Justin Trudeau news: the scandal rocking Canada, explained

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is embroiled in a major political scandal that’s already tarnished his progressive image and could derail his premiership ahead of the October federal election.Trudeau and his political allies have been accused of pressuring Canada’s former minister of justice and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to drop criminal corruption charges against the Quebec-based engineering company SNC-Lavalin and instead pursue financial penalties, which would allow the company to avoid a 10-year ban on bidding on federal contracts. SNC-Lavalin is suspected of bribing the Libyan government during the regime of former leader Muammar Qaddafi.News of the scandal went mainstream on February 7, 2019, when the Canadian outlet the Globe and Mail published a report of Trudeau’s office trying to pressure Wilson-Raybould to meddle in the SNC-Lavalin case. Quebec is also a politically important state for Trudeau’s Liberal Party and for the prime minister himself (he represents a constituency there) ahead of a potentially tight federal election in October.This is the backdrop for the scandal, which broke in February when the Globe and Mail reported that Trudeau’s office (often referred to as PMO, or the prime minister’s office) pressured Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the criminal case against the company. to take a decision on this matter.” To be clear, Trudeau didn’t deny talking about the SNC-Lavalin case with his cabinet ministers, but he said he’d never instructed anyone to interfere.Without getting too deep into Canadian politics, it’s important to point out that in Canada, attorney general and justice minister is one position held by one person, who is also an elected member of Parliament. So in her role as justice minister, Wilson-Raybould is a member of Trudeau’s cabinet, and it might not be out of the ordinary for the prime minister to discuss legal policy, or even a political or economic problem like the SNC-Lavalin case, among his ministers. (This scandal has revived calls to separate the two roles because of the inherent conflict.)Trudeau has admitted he discussed the SNC-Lavalin prosecution with Wilson-Raybould, but said there was no pressure campaign executed by him or anyone close to him, and he’s said the decision on how to handle the company was “hers to make.” Also, nothing changed practically: SNC-Lavalin still faces criminal charges.There’s a small wrinkle here, though. Wilson-Raybould told members of Parliament that between September and December 2018, she was the subject of 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 as the attorney general of Canada.” She called these attempts an “inappropriate effort” to secure a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC-Lavalin. I would strongly advise against it.”The prime minister said: “No, no, no, we just need to find a solution.” The clerk then said that he spoke to my deputy and she said that I could speak to the director.Over her hours-long testimony, Wilson-Raybould detailed these and other instances that all sounded pretty damning for Trudeau’s office — and the rest of the government. He had said — even before Wilson-Raybould’s hearing — that it was part of his job as prime minister to try to protect the economy.“One of the fundamental responsibilities of any government is to look for good jobs, to defend jobs and to make sure that our economy is growing in ways that give a real and fair chance to everyone,” Trudeau told reporters on February 22.On Wednesday, Butts, the prime minister’s former principal secretary who resigned in February, testified before the House of Commons in another high-profile hearing. He also denied that the cabinet reshuffle, and Wilson-Raybould’s position change, had anything to do with SNC-Lavalin.Whether Butts’s testimony will mitigate the political fallout for Trudeau is unclear, especially since he’s such a close confidant of the prime minister.