// Justin Trudeau refused to apologize for intervening in the SNC-Lavalin affair after the ethics watchdog said he violated Conflict of Interest Act //
PM stands his ground, says economic good of Canadian workers potentially at stake
OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau refused to apologize Wednesday for intervening in the SNC-Lavalin affair, even after the federal ethics watchdog concluded that the prime minister violated the Conflict of Interest Act by improperly pressuring former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to halt the criminal prosecution of the Montreal engineering giant.
Despite disagreeing with some of ethics commissioner Mario Dion’s findings, Trudeau accepted the report, took full responsibility for what occurred and pledged to institute a new protocol for ministers, staff and bureaucrats when discussing a specific prosecution with the attorney general in the future.
Landing just weeks before the campaign for the Oct. 21 federal election gets officially underway, Dion’s bombshell report revives a controversy that rocked the government last winter and inflicted political damage from which the Liberals had only recently begun to recover. And it gives new ammunition to opposition leaders to bolster their assertions that Trudeau is unethical and captive to wealthy corporate friends.
Dion concluded that Trudeau’s attempts to influence Wilson-Raybould on the SNC-Lavalin prosecution contravened a provision of the ethics law, which prohibits public-office holders from using their position to try to influence a decision that would improperly further the private interests of a third party.
Had Trudeau succeeded in convincing Wilson-Raybould to overturn a decision by the director of public prosecutions — who had refused to invite SNC to negotiate a remediation agreement in order to avoid criminal prosecution on fraud charges related to contracts in Libya — Dion said there’s no question the company would have benefited.
“The prime minister, directly and through his senior officials, used various means to exert influence over Ms. Wilson-Raybould. The authority of the prime minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the decision of the director of public prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. Wilson-Raybould as the Crown’s chief law officer,” Dion wrote. “Because SNC-Lavalin overwhelmingly stood to benefit from Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s intervention, I have no doubt that the result of Mr. Trudeau’s influence would have furthered SNC-Lavalin’s interests. The actions that sought to further these interests were improper since the actions were contrary to the constitutional principles of prosecutorial independence and the rule of law.”
Trudeau has long insisted he was concerned only about the public interest, in particular the fate of innocent SNC employees and pensioners who stood to be negatively impacted if the company was convicted and subsequently banned from federal contracts for 10 years. But Dion dismissed that, saying “the larger public considerations are inextricably linked to SNC-Lavalin’s private interests.”
“Accordingly, Mr. Trudeau could not properly put forward any arguments involving public or private interests to the attorney general,” he wrote, emphasizing the word “any.”
Trudeau took particular issue with that contention.
“My job as a prime minister is to stand up for Canadians and to defend their interests,” he told a news conference in Niagara-onthe-Lake.
“Taking responsibility means recognizing that what we did over the past year wasn’t good enough, but at the same time I can’t apologize for standing up for Canadian jobs because that’s part of what Canadians expect me to do.”
Wilson-Raybould, who is running for re-election as an Independent, welcomed Dion’s report as “vindication” of her insistence that the attorney general and public prosecutor must be free from partisan considerations. She said Dion has confirmed her position and “was not distracted by inaccurate information about the events or about me personally — and drew conclusions based on the true facts of what occurred.”
The controversy has swirled around different recollections and perceptions of what occurred, but Dion fully accepted Wilson-Raybould’s version of events, almost scoffing at times at Trudeau’s take on the matter.
Trudeau told Dion he did not instruct Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick to make “stark statements” about the prime minister’s determination to find a solution to the SNC prosecution during an infamous phone conversation with Wilson-Raybould last December — which Wilson-Raybould surreptitiously recorded and which she took to be a threat that she’d be fired as justice minister if she didn’t relent.
Dion didn’t buy it: “It is difficult for me to imagine that Mr. Wernick would have acted without a full and clear appreciation of Mr. Trudeau’s position on the matter.”