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.
It is a perilous moment for Trudeau, in part because many of those leveling accusations against him are friends, former allies and members of his own Cabinet.
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.
News of the scandal broke last month when the Globe and Mail published a report of Trudeau’s office trying to pressure Wilson-Raybould to meddle in the SNC-Lavalin case.
But the controversy exploded last week when Wilson-Raybould testified before the judiciary committee in Canada’s House of Commons.
During her testimony, she said that Trudeau and his senior aides had embarked on a “consistent and sustained” effort to get her to interfere in the case against SNC-Lavalin.
Wilson-Raybould offered detailed instances that all sounded pretty damning for Trudeau’s office — and the rest of the government.
And with her contemporaneous memos and potential email and phone records, it appeared she had evidence to back up her claims.
She described the pressure as inappropriate but added that in her opinion, it “was not illegal.”
Another close ally of Trudeau testified before Parliament today and refuted Wilson-Raybould’s account.
“At the end of the day, we really didn’t feel that anybody was doing anything wrong,” said Gerald Butts, a principal secretary and top aide to Trudeau.
Butts suggested that high-level discussions of the Lavalin matter focused appropriately on how the case might affect jobs and employment, not on political repercussions of the case.
He said Trudeau urged Wilson-Raybould to seek additional legal opinions before deciding how the prosecution would be handled.
Butts said he was startled when he learned that Wilson-Raybould felt the secret talks had threatened the independence of the criminal justice system.
Butts abruptly stepped down last month.
In a further blow to Trudeau, his treasury board chair, Jane Philpott, stepped down Monday after blasting the prime minister’s team in a scathing public letter.
“It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our attorney-general should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases,” Philpott wrote.
Trudeau has denied any wrongdoing, and said he doesn’t agree with Wilson-Raybould’s characterization of the events.
He doesn’t deny advocating for financial penalties against the company but said it was done to protect jobs.
But the optics are terrible for the prime minister.
Wilson-Raybould — a former prosecutor and indigenous woman who was once a symbol of Trudaeu’s diverse and gender-balanced cabinet — was moved out of her role as attorney general and justice minister in January, and effectively demoted to a different position in the cabinet as minister of veterans affairs.
She resigned from the cabinet altogether on February 12, 2019, soon after the scandal broke.
Trudeau, who became prime minister in 2015, has made transparency and openness a centerpiece of his leadership philosophy, and he enthusiastically embraced democratic values.
He modeled his governing platform on promoting gender equality and indigenous rights.
But his alleged pressure campaign and the eventual sidelining of Wilson-Raybould very much looks like a betrayal of those values.
“This is the bloom off the rose of the prime minister,” said Jonathan Rose, a political science professor at Queen’s University in Ontario. “It’s challenging him on a couple of big fronts: gender equity, his progressive policies. He’s fallen back to earth.”
The scandal has dramatically affected Trudeau’s public image and has rattled faith in his government, particularly after some high-profile resignations.
This SNC-Lavalin debacle is unfolding in real time, but whether it will turn into a major election issue in October, or die out before then, is still unclear.