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Alleged PMO obstruction in SNC Lavalin case

SNC-Lavalin could suffer takeover, lose 9,000 jobs overseas, says CEO

Peter Zimonjic · CBC News

If it's convicted of fraud and bribery charges, SNC-Lavalin could end up being taken over by another company and its 9,000 jobs in Canada could move abroad, the engineering firm's CEO told Radio-Canada in an interview today.

"If we were convicted further down the line … if we're barred from doing federal work, then the people doing federal work today will have to do something else. That may be in Canada or it may be outside Canada," Neil Bruce said.

Analysts have countered that argument, pointing out that more than half of those 9,000 workers are currently engaged in multi-billion dollar construction projects that are years from completion, and that it's unlikely SNC will be prevented from bidding on provincial contracts.

...

See rest of article here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/neil-bruce-snc-lavalin-radio-canada-1.5065042

In the words of just about everyone: "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."

:cheers:
 
>and its 9,000 jobs in Canada could move abroad

Fine.  The federal contracts and - I suppose - most of the workers who fill those jobs would remain in Canada.  So the workers would continue to have work in Canada, but working for other companies.  SNC can go build German infrastructure with German workers in Germany.
 
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-jody-wilson-raybould-plans-to-provide-further-evidence-to-house/?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Evening%20Update&utm_type=text&utm_content=EveningUpdate&utm_campaign=2019-3-22_17&cu_id=2AhifIPYOSVxCwZPBuV%2FvXk0f20rcOyV

Wilson-Raybould will table more evidence of political meddling in SNC-Lavalin affair
- ROBERT FIFE - 22 Mar 19

Former attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould says she plans to provide further evidence to a parliamentary committee about high-level political interference in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. The move comes after the Liberal majority on the House of Commons justice committee closed down an inquiry into the SNC-Lavalin affair on Tuesday, preventing Ms. Wilson-Raybould from testifying again in response to other witnesses. Opposition MPs protested the shutdown of the hearings by forcing 31 hours of marathon voting on spending estimates that ended early Friday morning. They vow to keep the spotlight on the controversy until Ms. Wilson-Raybould is able to testify again.

On Friday, Ms. Wilson-Raybould wrote to the chair of the justice committee, Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, saying she has "relevant facts and evidence” that back up her previous testimony about attempts by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and top aides to help SNC-Lavalin avoid a criminal trial on fraud and bribery charges relating to its business dealings in Libya. In testimony last month, Ms. Wilson-Raybould said she faced "consistent and sustained” pressure to override federal prosecutors and negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin. Such an agreement would allow the company to accept responsibility for wrongdoing and pay a fine without having to go to trial.

In her letter, Ms. Wilson-Raybould said she intends to submit evidence that had been asked of her by justice committee members when she testified on Feb. 27 and to respond to witnesses who appeared after her. Her evidence will be made public, Mr. Housefather told members of the committee on Friday. Mr. Trudeau’s former principal secretary, Gerald Butts, and Michael Wernick, the clerk of the privy council, testified on March 6 that Ms. Wilson-Raybould was not subjected to “inappropriate pressure” and said she had mischaracterized some of the conversations.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould indicated she has documented evidence that will support her version of what transpired between September and December, 2018, when she was attorney-general and justice minister. “A request was made for ‘copies of text messages and e-mails’ that I referred to in my testimony on Feb. 27, 2019 … I will provide copies,” she wrote. “Related to these requests, I also have relevant facts and evidence in my possession that further clarify statements I made and elucidate the accuracy and nature of statements by witnesses in testimony that came after my committee appearance.”

However, Ms. Wilson-Raybould said she is still prevented from talking about the period of time from when she was shuffled out of justice in early January to her resignation from cabinet in mid-February. The B.C. Liberal MP has asked the 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.

But Mr. Trudeau told reporters in Thunder Bay on Friday that Ms. Wilson-Raybould has already had an opportunity to tell her story during four hours of testimony before the justice committee last month. Her testimony, however, covered only her time as attorney-general and not the period after she was shuffled to veterans affairs. She believes the demotion was related to the SNC-Lavalin prosecution.

“There has been an airing of that for five weeks in front of the justice committee and the ethics commissioner continues to proceed with his investigation on this,” Mr. Trudeau said, in dismissing requests to waive cabinet confidentiality and solicitor-client privilege for that period. “There has been a full airing of involving the former justice minister and attorney general and the SNC-Lavalin file.”

Opposition MPs accused Mr. Trudeau of a cover-up to prevent Canadians from knowing about what led Ms. Wilson-Raybould and former Treasury Board President Jane Philpott to resign from cabinet. “It’s clear from her letter that she still feels limited in what she can release and what she can speak about,” Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen told reporters. “Every single day there is more and more proof that the Prime Minister is doing everything he can to continue the cover-up and not allow her to speak.”

On Thursday, Ms. Philpott complained about “an attempt to shut down the story” and said “there is still a substantial amount of her [Wilson-Raybould] story that’s not out there.” “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,” she told Maclean’s magazine.

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 settlement without trial for SNC-Lavalin. In the fallout from The Globe report, Ms. Wilson-Raybould, Ms. Philpott and Mr. Butts stepped down. On Monday, Mr. Wernick retired because he had lost the “trust and respect" of the opposition parties over his role in the SNC-Lavalin case.

Liberal MPs are also expected to use their majority on the House ethics committee on Tuesday to block an attempt by Conservative and NDP members to mount an inquiry and have Ms. Wilson-Raybould testify again.

One option open to Ms. Wilson-Raybould is to raise a question of personal privilege to ask the Commons Speaker to allow her to speak freely about what happened after she was demoted to Veterans Affairs and her resignation from cabinet. The move would give her immunity to speak without facing consequences of violating cabinet confidentiality and solicitor-client privilege. However, the Speaker could limit the time to 20 minutes.
 
Fishbone Jones said:
This is just getting worse and worse for trudeau.
Kinda breaks my heart ::)

Ironically hoist with his own petard...

"Pétard comes from the Middle French péter, to break wind, from the root pet, expulsion of intestinal gas, derived from the Latin peditus, past participle of pedere, to break wind. In modern French, a pétard is a firecracker (and it is the basis for the word for firecracker in several other European languages)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard


 
FJAG said:
"If you can't do the time afford the cost of doing business, don't do the crime."
Cynically fixed that for you ...
Fishbone Jones said:
This is just getting worse and worse for trudeau.
Kinda breaks my heart ::)
You're taking it well, though :)
daftandbarmy said:
Ironically hoist with his own petard...
An Italian version of that is a saying something like, "the spinach'll cook in its own grease"  :nod:
 
Well this doesn't make sense.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to affirm that he was trying to protect Canadian jobs when he and his staff spoke with former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould about a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with SNC-Lavalin.

Trudeau said this in the same week that the engineering firm's CEO has insisted he never brought up potential job losses with the prime minister.

Trudeau faced questions over the SNC-Lavalin affair at a town hall in Thunder Bay, Ont. on Friday night.

The prime minister was asked why he continues to say that he was trying to stand up for Canadian jobs, when SNC-Lavalin CEO Neil Bruce has said he never raised the issue with him as part of discussions toward a DPA.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politics/trudeau-insists-he-was-trying-to-protect-snc-lavalin-jobs-%E2%80%94-even-as-its-ceo-says-he-didnt-raise-them/ar-BBV7IwS


Do you think maybe Mr Bruce just has a different recollection of the conversation?  ::)
 
So, who are you going to believe, Jarnhamar?  Our open and transparent PM who has spoken frequently. eloquently and convincingly about the fulsome testimony he has allowed JWR to give?  He has the full confidence of his ministers and was only trying to do what is right for Canada.

Or would you believe the CEO of a faceless multinational corporation involved in shady business deals with despots and tyrants and who's officers have already been convicted of criminal offences and who is, itself, facing criminal charges?

I know who I'd pick.  :cdn:
 
Haggis said:
So, who are you going to believe, Jarnhamar?  Our open and transparent PM who has spoken frequently. eloquently and convincingly about the fulsome testimony he has allowed JWR to give?  He has the full confidence of his ministers and was only trying to do what is right for Canada.

Or would you believe the CEO of a faceless multinational corporation involved in shady business deals with despots and tyrants and who's officers have already been convicted of criminal offences and who is, itself, facing criminal charges?

I know who I'd pick.  :cdn:
The Scot of course!
 
Haggis said:
Aye!, But which one?  Trudeau is part Sinclair.
The one who looks like he did some manual labour! 

Seriously, I can see the executive not mentioning number of jobs to the Government and the Government doing an estimation of the number of jobs in jeopardy so they are both right.
 
Haggis said:
So, who are you going to believe, Jarnhamar?  Our open and transparent PM who has spoken frequently. eloquently and convincingly about the fulsome testimony he has allowed JWR to give?  He has the full confidence of his ministers and was only trying to do what is right for Canada.

Or would you believe the CEO of a faceless multinational corporation involved in shady business deals with despots and tyrants and who's officers have already been convicted of criminal offences and who is, itself, facing criminal charges?

I know who I'd pick.  :cdn:

That's a Socrates level conundrum if I ever heard one.
 
Ah yes.  Stanley Spudowski's Play House, Drinking From the Firehose, and Wheel of Fish.  What a great movie!
 
More fuel to feed the partisan fires, via #NotYetBoughtMedia wire service The Canadian Press ...
Jody Wilson-Raybould recommended in 2017 that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nominate a conservative Manitoba judge to be chief justice of the Supreme Court, even though he wasn’t a sitting member of the top court and had been a vocal critic of its activism on Charter of Rights issues, The Canadian Press has learned.

Well-placed sources say Jody Wilson-Raybould’s choice for chief justice was a moment of “significant disagreement” with Trudeau, who has touted the Liberals as “the party of the charter” and whose late father, Pierre Trudeau, spearheaded the drive to enshrine the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution in 1982.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal discussions about a Supreme Court appointment, which are typically considered highly confidential.

For her part, Wilson-Raybould said Monday “there was no conflict between the PM and myself.”

In an email, she characterized the matter as part of the normal process of appointing a Supreme Court justice, which involves “typically CONFIDENTIAL conversations and communications – back and forths between the PM and the AG (attorney general) on potential candidates for appointment.”

She said she’s “not at liberty to comment” on the “veracity” of what the sources said occurred, adding, “Commentary/reporting in this regard with respect to a SCC appointment(s) could compromise the integrity of the appointments process and potentially sitting justices.”

The issue suggests Trudeau may have had reasons unrelated to the SNC-Lavalin affair for moving Wilson-Raybould out of the prestigious Justice portfolio earlier this year – a cabinet shuffle that touched off a full-blown political crisis for the governing Liberals ...
More @ link
 
And yet, even more fuel:

Chief Justice Glenn Joyal says his name is being used to ‘further an agenda’ in SNC-Lavalin dispute

SEAN FINE JUSTICE WRITER
ROBERT FIFE OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
PUBLISHED MARCH 25, 2019

A Manitoba judge says his name is being improperly used to serve someone’s “agenda” in the dispute between former justice minister and attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould and the Liberal government.

Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench was a candidate for the Supreme Court of Canada vacancy created by the retirement of former chief justice Beverley McLachlin in December, 2017.

News reports from The Canadian Press and CTV on Monday said Ms. Wilson-Raybould, who has accused the Liberal government of political interference in her role as attorney-general, had pushed for Chief Justice Joyal both to replace Ms. McLachlin on the court and to be chief justice. In a statement, Ms. Wilson-Raybould would not comment on whether she supported Chief Justice Joyal for the court citing the confidentiality of the appointment process.

Supreme Court appointments are decided by the prime minister and the minister of justice is consulted on the matter. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Justice Sheilah Martin, an Alberta appeal court judge, to the Supreme Court and Richard Wagner of Quebec as Chief Justice.

Citing unnamed sources, the news reports suggested Mr. Trudeau doubted Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s judgment when she backed the conservative-minded Chief Justice Joyal, who has questioned the Supreme Court’s expansive position on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Mr. Trudeau has defended a liberal interpretation of Charter rights.

But in a statement, Chief Justice Joyal said he withdrew his candidacy for personal reasons, “due to my wife’s metastatic breast cancer.” He did not say what date he withdrew. He did not immediately respond Monday night to e-mail questions from The Globe and Mail.

“I fear that someone is using my previous candidacy to the Supreme Court of Canada to further an agenda unrelated to the appointment process,” he said in the statement. “This is wrong.”

Ms. Wilson-Raybould has been at the centre of a political storm since The Globe published allegations on Feb. 7 that senior members of the Prime Minister’s Office put pressure on her to stop SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec engineering firm, from being prosecuted on bribery and fraud charges.

Since then, she has testified at a Commons committee that Mr. Trudeau was among the government officials who pressed her on at least 20 occasions, on the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, over a four-month period. She was moved out of her post in January to Veterans Affairs, from which she later resigned. The Prime Minister’s principal secretary and the government’s top civil servant have also resigned, and a second cabinet minister, Jane Philpott, resigned in support of Ms. Wilson-Raybould.

Supreme Court candidates apply or are invited to apply to a non-partisan committee. Former prime minister Kim Campbell heads the committee, which submits a short list of three to five names to the prime minister for consideration. The prime minister ultimately decides who will be appointed.

Globe and Mail sources at the time described Chief Justice Joyal as a leading contender. The former prosecutor had first been appointed a provincial court judge in 1998 by the Progressive Conservative government.

He was later appointed during Stephen Harper’s years as prime minister to the province’s Court of Appeal, and then as chief justice of the province’s top trial court. By comparison, Justice Martin had strong small-l liberal credentials as a former law dean, author and feminist with expertise in sexual-assault law. Ms. Wilson-Raybould had named her to Alberta’s Court of Appeal in one of her earliest appointments.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould also denied the news reports.

“There was no conflict," she said in a statement e-mailed to news reporters. “The ultimate decision on appointment to the SCC is always the PMs. In this process there are typically confidential conversations and communications – back and forths between the PM and the MOJAG [minister of justice and attorney-general] on potential candidates for appointment.”

On the specifics of the news report, she declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of the appointment process.

“I am not at liberty to comment on their veracity. I do however find it extremely worrisome that people are asking such questions and where they received any such information. Commentary/reporting in this regard with respect to a SCC appointment(s) could compromise the integrity of the appointments process, our institutions and potentially sitting Justices.”

She added she is proud of both Supreme Court appointments during the Liberal tenure, Justice Martin and Justice Malcolm Rowe of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Peter Russell, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said the justice minister’s role is to quarterback the process, making sure it works properly. In an interview, he said it was unlikely that she would write a 60-page memo in favour of a candidate, as unnamed sources said she did for Chief Justice Joyal.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-chief-justice-glenn-joyal-says-his-names-being-used-as-part-of/

Looks like the PMO was trying to create an issue that wasn't there to help their boy out.

:pop:

(Just as an aside Joyal had been briefly appointed by Harper to the Manitoba Court of Appeal in March of 2007 but several months later asked to be moved back to the Court of Queen's Bench for personal reasons. He was moved back in July of 2007. He was appointed Associate Chief Justice of the QB in Jan 2009 and Chief Justice of the Manitoba QB in Feb 2011)
 
From what I read, appointments to the SCC is a very confidential process, even more confidential than cabinet discussions. I look forward to the investigation to the source of the leaks from the PCO. (SARCASM)
 
Citing unnamed sources, the news reports suggested Mr. Trudeau doubted Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s judgment.......

Priceless, Trudeau doubting someones judgement, and trusting his. Oh, the Drama. He's going down hill fast on that snowboard.
 
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