Former Liberal minister Philpott says Canadians need to know ‘whole story’ of SNC-Lavalin affair
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has brushed aside calls from former cabinet minister Jane Philpott to waive all cabinet and solicitor general privileges to allow Jody Wilson-Raybould to speak freely about the fallout from the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Ms. Philpott told Maclean’s magazine in an interview published on Thursday that Canadians need to know “the whole story” of what she called an “attempt to politically interfere with the justice system in its work on the criminal trial” of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin.
Ms. Philpott resigned earlier this month as President of the Treasury Board, citing a lack of confidence in the way the Prime Minister handled the SNC-Lavalin matter.
The political controversy has resulted in the resignations of four high-profile members of the Trudeau government and maneuvers by the opposition to disrupt Parliament in protest of a decision by the Liberal-dominated justice committee to shut down its inquiry into the matter.
Conservative MPs forced marathon votes on spending estimates Wednesday night that are expected to take up most of Thursday and force the cancellation of the Commons Question Period.
In testimony before the Commons justice committee last month, Ms. Wilson-Raybould said she faced “consistent and sustained” pressure from Mr. Trudeau and top aides including the Clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to the Montreal engineering and construction company.
The B.C. Liberal MP has said she wanted to return for a second round of testimony to explain what transpired between when she was moved out of the justice portfolio in early January and her resignation from cabinet on Feb. 11.
She has asked Prime Minister to give her another waiver from solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidentiality to talk about conversations with Mr. Trudeau that led to her resignation from cabinet.
“If nothing wrong took place, then why don’t we waive privilege on the whole issue and let those who have something to say on it speak their minds and share their stories,” Ms. Philpott said. “My sense is that Canadians would like to know the whole truth.”
At an event in Mississauga, Mr. Trudeau told reporters he already granted an unprecedented waiver to Ms. Wilson-Raybould so she could provide testimony about the political pressure she said was exerted between September and December 2018 to help SNC-Lavalin out of its legal difficulties.
“The issue was pressure around SNC-Lavalin while she was attorney-general and she got to speak fully to do that,” Mr. Trudeau said in dismissing requests he allow her to speak about the period after she was shuffled out of Justice.
This week, the government has tried to shift the political focus from the SNC-Lavalin affair to the budget. The issue has dominated Parliament since The Globe and Mail reported on Feb. 7 that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured the former attorney general to negotiate an out-of-court settlement with SNC-Lavalin.
In the fallout from The Globe report, Mr. Trudeau has lost the two ministers as well as his principal secretary, Gerald Butts. On Monday, Mr. Wernick retired as Canada’s top bureaucratic saying he has lost the “trust and respect" of the opposition parties over his role in the SNC-Lavalin matter.
On Tuesday, Liberal MPs on the Justice committee shut down hearings on the SNC-Lavalin matter, preventing Ms. Wilson-Raybould from returning to testify.
Liberal MPs are also expected to use their majority on the House ethics committees on Thursday to block an attempt by Conservative and NDP members to mount an inquiry and have Ms. Wilson-Raybould testify.
In the Maclean’s interview, Ms. Philpott said she is also keen to have cabinet privileges waived so she could talk about a Dec. 6 meeting with the Prime Minister when they discussed his plans to shuffle Ms. Wilson-Raybould out of the post of justice minister and attorney-general.
“I spoke to the Prime Minister on January the 6th about SNC-Lavalin’s desire to have a DPA [deferred prosecution agreement],” she said. “I think Canadians might want to know why I would have raised that with the Prime Minister. … Why would I have felt that there was a reason why the former minister Wilson-Raybould should not be shuffled.”
Mr. Trudeau had a different interpretation of that meeting, saying it was about Ms. Philpott’s move from Indigenous Services to Treasury Board President and his plan to have Ms. Wilson-Raybould take over her portfolio.
“She asked me directly if this was in link to the SNC-Lavalin decision and I told her, ‘no it was not,’ ” he said. “She then mentioned it may be a challenge for Jody-Wilson Raybould to take on the role of Indigenous Services.”
Mr. Trudeau said he asked Ms. Philpott “for her help, and she gladly offered" to help convince Ms. Wilson-Raybould to take the position. A former B.C. regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Ms. Wilson-Raybould turned down the job because she did not want to oversee the Indian Act.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould was then shuffled to Veteran Affairs on Jan. 14, which she believed was related to her refusal to help SNC-Lavalin out of its legal difficulties.
Ms. Philpott said Ms. Wilson-Raybould was subjected to “bullying or harassment” from the Prime Minister’s Office to overrule federal prosecutors and negotiate an out-of-court settlement with SNC-Lavalin.
“The former AG didn’t want to override that, and she had her finger in the dike and said no repeatedly," Ms. Philpott said.
In the aftermath of Ms. Philpott’s interview, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh renewed calls on Thursday for a judicial inquiry.
"Give us the independence of a judge that is not limited by a Liberal-dominated committee, where a judge has the independence to ask all witnesses all the questions necessary so Canadians can learn the truth,” he said. “If the Prime Minister was co-operative, the public inquiry would not take very long. It could happen right away and Canadians could know the truth before the election.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-former-liberal-minister-philpott-says-canadians-need-to-know-whole/
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has brushed aside calls from former cabinet minister Jane Philpott to waive all cabinet and solicitor general privileges to allow Jody Wilson-Raybould to speak freely about the fallout from the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Ms. Philpott told Maclean’s magazine in an interview published on Thursday that Canadians need to know “the whole story” of what she called an “attempt to politically interfere with the justice system in its work on the criminal trial” of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin.
Ms. Philpott resigned earlier this month as President of the Treasury Board, citing a lack of confidence in the way the Prime Minister handled the SNC-Lavalin matter.
The political controversy has resulted in the resignations of four high-profile members of the Trudeau government and maneuvers by the opposition to disrupt Parliament in protest of a decision by the Liberal-dominated justice committee to shut down its inquiry into the matter.
Conservative MPs forced marathon votes on spending estimates Wednesday night that are expected to take up most of Thursday and force the cancellation of the Commons Question Period.
In testimony before the Commons justice committee last month, Ms. Wilson-Raybould said she faced “consistent and sustained” pressure from Mr. Trudeau and top aides including the Clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to the Montreal engineering and construction company.
The B.C. Liberal MP has said she wanted to return for a second round of testimony to explain what transpired between when she was moved out of the justice portfolio in early January and her resignation from cabinet on Feb. 11.
She has asked Prime Minister to give her another waiver from solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidentiality to talk about conversations with Mr. Trudeau that led to her resignation from cabinet.
“If nothing wrong took place, then why don’t we waive privilege on the whole issue and let those who have something to say on it speak their minds and share their stories,” Ms. Philpott said. “My sense is that Canadians would like to know the whole truth.”
At an event in Mississauga, Mr. Trudeau told reporters he already granted an unprecedented waiver to Ms. Wilson-Raybould so she could provide testimony about the political pressure she said was exerted between September and December 2018 to help SNC-Lavalin out of its legal difficulties.
“The issue was pressure around SNC-Lavalin while she was attorney-general and she got to speak fully to do that,” Mr. Trudeau said in dismissing requests he allow her to speak about the period after she was shuffled out of Justice.
This week, the government has tried to shift the political focus from the SNC-Lavalin affair to the budget. The issue has dominated Parliament since The Globe and Mail reported on Feb. 7 that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured the former attorney general to negotiate an out-of-court settlement with SNC-Lavalin.
In the fallout from The Globe report, Mr. Trudeau has lost the two ministers as well as his principal secretary, Gerald Butts. On Monday, Mr. Wernick retired as Canada’s top bureaucratic saying he has lost the “trust and respect" of the opposition parties over his role in the SNC-Lavalin matter.
On Tuesday, Liberal MPs on the Justice committee shut down hearings on the SNC-Lavalin matter, preventing Ms. Wilson-Raybould from returning to testify.
Liberal MPs are also expected to use their majority on the House ethics committees on Thursday to block an attempt by Conservative and NDP members to mount an inquiry and have Ms. Wilson-Raybould testify.
In the Maclean’s interview, Ms. Philpott said she is also keen to have cabinet privileges waived so she could talk about a Dec. 6 meeting with the Prime Minister when they discussed his plans to shuffle Ms. Wilson-Raybould out of the post of justice minister and attorney-general.
“I spoke to the Prime Minister on January the 6th about SNC-Lavalin’s desire to have a DPA [deferred prosecution agreement],” she said. “I think Canadians might want to know why I would have raised that with the Prime Minister. … Why would I have felt that there was a reason why the former minister Wilson-Raybould should not be shuffled.”
Mr. Trudeau had a different interpretation of that meeting, saying it was about Ms. Philpott’s move from Indigenous Services to Treasury Board President and his plan to have Ms. Wilson-Raybould take over her portfolio.
“She asked me directly if this was in link to the SNC-Lavalin decision and I told her, ‘no it was not,’ ” he said. “She then mentioned it may be a challenge for Jody-Wilson Raybould to take on the role of Indigenous Services.”
Mr. Trudeau said he asked Ms. Philpott “for her help, and she gladly offered" to help convince Ms. Wilson-Raybould to take the position. A former B.C. regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Ms. Wilson-Raybould turned down the job because she did not want to oversee the Indian Act.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould was then shuffled to Veteran Affairs on Jan. 14, which she believed was related to her refusal to help SNC-Lavalin out of its legal difficulties.
Ms. Philpott said Ms. Wilson-Raybould was subjected to “bullying or harassment” from the Prime Minister’s Office to overrule federal prosecutors and negotiate an out-of-court settlement with SNC-Lavalin.
“The former AG didn’t want to override that, and she had her finger in the dike and said no repeatedly," Ms. Philpott said.
In the aftermath of Ms. Philpott’s interview, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh renewed calls on Thursday for a judicial inquiry.
"Give us the independence of a judge that is not limited by a Liberal-dominated committee, where a judge has the independence to ask all witnesses all the questions necessary so Canadians can learn the truth,” he said. “If the Prime Minister was co-operative, the public inquiry would not take very long. It could happen right away and Canadians could know the truth before the election.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-former-liberal-minister-philpott-says-canadians-need-to-know-whole/
