Don’t try to muzzle her

Liberals on the House of Commons justice committee are doing Canadians, and their own government, no favours by failing to clear the way for Jody Wilson-Raybould to tell her full story.

She wants to speak out and there’s no doubt she should be heard. Trying to prevent that, or even just delaying it in the hope that everyone will lose interest, is both wrong and self-defeating.

Wrong because Wilson-Raybould still hasn’t been able to give a complete account of what went on in January and February, when she was shuffled out of her position as justice minister and attorney general and then quit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet altogether.

And wrong because, at this point, three other people have contradicted her version of events without her having a chance to reply.

Trudeau’s former principal secretary, Gerald Butts, gave the justice committee a detailed account of events in the SNCLavalin affair that contradicted WilsonRaybould all down the line.

The Clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, has had two kicks at the can. And Trudeau himself gave his own version of the story at a news conference. Both presented narratives in sharp contrast to Wilson-Raybould’s assertion that she was subjected to “consistent and sustained pressure” to interfere in a judicial decision for party political reasons.

It’s only fair that she should get a chance to respond to all this. And especially to give her version of what happened after she was shuffled into veterans’ affairs and why she decided to leave the government entirely.

Preventing her from speaking out at the justice committee is also self-defeating. By now, many Liberals are fed up with the whole story; they believe it has been blown out of proportion and is distracting from more important issues.

But the truth, or at least versions of it, will come out, as has been demonstrated all throughout the SNC-Lavalin saga. Wilson-Raybould’s full story will emerge one way or another. Trying to derail it with procedural manoeuvres at a Commons committee looks like obstructionism, if not the full “cover-up” that Conservatives are loudly claiming.

According to Liberals on the justice committee, all they did was adjourn their meeting until next Tuesday, when they will once again consider whether to give Wilson-Raybould a second chance to testify.

That will be federal budget day, but they shouldn’t imagine that will be enough to bury Wilson-Raybould under a bigger news story.

The former minister deserves a chance to complete her story, and all parties should trust Canadians to come to a mature decision once they’ve heard all sides. If the Liberals try to short-circuit that, it will come back to haunt them.

Preventing Jody Wilson-Raybould from speaking out at the justice committee is self-defeating