SNC-Lavalin affair
The Parliament of Canada's Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion found that Trudeau improperly influenced then Minister of Justice and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in an ongoing criminal case against Quebec-based construction company SNC-Lavalin (subsequently rebranded AtkinsRéalis in 2023)[1] by offering a deferred prosecution agreement.
After a six-month-long investigation, Ethics Commissioner Dion issued a report that concluded that Trudeau had contravened Section 9 of the federal Conflict of Interest Act by improperly pressuring Wilson-Raybould.
[11] On recommendation from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Kathleen Roussel, former SNC-Lavalin Executive Vice President Normand Morin[12] was charged in the Court of Quebec in May 2018 with making illegal donations to Canadian federal political parties.
Through a DPA, sentencing and remediation agreements are negotiated, under the supervision of a judge, between federal prosecuting authorities and a corporation charged with an offence, usually in the context of fraud or corruption.
A spokesman for then-Justice Minister Raybould said prosecutors would be responsible to decide whether a company is eligible for the agreements and negotiate the terms, operating at arm's length from the government.
In Miazga v Kvello Estate, the Supreme Court of Canada held that, "The independence of the Attorney General is so fundamental to the integrity and efficiency of the criminal justice system that it is constitutionally entrenched.
"[22] Similarly, in Krieger v Law Society of Alberta, the Supreme Court held, "It is a constitutional principle that the Attorneys General of this country must act independently of partisan concerns when exercising their delegated sovereign authority to initiate, continue or terminate prosecutions.
[28][29][30] On 7 February 2019, The Globe and Mail reported on allegations made by unnamed sources that beginning in October 2018, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) put pressure on then-Minister of Justice and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in ongoing criminal proceedings against SNC-Lavalin to offer the company a deferred prosecution agreement.
[37][38] The article stated that after charges were brought against SNC-Lavalin in October 2017, the company approached officials in Ottawa, including members of the Prime Minister's Office, to secure a DPA.
"[42] In the days following the publication of the article in The Globe and Mail, opposition party politicians and the media questioned whether the reason for Wilson-Raybould's removal was her refusal to prevent criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
In a letter to NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus and MP Nathan Cullen, Dion said he had "reason to believe that a possible contravention of section 9 [of the Conflict of Interest Act] may have occurred".
In a press conference, the same day as the ethics investigation was announced, Trudeau said he had full confidence in Wilson-Raybould and that they had spoken the previous fall, when he told her directly that decisions regarding the DPP were hers alone.
[50][51] In her resignation letter released the following day on 12 February, Wilson-Raybould reaffirmed her commitment to serving in Parliament, saying she had retained Thomas Cromwell, the retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice, and was getting advice on what she was legally allowed to discuss publicly.
What would be the first of multiple hearings originally only had Lametti, Deputy Minister of Justice Nathalie Drouin, and Michael Wernick as witnesses, as the Liberal majority on the committee blocked attempts by opposition party MPs to have Wilson-Raybould testify.
[68] At the hearing, Wernick testified for a second time, and stated that the decision to consider a DPA is never final, and that he was only reminding Wilson-Raybould to take public interest considerations into account.
"[69] Drouin also said that at the end of October 2018, the Privy Council Office (PCO) asked her department for advice on the potential impact on SNC-Lavalin if a deferred prosecution agreement was not pursued.
[73] On 19 March 2019, the Justice Committee held an in-camera meeting where Liberal members introduced and passed a motion to end any further probe into the SNC-Lavalin scandal, indicating that they preferred to leave any remaining investigation to the ethics commissioner.
[75] The committee did not hear from some individuals implicated in the controversy by Wilson-Raybould, including Katie Telford (Trudeau's chief of staff) and senior staffers Ben Chin, Elder Marques, and Mathieu Bouchard.
[77][78][79] The recording was accompanied by a submission of forty pages supplementing her original testimony, including copies of texts and emails, outlining Wilson-Raybould's view of events and their implications for prosecutorial independence.
[81] Wernick said that he did not brief the Prime Minister on the call due to the Holiday season break, and that he did not discuss SNC again with the PMO until the story was leaked in early February.
[87] The report's analysis section discusses the topics of prosecutorial independence and Shawcross doctrine (dual role of Attorney General) to draw the conclusion that the influence was improper and a violation of the Conflict of Interest Act as Democracy Watch (Canada) called for in its February 8 complaint.
A RCMP spokesperson declined to confirm or deny whether an investigation is underway, saying that the police force is carefully reviewing the facts and will take "appropriate actions as required".
[49] The scope of the ethics review is to look into any possible contravention of rules prohibiting public office holders from using their position to influence decisions that could further another person's private interest.
[107] Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, called for an independent, RCMP-led investigation into the allegations, stating that the "Ethics Commissioner is not the right place to seek such an inquiry; neither is the justice committee".
[108] Following the Justice Committee hearings on 27 February, Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer called for Trudeau's resignation, saying that he had "lost the moral authority to govern".
[111] On 11 March, the OECD Working Group on Bribery, of which Canada is a member, wrote to the Canadian government outlining its concerns about potential political interference in the case, and saying that it would "closely monitor investigations into the SNC-Lavalin affair by the House of Commons justice committee and the federal ethics commissioner".
The Working Group did clarify it had no reason to doubt the approach the Canadian government is taking, and noted Canada's willingness to keep it fully informed of the proceedings at its next meeting in June 2019.
The plan, provided to Public Prosecution Service of Canada last fall, included moving its Montreal headquarters to the United States within a year, reducing its workforce, and eventually winding down Canadian operations.
[136][135] The day the vote was scheduled to proceed, Wilson-Raybould wrote a letter to the caucus arguing that she should remain a member, saying "Ultimately the choice that is before you is about what kind of party you want to be a part of, what values it will uphold, the vision that animates it, and indeed the type of people it will attract and make it up.
[149] In an interview with the New York Times, Trudeau maintained his innocence in the matter and suggested that the severity of the issue had been overly exaggerated, stating that "the media and opposition were being distracted with this internal dispute that has been invented and amplified.
