The roots of the scandal stretch back to 2015, when SNC-Lavalin was charged by Canadian authorities with using bribes to secure business in Moammar Gaddafi’s Libya.
The Globe and Mail newspaper reported in February that Trudeau’s team “pressed” Wilson-Raybould to cut the firm a deal known as a deferred prosecution agreement.
These deals, which are used in several countries, allow firms to avoid criminal convictions if they admit wrongdoing, pay fines and commit to stricter compliance rules.
Trudeau has said his team did not “direct” Wilson-Raybould’s decision, but few have been satisfied by the response.
In a January cabinet shuffle, Wilson-Raybould was moved from the Ministry of Justice to Veterans Affairs. It was widely seen as a demotion.
The Globe and Mail published its report the next month. Wilson-Raybould resigned as minister of veterans affairs and hired a retired Supreme Court justice to represent her.
.. Wilson-Raybould testified before a parliamentary committee that 11 members of Trudeau’s team had pressured her — some resorting to “veiled threats” — to get her to cut a deal.
Then Philpott resigned from the cabinet in solidarity with Wilson-Raybould.
.. Trudeau appeared for a spell to have weathered the storm, but the scandal burst into view again last week when Wilson-Raybould went public with a recording of a December phone call with Canada’s then-top civil servant.
In the call, she warned Michael Wernick, then Canada’s clerk of the Privy Council, that Trudeau “was on dangerous ground.”
Some have questioned her decision to tape the call.
“I am angry, hurt, and frustrated because I feel and believe I was upholding the values that we all committed to. In giving the advice I did, and taking the steps I did, I was trying to help protect the prime minister and the government from a horrible mess,” she wrote in a letter to fellow Liberals.
Shortly after breaking the news of her expulsion, she sent another tweet.
“What I can say is that I hold my head high & that I can look myself in the mirror knowing I did what I was required to do and what needed to be done based on principles & values that must always transcend party,” she tweeted.
Canadian Minister Steps Down Amid Political Uproar
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suffered a potentially damaging setback when the minister at the center of a brewing political uproar resigned
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suffered a potentially damaging setback Tuesday when the cabinet minister at the center of a brewing political uproar over alleged interference in a criminal case stepped down.
Jody Wilson-Raybould, who until last month was Canada’s justice minister, said she was tendering her resignation “with a heavy heart,” through a statement released on her Twitter account, without specifying why she stepped down. On Jan. 14, she was moved from the high-profile justice post to the veterans-affairs ministry.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould has declined to comment for nearly a week after allegations emerged that officials in Mr. Trudeau’s office tried last year to persuade her when she was the country’s justice minister to drop a criminal prosecution and cut a plea deal with SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., a Montreal engineering company. She had invoked solicitor-client privilege as a reason why she couldn’t discuss the matter further, given her previous role as the Canadian cabinet’s legal adviser.