(Submitted photo/Canadian Press)

By Canadian Press

Wilson-Raybould

Wilson-Raybould says she was pushed, got veiled threats on SNC-Lavalin

Feb 27, 2019 | 4:55 PM

OTTAWA — Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says she came under “consistent and sustained” pressure — including veiled threats — from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Privy Council Office and the finance minister’s office to halt a criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

Testifying to the House of Commons justice committee, Wilson-Raybould says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others repeatedly brought up the risks to the company if it were convicted of corruption and fraud in relation to work it sought in Libya.

She says a provincial election in Quebec was a major concern for the Liberal government.

Wilson-Raybould was shuffled out of the justice portfolio in January and resigned from cabinet earlier this month, after a story broke that she had been pressured inappropriately to arrange a “remediation agreement” that would have headed off the prosecution.

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In her testimony, Wilson-Raybould says the decision not to pursue such an agreement was made in September, but she and her staff heard repeatedly from Trudeau’s office and Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s office after that, trying to find ways to help SNC-Lavalin.

She says she was told repeatedly the decision was up to her, but attempts to talk her into a remediation agreement were relentless.

The Canadian Press