SNC-Lavalin affair

The SNC-Lavalin affair () was a political scandal involving attempted political interference with the justice system by the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The Parliament of Canada's Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion found that Trudeau improperly influenced then Minister of Justice and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in an ongoing criminal case against Quebec-based construction company SNC-Lavalin by offering a deferred prosecution agreement.

The affair became public when '' The Globe and Mail'' published an article uncovering the allegations on 7 February 2019, shortly after Wilson-Raybould had been shuffled to another cabinet position as Minister of Veterans Affairs. Four days later, Ethics Commissioner Dion announced he would investigate the allegations. Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet later that day. This was followed by the resignation of Gerald Butts, the Principal Secretary to Trudeau. This was then followed by the resignation of fellow Liberal cabinet minister Jane Philpott, over the government's handling of the affair. The House of Commons' Justice Committee held three hearings into the affair. Wilson-Raybould, Butts, and Michael Wernick, Clerk of the Privy Council testified before the committee. Wilson-Raybould said there was a breach of prosecutorial independence when members of the government pressured her to offer SNC-Lavalin a DPA instead of continuing with a criminal prosecution. Butts and Wernick testified that they had contacted Wilson-Raybould to find a "political solution" after the decision not to offer SNC-Lavalin a DPA was made. Controversially, Wilson-Raybould revealed that she had secretly recorded a conversation she had with Wernick while she was Attorney General.

Following the hearings, Wernick announced his early retirement from the Privy Council. Leader of the Official Opposition Andrew Scheer called for Trudeau's resignation. He further accused Trudeau of political interference, lying to Canadians, and corrupt conduct. Trudeau responded to those comments with a threat of a libel lawsuit through his lawyer. Opposition parties and former attorneys-general asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to investigate whether Trudeau's conduct qualifies as obstruction of justice. In April, Trudeau expelled Wilson-Raybould and Philpott from the Liberal caucus.

After a six-month-long investigation, Ethics Commissioner Dion issued a report that concluded that Trudeau had contravened Section 9 of the federal '' Conflict of Interest Act'' by improperly pressuring Wilson-Raybould. Dion wrote that while Wilson-Raybould was never officially directed to interfere, this influence was "tantamount to political direction". Dion did not find that any actual political interference in the prosecution occurred; however, he reported he did not have access to all of the evidence. Under the ''Act'', there are no sanctions specified for the violation. After the commissioner's report was released, the Prime Minister released a statement both taking responsibility for and defending his actions. The opposition leaders have called for further investigations.

Background

SNC-Lavalin bribery charges

SNC-Lavalin's Board of Directors became aware of financial irregularities concerning the company's activities in Libya by early 2009. The board raised concerns about the cost of a trip that Al-Saadi Gaddafi took to Canada in 2008—totalling $1.9 million—which SNC-Lavalin paid for. The board issued Stéphane Roy, the company's financial controller, a "serious warning" for the size of the Gaddafi bill. The board had also expressed concerns about the amounts of cash kept by SNC's Libyan office—at that time approximately $10 million—according to the company's chief financial officer. In May 2009, the board ordered that no more than $1 million in cash should be kept in the company's safe in Libya.

On 19 February 2015, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) laid charges against SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. and two of its subsidiaries: SNC-Lavalin International Inc. and SNC-Lavalin Construction Inc. Each firm was charged with one count of fraud under section 380 of the ''Criminal Code'', and one count of corruption under Section 3(1)(b) of the ''Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act''. The charges allege that between 2001 and 2011, SNC-Lavalin paid CA$48 million in bribes in Libya to officials in the government of Muammar Gaddafi. They also allege that at the same time, the company defrauded Libyan organizations of CA$130 million. On the same day, SNC-Lavalin announced that they were contesting the charges and planned to enter a non-guilty plea.

In Canada, bidders for contracts with Public Services and Procurement Canada must conform to the Integrity Regime legislation passed in July 2015. The Integrity Regime is designed to exclude suppliers that have ethics-related criminal convictions, such as bribery, price fixing, or lobbying offences. If convicted, SNC-Lavalin could be banned from bidding on federal government contracts for up to ten years.

Following the 2015 Canadian federal election, with a Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau coming into power, SNC-Lavalin lobbied the government to change the ''Criminal Code'' so that they could avoid criminal prosecution. The effort lasted twenty months, and involved fifty-one meetings with government officials and MPs, as well as officials in the opposition party leaders' offices and in the newly elected Coalition Avenir Québec