4 March 2019
Last week the opposition leaders demanded Justin Trudeau’s resignation over claims that he interfered to help a building firm avoid a corruption trial. Crisis erupted when his former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said she faced sustained pressure by the Prime Minister’s office to drop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, which is accused of paying £28 million in bribes to the Gaddafi regime in Libya.
Trudeau (in picture above) said that he was trying to protect jobs and not to favour SNC-Lavalin. SNC-Lavalin is a major employer in Quebec, where the Liberals need to win seats to keep a majority in the polls coming in October. Evening Standard reported.
Canada’s ethics commissioner is investigating Wilson-Radboud’s accusations to see whether there were any violations of conflict-of-interest rules. But, Wilson-Raybould has told that no laws were broken, but that the prime minister’s office acted improperly.
SNC had either been found guilty or was alleged to have greased palms in Libya, Bangladesh, Algeria, India, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Angola, Nigeria, Mozambique, Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Cambodia, Zambia and Québec. The Real News Network reported.
These happened two decades ago and the company has turned a new leaf. SNC is important for Canadian economy also. There is no other construction company in Canada capable of handling large scale projects. On balance it would appear that Trudeau’s approach is suitable for the time being.
