Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says she came under 'consistent and sustained' pressure -- including veiled threats -- from the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council Office and the finance minister's office to halt a criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.
Last Updated Wednesday, February 27, 2019 5:48PM EST
“For a period of approximately four months, between September and December of 2018, I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role of Attorney General of Canada, in an inappropriate effort to secure a prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin,” she said Wednesday.
Through a more-than-30-minute opening statement she detailed chronologically a series of communications with her office, ranging from in-person meetings and phone calls, to text messages and emails from 11 senior staffers from the Prime Minister's Office, Privy Council Office, and the finance minister's office.
Despite this, Wilson-Raybould has offered an in-depth detailing of approximately 20 exchanges specifically on the SNC-Lavalin case while she was still attorney general and justice minister. She is not able to speak about any relevant matters that occurred after she was shuffled into veterans affairs.
“While in our system of government, policy-oriented discussion amongst people at early points in this conversation may be appropriate, the consistent and enduring efforts, even in the face of judicial proceedings on the same matter, and in the face of a clear decision of the director of public prosecutions and the attorney general to continue and even intensify such efforts, raises serious red flags in my view. Yet, this is what continued to happen,” she said.
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