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ARTICLE · 29 MARCH 2019

How Trudeau Can Easily Help SNC-Lavalin (And Other Corporate Wrongdoers) Without Corrupting Justice

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"There is no solution that does not involve interference" — this is what Gerry Butts, the former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly told the chief of staff

CanadaCriminal Law
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
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“There is no solution that does not involve interference” — this is what Gerry Butts, the former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly told the chief of staff to then attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, about helping SNC-Lavalin. Wilson-Raybould testified at the justice committee that the prime minister’s staff wanted her to intervene to arrange for a remediation agreement, to avoid SNC-Lavalin going to trial on corruption charges that could result in it being banned from obtaining federal contracts for years.

Butts’ statement was untrue. There is a solution that does not involve political interference with an ongoing prosecution. And it does not require any legislative or regulatory changes. All the government has to do is reform an administrative policy officially known as the Ineligibility and Suspension Policy, usually called the debarment policy.

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