The former AG talks to Geddes28 about recording her call with Michael Wernick, her relationship with Gerry Butts and the dangers of blind loyalty
There are two ways this might go now for Jody Wilson-Raybould: creation of an icon or writing of a footnote. To her admirers, the former justice minister’s attributes seem lastingly potent. She was the woman who rose higher in federal politics than any previous Indigenous politician, only to be driven out on a point of principle. To her critics, including many of her former Liberal colleagues, she just wasn’t a team player and didn’t understand the compromises high office demands.
As with any Section 13 note, as the head prosecutor, or the attorney general, I looked at it. I read the explanation from the prosecutor. I decided not to take action because I respected the independent prosecutor’s exercise of her discretion in this case, and I did not deem it appropriate in this case to intervene. That was based on how she presented it to me and other due diligence that I did.
Q: Recording Michael Wernick, the clerk of the Privy Council, without telling him, and then releasing the tape to the House justice committee, seemed to violate the trust between civil servants and politicians. Why did you do it? A: I acknowledge that there are people, including people that I know personally, that have asked me the same question. I think it’s a legitimate question to ask. I was in a place as the attorney general, having had gone through many months of conversations, of pressure.
Q: You had publicly said critical things in speeches about the pace of Indigenous reconciliation under your own government. Is it possible that even before SNC-Lavalin emerged as a big issue, you were seen by the PMO as a stubborn, maybe troublesome cabinet minister, and they were wary of you? A: Anything’s possible. You’d have to ask somebody in the PMO about their perceptions of me.
Q: You wanted him to stop pressure coming from others in the PMO and elsewhere. A: I don’t believe I ever characterized the meeting that I had with Gerry that he was imparting pressure on me, or that I felt pressure from what he said, saying we need to find a solution to [SNC-Lavalin], all that kind of stuff. I said my piece to him on it, and then I didn’t feel the need to say anything else to him on it, because that was it.
Q: And the Liberal party? A: The Liberal party is not something that I understand anymore. I believe that if you do not stick to your principles and to your values, or you remove yourself from those principles for loyalty, then you really don’t have anything to stand on. There’s no foundation. If you compromise principles for loyalty and solidarity, then you become complicit in something that’s wrong. That’s how I see. I feel badly for my former colleagues.
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