Gerald Butts says Jody Wilson-Raybould never complained about PMO pressure until she was shuffled cdnpoli
She told the committee she was subjected to relentless, inappropriate pressure — and even veiled threats about being removed as justice minister — to stop the trial of SNC-Lavalin on bribery and fraud charges related to contracts in Libya.
"When you boil it all down, all we ever asked the attorney general to consider was a second opinion," Butts says in a lengthy written statement tabled at the committee."When 9,000 people's jobs are at stake, it is a public policy problem of the highest order. It was our obligation to exhaustively consider options the law allows."
The first he or Trudeau heard about it was when the prime minister told Wilson-Raybould's close friend and fellow cabinet minister Jane Philpott he was moving Philpott from Indigenous Services to Treasury Board, filling a gap left by Scott Brison's surprise retirement from politics. Trudeau also suggested that Wilson-Raybould's new assignment would be temporary, just until the election in October."He said that, 'after the election, if we are successful, everything would be fresh.'"
Trudeau ultimately moved Wilson-Raybould to Veterans Affairs in a Jan. 14 shuffle. In the days before, Butts says, he and Wilson-Raybould had numerous conversations and email exchanges that were"deeply personal in nature" in which she became more pointed in her accusation that she was being punished for refusing to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin case.
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