OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, facing the biggest crisis of his tenure, disputed his former Attorney General’s testimony on Wednesday that government officials inappropriately pressured her to help a major firm avoid a corruption trial.
The allegations by Jody Wilson-Raybould prompted Conservative opposition leader Andrew Scheer to insist that Trudeau quit just months ahead of an October federal election, saying Trudeau’s lost the moral compass. But Scheer, who hasn’t called out his party’s Burnaby-South candidate Jay Shin for putting out racist flyers at the end of the campaign last weekend, himself and many politicians in Ottawa do not have a moral compass.
Wilson-Raybould told the House of Commons justice committee that she had confronted Trudeau over what she said were persistent efforts by officials to help construction firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc evade trial on charges of bribing Libyan officials.
“I strongly maintain, as I have from the beginning, that I and my staff always acted appropriately and professionally,” Trudeau told a televised news conference in Montreal.
“I therefore completely disagree with (Wilson-Raybould’s) characterization of events,” he continued, brushing off a demand from Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer that he resign.
Wilson-Raybould said officials imposed “consistent and sustained pressure” on her from September to December last year to ensure SNC-Lavalin pay a large fine rather than go to trial.
“In my view, these events constituted pressure to intervene in a matter and that this pressure, or political interference to intervene, was not appropriate,” she told the committee.
Trudeau says the last few weeks have been “difficult because of internal disagreements.” When asked if he will stand by Wilson-Raybould’s re-election run for MP of the Vancouver-Granville riding, he says he needs to review her testimony.
Scheer says the Mounties need to open a criminal investigation into what the Liberal government did to help, which faces criminal charges related to allegedly corrupt dealings in Libya.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also said that the revelations give more reason for there to be a public inquiry into the matter.
