This is Jody Wilson-Raybould.
This is her being sworn in as Canada's first
indigenous Minister of Justice and Attorney General in 2015. And this is
Minister Wilson-Raybould three years later after being fired from her
position as attorney-general.
Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence.
She'd eventually release a letter with an interesting phrase
about an Attorney General's job: "speaking truth to power." Since then, we found out
why she was fired. It's alleged that the Prime Minister, and those in the inner
circle of his office, tried to pressure the former Attorney General into
dismissing a criminal case against SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec base construction and
engineering company, with deep ties to the Liberal Party. When Jody Wilson-Raybould
refused to give SNC-Lavalin and Justin Trudeau their preferred outcome
which was a sweetheart deal to avoid prosecution,
it's reported that Justin Trudeau fired her.
It's tough for anyone to keep the
facts straight especially since the story coming from Justin Trudeau keeps
changing. So, I'm going to break it down for you as quickly and as clearly as I can
This scandal started all the way back in 2001 in Libya. Some executives from
SNC-Lavalin bribed Libyan officials with hundreds of millions of dollars and won
huge construction contracts as a result. This went on for years, until an RCMP
investigation led to charges of bribery and corruption. And, if found guilty,
Canadian law would prevent them from bidding on government contracts.
SNC-Lavalin knew that if they didn't have the law changed, that would
be it. They would be finished.
The connections between SNC-Lavalin and the
Liberal Party of Canada are well documented and go back decades. So, from
the moment Trudeau took office SNC-Lavalin started a massive lobbying
effort to change the Criminal Code. They met with almost every senior official in
Trudeau's government. And the Liberals were ready to listen. The government
changed the Criminal Code by sneaking a new legal provision into a budget bill.
Why does the finance minister think it's appropriate to amend the Criminal Code
through a budget bill? We believe the approach to deferred prosecution
agreements will enable us to pursue an approach that is functioning in other
economies. The Liberals were actually willing to amend the Criminal Code
through the back pages of a giant budget bill. By putting this change to the law
in a budget bill it looked like an end-run around the Department of Justice.
Everything was looking good for SNC-Lavalin until they hit a snag. The use
of this new law was at the sole discretion of the Director of Public
Prosecutions and the Director of Public Prosecutions informed SNC-Lavalin
that no special deal was coming. The only person who could still prevent SNC-Lavalin
from being prosecuted for fraud and bribery was Canada's Attorney
General: Minister of Jody Wilson-Raybould. And what happened
next is the important part: the Prime Minister's Office reportedly pressured
Jody Wilson-Raybould to go over the head of the Director of Public Prosecutions
to ensure that SNC-Lavalin would avoid prosecution. But Jody Wilson-Raybould
wouldn't play ball six weeks later it was mysteriously fired from her
position as Canada's Attorney General. At the heart of this is a simple question:
Is anyone above the law? Should there be one set of laws for powerful
corporations? Or people who have access to the Prime Minister's office? And
another set of laws for the rest of us? And will we, as a country, permit
political power to influence a criminal prosecution? I hope you stay with us as
we continue to discuss this incredibly important matter for the Canadian public.
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