The meeting was set to hear from the RCMP whether the prime minister was implicated in the obstruction of justice charges for his role in the SNC-Lavalin affair
The RCMP commissioner was not able
to testify on the SNC-Lavalin affair due to Liberal, New Democrat, and Bloc Québécois MPs on the ethics committee voting to adjourn shortly after the meeting began.
“Usually a message is sent out 48 hours ahead for any change to schedule, any invitations. I think this was terribly last-minute,” Liberal MP and committee vice-chair Mona Fortier said on Oct. 23.
“I think the committee should at least have had the opportunity to debate the motion presented in due form. I don’t think this is necessarily the best way to go forward, having committees unable to make their decisions. So based on this reasoning, I would like to adjourn the meeting.”
The committee, which voted 7–3 to adjourn the meeting, was set to hear from RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme on whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blocked the police force from accessing cabinet documents that could have implicated him in obstruction of justice charges for his role in the SNC-Lavalin affair.
SNC-Lavalin faced charges of corruption and fraud in connection with around $48 million in payments made to Libyan government officials between 2001 and 2011. It had hoped the charges could be resolved with a deferred prosecution agreement, which would spare the company a trial and possible criminal conviction.
In August 2019, the federal ethics commissioner
concluded that Mr. Trudeau violated Section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act
by pressuring then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to halt a criminal prosecution of the Montreal engineering giant by allowing for a deferred prosecution agreement. In April 2019, Ms. Raybould was removed from the party caucus after accusing Mr. Trudeau of pressuring her to secure a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC-Lavalin.
On Oct. 16, the group Democracy Watch
revealed a series of records indicating the RCMP were blocked by the Liberal cabinet’s
restricted disclosure order, which decreed that the authorization to waive solicitor-client privilege would not extend to any information or communications between the former attorney general and the director of public prosecutions concerning SNC-Lavalin.
Following the meeting, Ms. Fortier said
on X that committee chair John Brassard had “grossly abused his authority” by holding the meeting without consulting committee members, which she said violated the House of Commons Procedure and Practice.
“With support of the NDP and the Bloc, we voted to uphold committee practice and not set a bad precedent. If the Conservatives want to hold a meeting, they can follow the rules,” she added.
‘This Is Unacceptable’
Before the vote to adjourn the meeting, Conservative MP and ethics critic Michael Barrett accused the Liberal MPs of wanting to shut down a hearing on a very serious matter with respect to criminal investigations into the prime minister.“This is unacceptable,” he said.
In a
press release put out following the committee meeting’s adjournment, Mr. Barrett and Conservative MP Larry Brock said the prime minister had “refused to hand over documents or let individuals who were involved in the affair testify,” after he was found to have broken Canada’s ethics laws.
The two also cited former ethics commissioner Mario Dion’s Trudeau II Report, which found many witnesses had relevant testimony to offer but were “constrained by limitations put in place by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”
“Now, the Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition is censoring the RCMP by shutting down the Commissioner’s testimony in committee. They are doing whatever it takes to protect the Prime Minister from potential criminal charges,” they said.
“Common sense Conservatives will continue to hold the Liberal-NDP government and their Bloc allies accountable. Canadians deserve transparency and have a right to know if the prime minister broke the law.”
