointment process. The stories cited confidential sources to allege that tension had arisen between Trudeau and Wilson-raybould when she recommended the appointment of Glenn Joyal, a Manitoba
judge who Trudeau felt to be too conservative.
“This breach of the confidentiality of what is supposed to be a highly confidential judicial appointment process is serious enough to require an investigation on its own,” said Conservative MP Peter Kent
during the meeting.
Speaking earlier in the day, Trudeau did not respond directly when asked by a reporter whether his office leaked the story.
“Canadians can have confidence in our government’s respect for the institutions, for the Supreme Court,” he said. “Canadians have confidence in the strength of our judiciary in this country. And I have no further comment to make on this issue.”