Over almost four hours of explosive testimony Wednesday, Wilson-Raybould told the House of Commons justice committee there were 10 meetings and 10 phone calls involving 11 people between September and December 2018, all aimed at getting her to "politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the attorney general of Canada".
And she said the fact there was a provincial election in Quebec was a major concern for the Liberal government.
Wilson-Raybould told the committee she was "hounded'" for months to end the prosecution for months after the director of public prosecutions, Kathleen Roussel, rejected the idea of negotiating a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin and long after she had unequivocally declared she would not direct Roussel to reverse her decision.
Refuting the charges, Mr. Trudeau said that while he discussed the issue with Wilson-Raybould, he maintained that was "it not inappropriate?" But that meeting led to a "fairly lengthy" call between Wilson-Raybould and Wernick the following day on a number of matters, including SNC-Lavalin.
"Justin Trudeau can not continue to govern this country now that Canadians know what he's done", Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer told reporters after Wilson-Raybould's testimony.
In January, she was removed from her role as attorney general and made veteran affairs minister, in a move many considered as a demotion and what she saw as a direct repercussion of her decision not to cave to pressures by government officials who allegedly encouraged her to seek a "deferred prosecution agreement" (DPA) instead of a trial. "So, he is in that kind (of) mood and I wanted you to be aware of that".
Wilson-Raybould detailed two other meetings with Morneau's chief of staff Ben Chin in her testimony, noting that he had urged her office to "find a solution" to help save jobs in the context of the Quebec Oct. 1 general election.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday won the public support of a top political ally, indicating there is no immediate pressure inside his Liberal Party to oust him over a political scandal.
Meanwhile, frustrations in Canada's Western provinces have only intensified since the demise of the Energy East pipeline, which TransCanada chose to abandon after Mr. Trudeau imposed an upstream carbon-emissions test on the project.
MPs vote against adopting Labour's Brexit plan
If the demand amendment is defeated this week, Labour will likely back a second referendum amendment at the next opportunity. Our strategy is that what we want to see is - well, our analysis is that Parliament is not able to resolve this situation.
According to Wilson-Raybould's testimony, on September 6, Chin emailed her chief of staff, Jessica Prince, asking to speak about SNC-Lavalin and "what we could do, if anything, to address this".
Speaking to reporters after an event at the Canadian Space Agency in Quebec, Trudeau said he has "taken knowledge of her testimony and there are still reflections to have on next steps".
Butts resigned nearly 10 days after The Globe and Mail published a report citing unnamed sources that spoke of this alleged PMO pressure on Wilson-Raybould. "The prime minister raised the issue immediately".
But it was a concerted and sustained attempt to politically interfere in a criminal prosecution, she testified repeatedly. "I told him that engagements from his office to mine on SNC had to stop, that they were inappropriate", Wilson-Raybould said.
Canada's former attorney general, whose testimony against prime minister Justin Trudeau and his aides has placed his administration firmly on the defensive, could find herself ejected from her party after refusing to confirm she has confidence in his leadership, it emerged on Thursday.
During her testimony, Wilson-Raybould told the committee that she withstood four months of relentless pressure to reverse a decision not to make a plea-bargain-type deal with SNC-Lavalin.
Parti Quebecois interim leader Pascal Berubé said this reminds him of the sponsorship scandal and said "it's very bad for the federal Liberals". During what she described as "the final escalation in efforts by the PMO to interfere in this matter", Ms. Wilson-Raybould faced "veiled threats" that she might lose her job.
However, according to University or Waterloo Political Science professor Emmett Macfarlane, the ethics commissioner does not have the power to investigate this matter, since he is limited conflict of interest investigations. Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic party, said the prime minister was not on the side of Canadians but stopped short of calling for his resignation.
Comments