Globe editorial: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s accusation goes to the very heart of Canadian justice GlobeDebate
On Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa, the former attorney-general described “a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the attorney general of Canada in an inappropriate effort to secure a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin.”
It is hard to exaggerate the seriousness of this. Her allegations go to the foundations of the Canadian justice system’s independence, and they rise to the highest levels of the government. They are all the more powerful because this accusation against the Trudeau government is being made by one of its most senior members.
She had not said what was behind her unprecedented public letter, issued in January after she was shuffled out of the Justice ministry, in which she felt the need to express the view that “our system of justice must be free from even the perception of political interference,” thereby hinting that during her time in office this had been an issue of more than just theoretical interest.
She said that she and her senior staff were repeatedly contacted by other senior officials, urging her to reach a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin. The law offers the option of crafting such an agreement in corporate criminal cases but, in this instance, the prosecutor and the Director of Public Prosecutions had declined to offer the company such a deal, and Ms. Wilson-Raybould decided against overruling them.
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