Scheer promises Conservatives would launch inquiry into SNC-Lavalin affair

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This article was published 25/09/2019 (1821 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL – A Conservative government would launch a judicial inquiry to find out what happened during the SNC-Lavalin affair and introduce legislation to investigate “sleazy” politicians, leader Andrew Scheer said Thursday.

Scheer stopped in Justin Trudeau’s Montreal riding of Papineau for the announcement and addressed the Liberal leader directly.

“Mr. Trudeau, you are unfit to lead.”

Scheer said both measures are necessary to provide Canadians the answers they deserve about the government’s involvement in SNC-Lavalin’s criminal prosecution.

“No longer will a corrupt prime minister be able to be the gatekeeper of his own misconduct,” said Scheer. “These measures will safeguard our democracy against the whims of sleazy and unscrupulous politicians.”

The federal ethics commissioner concluded earlier this year that Trudeau broke the Conflict of Interest Act by pressuring former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to allow the Quebec-based engineering firm to avoid prosecution on corruption charges related to contracts in Libya. The company itself is being prosecuted and has been seeking a plea-bargain-type arrangement.

The commissioner also said he was unable to get all the information he needed to assess what happened

The RCMP have since said they too are being stymied in a preliminary examination of whether any criminal laws were broken for the same reason: the Trudeau government has refused to fully waive cabinet confidence to allow blanket access to documents, and for involved individuals to fully disclose what they know.

Discussions and communications among cabinet member are typically not open to public scrutiny so that ministers can have free debates without worrying that they’ll be embarrassed by having parts of those discussions revealed. The idea is that they’re responsible for what they decide, not how they get to those decisions. Part of the oath new ministers take is a vow to protect those confidences.

Scheer, speaking at Jarry Park north of Montreal’s downtown, committed to also introduce legislation that would let the RCMP ask the Supreme Court of Canada for access to information protected by cabinet confidence.

The Conservatives have repeatedly invoked the SNC-Lavalin affair on the campaign trail, one of the arrows in their quiver of reasons they believe Trudeau should be ousted.

The scandal has does not appear to have shaken many voters away from the Liberals in Quebec, home to SNC-Lavalin, who may have accepted Trudeau’s explanation that he was trying to defend Canadian jobs that could be at risk if SNC-Lavalin goes to trial and is convicted.

The Scheer campaign also stopped at a bagel shop in Mount Royal, riding that has been a Liberal stronghold for decades. It was the seat of Pierre Trudeau for nearly 20 years.

Scheer told around 30 Conservative supporters there that he knows Quebecers before he reiterated his promise of an inquiry.

“The current Liberal MP in this riding presided over the investigation into the SNC Lavalin affair and helped prevent the very type of light shining upon this scandal,” he said.

Scheer was talking about Anthony Housefather, who was the Liberal chair of the House of Commons Justice committee and oversaw the hearings with Jody Wilson-Raybould about SNC-Lavalin.

The riding has a significant Jewish population. David Tordjman, the Conservative candidate, rallied supporters saying Scheer is “here for our community and he is here for our country.”

“One promise that Andrew Scheer has made for this country, we are going to be moving our embassy to Jerusalem,” Tordjman added, to raucous applause.

The Conservative leader also stopped briefly at a pizza shop in the riding of Saint-Leonard-Saint-Michel, which has been red since it was created in the 1980s. Nicola Di Iorio was elected for the Liberals there in 2015 but he stopped showing up to the House of Commons before he resigned last winter.

Scheer said he was not worried about alienating possible supporters in Quebec by doggedly pursuing the scandal around the engineering giant.

“I know that Quebecers are tired of being used as the excuse of Justin Trudeau’s scandal.”

Scheer has spent two days in Quebec before the campaign moves on to British Columbia Friday morning, ahead of a large climate rally in Montreal the same day.

He has faced a handful of climate demonstrators throughout the campaign, including a man who was brought to the ground by security during Thursday morning’s announcement.

The man yelled about how climate change is killing people around the world.

“How do you justify your climate policy,” the demonstrator shouted as he was dragged from the room. “How do you justify getting rid of pollution taxes? Shame on you.”

Scheer said he would attend campaign events on Friday and did not answer whether he would attend a different climate rally in Vancouver. Scheer added there would be Conservative representation at some of the rallies taking place across the country.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2019.

—With files from Mike Blanchfield in Ottawa