The SNC-Lavalin controversy shifts today to the House of Commons justice committee, where MPs will decide whether to investigate allegations of undue political arm-twisting.
Jody Wilson-Raybould resigned from the federal cabinet Tuesday, leaving fresh unanswered questions about whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s aides pressured her to help engineering firm SNC-Lavalin avoid criminal prosecution.
Trudeau has denied Wilson-Raybould was pressured to instruct the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin rather than pursue a criminal trial on charges of bribery and fraud related to the company’s efforts to secure government contracts in Libya.
The governing Liberals, who hold the majority on the Commons committee, appear to be open to conducting an investigation.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh warns that if the Liberals shut the committee’s work down, it would send a dangerous signal to Canadians about the state of their democracy.
Federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion has initiated his own investigation into the matter, specifically whether there’s been a violation of the Conflict of Interest Act.
