Bribery And The Rule Of Law

Attorney General (and Minister of Justice) Jody Wilson-Raybould's resignation following the government's SNC-Lavalin debacle highlights how the "rule of law" applies to public prosecutions under inconvenient laws enacted by Parliament, and adds nuances to common words, such as "interference", "pressure" and "directed".

SNC-Lavalin is facing allegations (unproven to date) of corrupting foreign officials and paying bribes to secure contracts in Libya and elsewhere. Section 3 of the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA) makes it an offence to bribe foreign public officials at any level of government, whether international, national or local. A successful conviction would have dire economic consequences for SNC-Lavalin (it would be barred from bidding for federal contracts for 10 years) and, potentially, even worse political consequences in Quebec in an election year, from the loss of the loss of thousands of jobs. Hence, SNC- Lavilin would prefer to enter