After Year of Political Turmoil, SNC-Lavalin Gets Off Easy in Plea Deal

Corruption is Everywhere - Everywhere SNC-Lavalin works

'The rest of the company will be able to continue to have access to public contracts,' says François Legault

Peter Zimonjic · CBC News 

The bust-up between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada

Jody Wilson-Raybould came close to ending Trudeau's government - and it may have accomplished nothing.

(Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's failed efforts to see SNC-Lavalin avoid prosecution led to him losing two key ministers, his edge in the polls and (almost) his party's hold on government, the Quebec engineering firm at the centre of the controversy walked away today with a plea deal that looks a lot like what it asked the government for in the first place.

A judge on Thursday accepted the plea deal that a division of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. struck with the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Under the agreement, the company pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud over $5,000 in relation to the company's activities in Libya.

All other charges have been dropped.

"We are happy. The company is happy," said SNC-Lavalin lawyer François Fontaine. "The fact that the charges are no longer pending over the head of the company is good. The uncertainty around that kind of proceeding is bad for business, is bad for the company.

"So we're very happy that it's now over. We are free to bid as normal. This guilty plea does not prevent construction, or any other entity of the group, to bid on public contracts."

After SNC-Lavalin was hit with fraud and corruption charges over its actions in Libya between 2001 and 2011, officials from the Prime Minister's Office spoke with then justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, asking her to reconsider offering the firm a deferred prosecution agreement.

Under newly passed legislation, a deferred prosecution agreement would allow the company to avoid trial providing it paid hefty fines and continued to adhere to a number of conditions for a period of time.

CBC, ever in Trudeau's court, neglect to mention here that SNC-Lavalin lobbied Trudeau furiously to pass that law, specifically for them. Trudeau snuck the law into the back pages of a very long and complex omnibus budget bill, without the opposition noticing. A bill passed by the previous government required companies guilty of corruption to be suspended from bidding on federal government contracts for a period of years. Many of the high level managers at SNC live in Trudeau's riding in Montreal.

Had the company been convicted in court of bribing Libyan officials — including Saadi Gadhafi, son of the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi — to get lucrative government contracts, it could have been blocked from competing for federal government contracts in Canada for a decade.

"I have long believed in the essential necessity of our judicial system operating as it should — based on the rule of law and prosecutorial independence, and without political interference or pressure," Wilson-Raybould said today on Twitter. 

"Ultimately, that system was able to do its work — as democracy and good governance requires — and an outcome was reached today. Accountability was achieved. The justice system did its work."

Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act

Former health minister Jane Philpott and former attorney general of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould

both resigned from cabinet over the SNC-Lavalin affair. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

In early 2019, media reports said that Wilson-Raybould felt she was being improperly pressured by Trudeau's senior adviser and the clerk of the Privy Council to ask the DPP to consider offering SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement.

Wilson-Raybould refused, saying she believed the prosecution service should be free from political influence in its decisions. Trudeau later said he did not direct the attorney general to reverse a decision — that he just wanted her to reconsider the deferred prosecution agreement option.

Months of political controversy followed, resulting in Wilson-Raybould resigning from cabinet before being tossed out of the Liberal caucus along with her ally in the public debate that ensued: former health and Indigenous services minister Jane Philpott.

Mario Dion, the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, released a report in August that found Trudeau had violated the Conflict of Interest Act.

'You don't get do-overs in politics'

The allegation that Trudeau improperly tried to influence the attorney general significantly depressed the prime minister's voter support.

Trudeau defended his actions by saying that he was trying to prevent the loss of jobs in Quebec, but the damage to the prime minister's reputation had been done — just as federal political parties were readying themselves for a fall election.

Primarily, he was trying to prevent the loss of his own job.

In its year-end interview with the prime minister, the Canadian Press asked Trudeau if his actions on the SNC-Lavalin file were worth the political cost.

"As we look back over the past year on this issue, there are things that we could have, should have, would have done differently had we known," he said.

"You don't get do-overs in politics. You only do the best you can to protect jobs, to respect the independence of the judiciary, and that's exactly what we did every step of the way."

No, that's not what you did! You did not respect the independence of the Judiciary or you wouldn't have lost two of your most capable ministers, nor would you have been found guilty of violating the Conflict of Interest Act. Or did you forget your Principal Secretary and top Public Servant were both forced to resign for their excessive pressure on JWR.

The deal SNC-Lavalin struck to avoid trial may not have been a deferred prosecution agreement, but it resulted in almost the same outcome for the company.

All other charges were dropped in exchange for a guilty plea on one charge of fraud over $5,000, plus an agreement to pay $280 million in fines and comply with a probation order for three years.

"So far I'm happy, because that's what we were asking for," said Quebec Premier François Legault. "SNC-Lavalin's paying $280 million, but it's only for a part of the company. The rest of the company will be able to continue to have access to public contracts."

Wilson-Raybould's successor, Justice Minister David Lametti, said he had no part in the deal.

"Yesterday, I became aware that the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and counsel for SNC-Lavalin had reached an agreement to resolve the ongoing criminal proceedings against the company and its affiliates," a statement from Lametti's office said.

"This decision was made independently by the PPSC, as part of their responsibility to continually assess and determine the appropriate path for cases under their jurisdiction. Canadians can have confidence that our judicial and legal systems are working as they should."

Right, it's our political system that is thoroughly screwed up! When you cause the two ministers with the most integrity to resign from cabinet and from the party, that says all you need to know about Justin Trudeau.

Yesterday, Jodie Wilson-Raybould was named Canada's Newsmaker of the Year. She and Jane Philpott have both left the very Liberal Party; JWR was re-elected in October as an independent MP; Jane Philpott failed in her attempt to do the same.

Hospital Manager Who Took $10 Million Bribe to Favour SNC Lavalin Bid Sentenced to 39 Months in Prison

SNC-Lavalin, of course, has not been convicted of anything in Canada. And if Justin has his way, they will never be convicted of anything. Corruption is Everywhere.

Yanai Elbaz, front, and his brother Yohann Elbaz, left, arrive for their fraud trial at the courthouse in relation to the MUHC hospital in Montreal on Nov. 26, 2018.Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — A former hospital manager who pocketed a $10-million bribe in return for helping SNC-Lavalin win a Montreal hospital-building contract has been sentenced to 39 months in prison.

Quebec court Judge Claude Leblond sentenced Yanai Elbaz today in Montreal in a case that has been described as the greatest corruption fraud in Canadian history.

The judge rejected an argument from the McGill University Health Centre, which claimed it was entitled to compensation as a victim of the fraud. He ruled the question should be dealt with through civil proceedings.

In an agreed statement of facts tied to Elbaz’s plea, the former MUHC manager admitted to giving privileged information to engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to help its submission for the contract to build a massive hospital complex in west-end Montreal.

Elbaz, who has been detained since his Nov. 26 guilty plea, also admitted to denigrating SNC’s competitors in front of the hospital’s selection committee.

Elbaz and Arthur Porter, the ex-CEO of the MUHC who died a fugitive in Panamanian custody in 2015, received a total of $22.5 million to rig the bidding process to favour SNC-Lavalin, the statement of facts said.

Corruption is Everywhere - Certainly in the Canadian Prime Minister's Office

A Prime Minister's Office drunk on its own arrogance: Robyn Urback

Six months ago, Trudeau told Canadians that a report his office pressured the AG was 'false.' He lied

Robyn Urback · for CBC News Opinion 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a report that his office tried to pressure Jody Wilson-Raybould into intervening

in the SNC-Lavalin case was 'false.' It was not. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

It's hard to fathom what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was thinking on the morning of Feb. 7, when he stood before reporters and categorically declared, 

"The allegations in the Globe story are false."

The Globe and Mail was the first to report that Trudeau's office attempted to pressure his justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, into intervening in the corruption and fraud case of SNC-Lavalin.

That day, he knew that Wilson-Raybould, who he'd shuffled out of the Justice Ministry three weeks earlier, had been repeatedly approached by members of the Prime Minister's Office about her reluctance to get involved.

He was told by Wilson-Raybould herself at a meeting in September 2018 of her concerns about his staff attempting to interfere in a criminal matter (though he would later say he couldn't specifically recall the remark).

And surely he knew, or should have known, that repeatedly reminding the attorney general of the potentially cataclysmic political and economic costs of failing to secure a remediation agreement for an important Quebec company constituted inappropriate pressure. 

Nevertheless, there was clearly a concerted effort to see her reconsider her position. That much was fact, and Trudeau knew it on February 7. 

Power & Politics✔

@PnPCBC

 Trudeau:  "The allegations in the Globe story are false. Neither the current nor the previous attorney general was ever directed by me or by anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter." #cdnpoli

Yet he stood before reporters that morning and called the report "false."

Not "misleading." Not "unfair." Not "half the story." 

"False." Wrong. Fake news. 

How 4 ex-Supreme Court justices got caught up in SNC-Lavalin affair

Trudeau vs. Dion: How the PM and ethics commissioner differ on the SNC-Lavalin affair

That was, in fact, a lie. The PMO did press Wilson-Raybould to seek a remediation agreement for SNC-Lavalin, and that pressure was inappropriate and contrary to the Conflict of Interest Act, as Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion concluded in his report on the affair, published Wednesday.

Trudeau knew that the Globe's reporting couldn't reasonably be called "false," even if perhaps he believed it somewhat skewed. But he lied and told Canadians it was wrong anyway. 

Cozy relationship

With hindsight, it seems silly to make such an unequivocal statement about something easily verified. But a belief in one's own righteousness, along with a record of previous political infallibility, can make a prime minister and his staff do some very silly things. 

To wit: For months, the prime minister insisted that actions taken by his office were always in the interest of Canadians; it wasn't about currying favour with powerful Quebec company but simply about keeping good jobs in Canada.

Dion's report, however, chronicles an awfully cozy relationship between the PMO and SNC-Lavalin in which the two seem less like government-and-lobbyist than players on the same team.

Remediation agreement SNC-Lavalin's idea

In fact, it was SNC-Lavalin that suggested, back in February 2018, that a new remediation agreement regime — one that could benefit them — be included in the upcoming budget, in the interest of expediency. The government obliged: an amendment to the Criminal Code was included in the budget implementation bill and received royal assent within months.

Is Trudeau in for another hit in the polls because of the SNC-Lavalin ethics report?

5 things we learned from Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion's report on Justin Trudeau

That summer, Ben Chin, the chief of staff to the minister of finance, reportedly tried to get an update on the status of a remediation agreement on behalf of an anxious SNC-Lavalin. Chin was told by Wilson-Raybould's office that an inquiry itself could be perceived as improper interference on the independent nature of the prosecution service. 

And in December 2018, PMO senior adviser Mathieu Bouchard exchanged text messages with an SNC-Lavalin representative who wanted an update on a dinner conversation between Wilson-Raybould and then-principal secretary Gerald Butts — the one in which Wilson-Raybould said she told the PMO to stop pressuring her office about SNC-Lavalin. Bouchard reported to the rep that the door was still open to a remediation agreement (it was not). 

'Someone like' Beverley McLachlin

Dion's report also revealed that while Trudeau and Butts had been imploring Wilson-Raybould to seek an opinion from "someone like" former Supreme Court chief justice Beverley McLachlin, discussions had already taken place between McLachlin, SNC-Lavalin's lawyer and the PMO (as well as another retired Supreme Court justice). 

Butts failed to mention that fact during his testimony before the justice committee back in March. Instead, he testified that, "All we ever asked the attorney general to do was consider a second opinion." Perhaps if he had more time he would have added: "And we already vetted and approved those second opinions on her behalf."

'I take responsibility,' Trudeau says in wake of damning report on SNC-Lavalin ethics violation

Timeline: SNC-Lavalin and Jody Wilson-Raybould

Trudeau welcomes ethics probe but won't cooperate

(Trudeau always says what people want to hear, and then does what he wants. He said yesterday that he accepted responsibility, but then refused to admit that he did anything wrong and refused to apologize).

On top of it all, we learned that despite the "welcome" Trudeau publicly offered Dion's probe, the ethics commissioner, in fact, encountered some trouble accessing relevant information and testimonies.

Call these lies-by-omission. Or maybe half-truths. Together, they're a chronicle of a PMO drunk on its own arrogance, so convinced of it own moral virtue that it can rationalize trading text messages with a criminally charged organization over a pressure campaign on the attorney general.

Liberals block new SNC-Lavalin ethics probe as Trudeau insists his team is 'more united than ever'

This is a leadership, as we have since learned, that will kick members out of caucus for having the audacity to speak out against the prime minister, and will lie to Canadians about the veracity of a news report that has since proven true.

And it's a prime minister who, when asked if he will apologize for it all, chooses to respond with an answer to a question no one asked: "I can't apologize for defending Canadian jobs." As if, six months later, anyone is buying those lines anymore.

A quick summary

So, SNC-Lavalin, a major engineering and construction company, a global player, got caught paying graft to the son of Muammar Qaddafi for a Libyan project. Being convicted would mean SNC could not bid on federal Canadian projects for up to 10 years, although they could still bid on provincial projects. They have already been blacklisted by the World Bank.

So, SNC lobbies the Trudeau government to pass a new law to allow SNC to pay a fine without being held criminally responsible, and therefore not losing its ability to bid on federal Canadian projects. The Liberal government thought this was a great idea and immediately implemented the new law by hiding it in the back pages of the 2018 spring budget. A law which would allow wealthy and powerful people and corporations to avoid facing justice.

All is good in SNC's world until they heard that Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Reybould was not onboard with the plan. SNC was unhappy; Trudeau was unhappy - many of SNC's employees lived in his own riding in Montreal. If Trudeau was unhappy, everyone in the PMO and the Finance Minister's office was unhappy. The law they snuck through Parliament was for nothing if JWR didn't play along.

Consequently, Trudeau shuffled JWR out of the Justice portfolio. He needed a minister to retire in order to do that and his old friend, Scott Brison, took the bait. It's hard to say what Brison got out of the deal, but if the timing seems too coincidental to be coincidence, that's because it is. That resulted in the JWR shuffle. Maybe I should put that to music.

Robyn's column details the rest of the story very well.

Pride and arrogance and a typical Liberal attitude that 'the end justifies the means', should spell the end of this government. But I fear there are too many Trudeau supporters who also believe 'the end justifies the means', that he will finish, at least, in second place in the October elections. If so, he will form the next government as all parties in the House besides Conservatives are far-left and will not coalesce with a Conservative Prime Minister. The only other party that might cooperate with the Conservatives is the fledgling People's Party - a party that just might bring honesty and integrity to the House.

Canada Now Dominates World Bank Corruption List, Thanks to SNC-Lavalin

Out of the more than 250 companies year to date on the World Bank's running list of firms blacklisted from bidding on its global projects under its fraud and corruption policy, 117 are from Canada — with SNC-Lavalin and its affiliates representing 115 of those entries

The next worst country is the USA with 44 and some of them are SNC-Lavalin associates

The risk of SNC-Lavalin being barred from bidding on Canadian Federal projects is threatening the probability of the Very Liberal Government being reelected this fall, and has already cost the government two of its best ministers, its top civil servant, and the Prime Minister's top adviser. It's also revealed the shallowness of the PM's claim to be a feminist and a friend to the Indigenous.

John Mahoney/Postmedia News files

Armina Ligaya, Financial Post

Canada’s corporate image isn’t looking so squeaky-clean in the World Bank’s books — all thanks to SNC-Lavalin.

”Corruption’s double standard:

It’s time to punish countries whose officials accept bribes” 

Out of the more than 250 companies year to date on the World Bank’s running list of firms blacklisted from bidding on its global projects under its fraud and corruption policy, 117 are from Canada — with SNC-Lavalin and its affiliates representing 115 of those entries, the World Bank said.

“As it stands today, the World Bank debarment list includes a high number of Canadian companies, the majority of which are affiliates to SNC Lavalin Inc.,” said the bank’s manager of investigations, James David Fielder.

“This is the outcome of a World Bank investigation relating the Padma Bridge project in Bangladesh where World Bank investigators closely cooperated with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in an effort to promote collective action against corruption.”

As a result of the misconduct found during the probe, the Montreal-based engineering and construction firm, and its affiliates as per World Bank policy, were debarred in April 2013 for 10 years, as part of a settlement with SNC-Lavalin. And in one fell swoop, 115 Canadian firms were blacklisted by the World Bank, making Canada seemingly look like the worst offending country.

It’s quite the jump from 2012, when no Canadian companies were barred.

The long list of debarments mainly stems from just one large Canadian firm, but it still prompted some headlines around the world to point to Canada as being home to the most corrupt companies in the world.

“It is a little surprising,” said Tim Coleman, a global investigations partner at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in New York. “Because you do expect that the companies that are going to be highest up on the list, are going to be companies that have a reputation of corruption. And Canada is not one of those countries.”

Overall, Canada had 119 total companies on the list (including two permanently debarred since 1999). United States had the second largest number, with 44 companies on the debarment list (among which are several SNC-Lavalin companies), and Indonesia came in third with 43.

SNC-Lavalin did not respond to a request for comment.

The World Bank has been stepping up its fraud investigations in recent years, with four times more debarments than in 2012, and compared to the past seven years combined, said Mr. Coleman.

Canadian firms may be at higher risk of being sanctioned by the World Bank, he added, because Canadian authorities have not been as aggressively enforcing its anti-corruption laws as its U.S. counterparts.

“The result of that is that Canadian companies may have been lulled into a false sense of security, because their own national authorities were not closely scrutinizing their global operations, that nobody else would either,” he said.

There were 89 SNC-Lavalin affiliates, however, that were instead given a conditional non-debarment by the World Bank for 10 years. This is essentially a probation of sorts that requires these companies to adhere to compliance standards, but are still allowed to bid on the World Bank’s development projects around the world.

These sanctions were handed down instead of debarment, in part, because these companies had come forward to the bank had demonstrated concrete steps towards anti-corruption practices, said a World Bank spokesperson.

That is a sign that SNC-Lavalin has begun taking compliance more seriously. said Milos Barutciski, Bennett Jones senior partner and co-chair of the firm’s international trade and investment practoce.

“The fact that it didn’t [debar] the whole group is also, I think, an indication of what I believe is that SNC-Lavalin, by the time it resolved the case last spring, had started to take the issues and the investigation seriously. I don’t think SNC’s then leadership, corporate and board, were taking the matter nearly as seriously two years ago.”

PMO Denies 'Hostility' in Trudeau's Interactions with Female Liberal MP

Celina Caesar-Chavannes told the Globe and Mail

Trudeau yelled at her

CBC News

Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes is not running in October's election. (Idil Mussa/CBC)

The Prime Minister's Office says there was "absolutely no hostility" from Justin Trudeau towards Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, despite allegations she's made against him. 

It was just a month ago Trudeau declared, “The allegations in the Globe story this morning are false.” Denial seems to be the automatic response.

The Whitby, Ont., MP says she was met with anger and hostility from the prime minister after she informed him she would not be seeking re-election in October. 

Caesar-Chavannes made the announcement last weekend, but informed Trudeau weeks earlier on Feb. 12. 

It was around that time the negative encounters happened, the MP first told the Globe and Mail. 

Because of Jody Wilson-Raybould's fresh resignation from cabinet, she told the Globe that Trudeau had asked her to wait for her own announcement and that he was worried about the optics of having two women of colour leave at the same time (Wilson-Reybould is indigenous).

"He was yelling. He was yelling that I didn't appreciate him, that he'd given me so much," Caesar-Chavannes told that newspaper.

A real feminist is concerned for the well-being and happiness of women. 

A pseudo-feminist is worried about optics.

A narcissist thinks it is all about him.

She alleges the hostility continued in interactions after that conversation.

Since she informed the PM that she was not running again, another very high profile, female, cabinet minister, Jane Philpott, Treasury Board president and minister of digital government, stepped down in disagreement with the PMO's position on the SNC-Lavalin affair. That's 3 women abandoning Trudeau the world's most self-declared male feminist.

Matt Pascuzzo, a spokesman for the PMO, says while there was no question the conversations in February were "frank," there was "absolutely no hostility."

Women, often being victims of hostility, are certainly more sensitive to a man, especially a powerful man, raising his voice. That man might perceive it as just expressing a little emotion. The woman might perceive it as a threat, and for good reason.

Caesar-Chavannes declined to comment for this story.

'Remember your reactions?'

Earlier on Thursday while responding to allegations surrounding the SNC-Lavalin controversy, Trudeau said he hoped members of his caucus felt comfortable coming to him with issues. 

"I did come to you recently. Twice. Remember your reactions?" Caesar-Chavannes tweeted after his comment. 

The prime minister doubled down on his messaging at an event in Ottawa on Saturday morning, saying the SNC-Lavalin affair is giving him pause to think about the way things have been dealt with.

That might be the closest we ever get to an admission of moral failure, or an apology.

Trudeau's office denies the conversations with her turned sour to the point of animosity. 

"The prime minister has deep respect for Celina Caesar-Chavannes," Pascuzzo said in the email to CBC News. 

"As the prime minister said on Thursday, he is committed to fostering an environment where ministers, caucus, and staff feel comfortable approaching him when they have concerns or disagreements – that happened here."

Right!

Caesar-Chavannes worked closely with the prime minister, including a stint as his parliamentary secretary until early 2017.

A Quick Sketch to Outline the Scandal in Canada That is Casting Dark Shadows Across the Face of Justin Trudeau

Corruption is Everywhere

- Even in the Office of Canada's Far-Left Mr. Sunshine

National Observer

For 16 years the global engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin cultivated a close relationship with the Muammar Gaddafi family, particularly his son Saadi.

According to criminal charges, for almost a decade of that period, up until the fall of the regime, SNC paid Saadi Gaadafi almost $50 million in exchange for billions of dollars in airport, pipeline, and water infrastructure projects.

Saadi Gadaffi

Oh, and prisons.

Let's go over that again.

A Canadian company is charged with bribing a family infamous around the world for murder, torture, rape, abductions, and widespread human rights abuses, and doing it for its own profit. They didn't stop until the regime collapsed in 2011 and Swiss authorities came knocking. Charges were laid in April 2015.

A corruption prosecution of this gravity is unprecedented in Canada.

Moreover, had the Libyan regime not collapsed and the bribery discovered, would this company still be in the game, still arranging prostitute parties and funnelling money to the Gaddafis?

It's highly significant that SNC is no stranger to disciplinary action over its conduct. During the 2001-2011 period of the alleged Libyan bribery, the company has:

been barred from bidding on Asian Development Bank projects for fabricating qualifications and documents (2004);

settled corruption allegations with the African Development Bank over bribes in Mozambique (2008) and Uganda (2010);

bribed Canadian officials with $22.5 million in relation to a McGill hospital contract (2009);

been credibly found by the World Bank as participating in high-level corruption in Bangladesh in 2009-2010, and entered into a voluntary debarment from World Bank-financed projects. (SNC-Lavalin has since been acquitted of criminal charges, but the voluntary debarment remains in place);

entered into a voluntary agreement to compensate seven Quebec municipalities for obtaining contracts through questionable means (1996-2011);

made illegal federal election campaign donations (2004-2011), entering into a voluntary compliance agreement with the federal elections commissioner

SNC knowingly enabled and overlooked monstrous tyranny and abuse.

The company cannot pretend it was unaware of Gaddafi's vicious cruelty while expensing his son Saadi Gaddafi's prostitutes, lavish lifestyle, and showering him with millions of dollars a year.

The company financed his soccer aspirations and sponsored his team despite widespread reports that, just a few years earlier, his bodyguards had opened fire on soccer fans for booing a referee favouring him. Between 20 and 50 were killed in the ensuing chaos.

Then there was Bashir al-Rayani, a professional soccer coach who challenged Saadi Gaddafi in 2005, only to disappear shortly before his bludgeoned body was dumped near his home.

A brief search and one can find more horror stories associated with SNC-Lavalin. But that should be sufficient to indicate that this company has little or no regard for the law or for any of the myriad people adversely affected by their relentless bribery.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper put in place a law that forbids companies convicted of corruption from bidding on federal infrastructure contracts for 10 years. But as soon as Justin Trudeau and his very Liberal Party won the election in 2015, SNC began intense lobbying of the government to find a solution that didn't involve going to trial.

SNC and the very Liberals cam up with a law that is used in a few countries, including Britain, called Deferred Prosecution Agreement. It is basically a plea deal. The very Liberals snuck the new law into the bowels of a large omnibus federal budget, and it passed without scrutiny in the Spring budget of 2018.

However, Canada's senior Public Prosecutor decided it wasn't in the best interests of Canadians, or probably anyone else in the world, to offer SNC a DPA. Two weeks later, Canada's Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Reybould, agreed with her and informed SNC that they would not be getting a DPA offer.

Well, __it hit the fan! SNC began frantic lobbying of the Trudeau government, which, in turn, began pressuring the Attorney General to reconsider. For months, everyone from the Prime Minister, his senior staff, the Clerk of the Privy Council, pressed Wilson-Reybould to reconsider.

SNC-Lavalin threatened the government with thousands of lost jobs and even moving its headquarters from Montreal to London. Trudeau panicked. One of the very first things he mentioned to the AG when he next met her was to remind her of the job losses and that he was the MP for Papineau, a riding in Montreal where many of those workers lived.

The AG asked the PM if he was interfering with her decision and he backed off. Meanwhile the PM's Chief of Staff, Gerald Butts informed the AG's Chief of Staff that there was no solution that did not involve interference.

From here the sort gets even less believable. In January, a Halifax MP and cabinet minister, Scott Brison. suddenly decided he had to retire. He hadn't talked about it to anyone. People were amazed that no-one had any idea he was thinking of retiring. I strongly suspect that he had no idea himself until just before it happened. 

This resulted in a mini cabinet shuffle, and guess who go shuffled? The Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould. She was replaced with a new AG, an MP, would you believe, from Montreal, who seems a lot more amenable to offering SNC-Lavalin a DPA. Except, __it hit the fan again.

Someone leaked the story to Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper and all hell breaks loose. Trudeau flatly denies the story saying it is completely untrue, that no pressure was applied to the AG, she was not threatened, they just had to have a cabinet shuffle because Scott Brison resigned. 

A few days later, Jody Wilson-Reybould resigned from her new cabinet position stating that she has lots confidence in the Prime Minister. 

The parliamentary justice committee, dominated by very Liberals was pressured into holding investigations into the affair. At first they didn't want to allow anyone of any importance to speak to the committee. A brilliant, young CBC digital reporter suggested the inquiry into the fox and the henhouse was restricting evidence to the mouse and the rusty lawnmower. I think she nailed it.

Finally they agreed to call the clerk of the Privy Council, Canada's top bureaucrat, and, supposedly, non-political. His testimony was anything but non-political. Eventually, JWR, herself, got to testify, although limited somewhat by Cabinet Privilege. 

With documentation, she contradicted some of the Clerk's testimony and exposed the pressure, the political angle, and the fact that she told the PM she had made up her mind way back in September and that all the pressure was tantamount to political interference, and it had to stop. It stopped over Christmas holidays and immediately after she was moved from the portfolio.

Whether she was threatened with removal she will not say because of cabinet privilege. The Clerk was invited back to Committee to rebut JWR's testimony but before he could do that another high profile female cabinet minister resigned. Jane Philpott was a former health minister and Indigenous-services minister, and was president of the federal Treasury Board when she quit the cabinet. Philpott was widely seen as one of Trudeau's most capable ministers.

Philpott quit in solidarity with JWR stating that she cannot support the government line on the whole affair. The government accused her of being JWR's friend!!! Like it just a couple of emotional women, not two of the most respected and capable ministers in the very Liberal government. The rest of his cabinet, like trained monkeys, chanted the mantra - "the PM has my full confidence!"

Trudeau refuses to accept responsibility for the affair and, in all probability, will find a way out of the situation for SNC-Lavalin to avoid justice. He has followers who believe so emphatically in his righteousness that they cannot see what is so plainly visible. He's a politician. A very ambitious politician. Canadian PM is nowhere near the pinnacle of his political ambitions. He, I believe, is determined to be the saviour of the world.

More on Trudeau later... meanwhile -

SNC Lavalin had gone to court seeking a review of the decision by the federal director of public prosecutions last fall to not enter negotiations so desperately sought by the firm’s executives. Today, the Federal Court has struck down SNC-Lavalin‘s appeal.

The new Attorney General has a hard decision to make, and while he may get lots of encouragement to make it, chances are, if he decides to offer SNC a plea deal, his encouragers will be nowhere to be found come October and federal election time.

SNC-Lavalin Paid for Gadhafi Son's Prostitutes While He Was in Canada

This story is a dramatic episode in the extraordinary political turmoil

happening in Canada this week.

See: The Other Mind-Blowing Testimony Today - Justin Trudeau is in Deep Trouble for a quick summary of these remarkable events.

Receipts show $30,000 in payments to Saadi Gadhafi

for sexual services in Canada in 2008

Corruption is Everywhere - Even in Canada

In this Tuesday, July 3, 2001 file photo, Saadi Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi,

smiles during a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.

AP Photo/Tsugufumi Matsumoto

Marie-Danielle Smith, National Post

OTTAWA — New details have emerged about Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin’s cozy relationship with the son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, including the company allegedly hiring prostitutes for him during a visit to Canada a decade ago.

The sordid tale, revealed by Quebec newspaper La Presse Wednesday, comes to light as former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould testifies about whether she was unduly pressured last fall to help SNC-Lavalin avoid federal corruption charges associated with their business dealings in Libya.

Receipts gathered during an investigation of a former SNC-Lavalin executive show $30,000 in payments to Saadi Gadhafi for sexual services in Canada in 2008, La Presse reported. The documentation can now be revealed publicly because the prosecution of Stéphane Roy, former vice-president of SNC-Lavalin, on fraud and bribery charges was dropped last week due to court delays.

In 2008, Gadhafi was ostensibly travelling to Montreal and Toronto to conduct business and improve his English, at the invitation of SNC-Lavalin. He had helped the company secure billions in public contracts in Libya — thanks also to millions in bribes to Libyan officials, the RCMP has alleged — and visited Canada on three previous occasions. But he spent much of his time on other extracurricular pursuits, according to La Presse’s reporting.

For the duration of his stay, SNC-Lavalin hired Garda World, a Montreal-based company, to provide security for the dictator’s son, and they hired four bodyguards as contractors. That focus on security “degenerated,” a spokeswoman for the company, Isabelle Panelli, told the newspaper.

The bodyguards handled Gadhafi’s expenses and provided receipts to SNC-Lavalin, according to court testimony by an RCMP investigator. Transactions they wrote in as “companion services” in their expense reports would cost between $600 and $7,500 each. Close to $10,000 in services went to a single escort service in Vancouver. Other payments went to a Montreal strip club and covered events at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, such as box seats for a Spice Girls concert.

The SNC-Lavalin headquarters is seen in Montreal.

The investigation showed that SNC-Lavalin was writing off the expenses as associated with construction projects in Libya, La Presse reported, with the total bill for Gadhafi’s trip totalling nearly $2 million.

Roy had testified in court that expenses associated with the trip were justified, and that he had the receipts to prove it. The expenses were justified at the time, testified another former executive, Riadh Ben Aissa — who, meanwhile, pled guilty last year to a forgery charge associated with allegations that SNC-Lavalin executives defrauded the McGill University University Health Centre of $22.5 million in a bid-rigging scheme.

Panelli told La Presse that Garda World tried to intervene and stop the practice, but then lost the contract with SNC-Lavalin. She told the newspaper that most employees who were around then are no longer with the company.

Garda World told the National Post it had no comment to offer beyond the La Presse report, and a spokesman for SNC-Lavalin would only say: “We have no comment on this matter.”

The company has argued that its corporate culture is completely different now than it was a decade ago, and that its current senior executives were not involved in the alleged corruption.

SNC-Lavalin remains Canada’s biggest engineering firm, employing thousands of people across the country and particularly in Quebec. There, the provincial premier and much of the commentariat have argued that there would be good economic reasons for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ask an attorney general to help the company avoid criminal prosecution.

Good idea, as long as you don't have any integrity or expectation of corporate Canada actually following the law.

But then we should at least stop telling China that we are a nation of laws and there is no political interference in the judicial system. This is what Trudeau told China when Huawei's CFO was arrested, about the same time he was twisting our Attorney-General's are to intervene for SNC-Lavalin.

Canadian PM in Hot Water After Accusation of Interference in Judicial System

Corruption is Everywhere - SNC-Lavalin and the Prime Minister of Canada though?

C'est impossible!

Justin Trudeau's often used response to China's complaints about Canada arresting Huawei's CFO on a warrant from the USA is: Canada is a under the rule of law, there is no political interference in the rule of law.

That was then, what, two months ago, and this is now. 

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported last week that Trudeau’s aides pressed Jody Wilson-Raybould, the then Attorney General of Canada, to help avoid a prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on charges stemming from alleged business activities in Libya.

The newspaper said Wilson-Raybould was shuffled to the veterans-affairs portfolio, just two weeks ago, after she refused to get the public prosecutor to negotiate a remediation deal with the company, a means of acknowledging wrongdoing without a criminal conviction.

The Liberal government maintains that while discussions on the matter took place with Wilson-Raybould, she wasn’t pressured or told to issue a directive to the prosecutor.

Trudeau's response to the allegations: “The allegations in the Globe story this morning are false,” Trudeau told reporters when asked about the allegations.

“Neither the current nor the previous attorney general was ever directed by me nor anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter.”

Reporters noted that the questions raised in the article are not only about “directing” action. “Not necessarily direct, prime minister. Was there any sort of influence whatsoever?” one reporter asked.

Trudeau responded by saying again that “at no time did we direct the attorney general, current or previous, to take any decision whatsoever in this matter.”

He stuck to that line for days and refused to clarify whether there was any persuasion that might be less than 'directing' involved. One has to wonder, did someone threaten to demote Wilson-Raybould if she didn't act in the best interests of SNC-Lavalin, or was her demotion rather an act of discipline for a Minister who put ethics above politics? Was it intended to keep other ministers in line?

Wilson-Raybould refused to answer reporters questions citing attorney-client privilege. She could have easily ended the whole scandal by saying that there was no political interference, which would not have violated attorney-client privilege, but she didn't.

In fact, the day she was demoted from AG to Dept of Veterans Affairs, she wrote on her MP's web site: The role of the Attorney General of Canada carries with it unique responsibilities to uphold the rule of law and the administration of justice, and as such demands a measure of principled independence. It is a pillar of our democracy that our system of justice be free from even the perception of political interference and uphold the highest levels of public confidence. 

The mention of political interference is curious at best and seems out of place were it not there for a specific reason. 

Opposition Leader Andrew Sheer has called on Trudeau to waive attorney-client privilege. He has not responded publicly to that. Sheer also called for an emergency Justice Committee meeting to investigate. That committee is made up primarily of Trudeau's Liberals, so one cannot expect much from them.

Meanwhile, two high profile NDP MPs have called on the Ethics Commissioner to investigate the allegations, and just today, he has agreed. 

The consequences could be huge as a finding of political interference could possibly result in criminal charges, and would certainly reveal an endemic hypocrisy in the PMO (Prime Minister's Office), as well as a 'special' relationship, bordering on corruption, between the Liberal Party and SNC-Lavalin.

It would also leave Trudeau out-on-a-limb in his dealings with China and his claims of political non-interference in the Canadian justice system. Trudeau had already angered the Chinese government with his leadership in sending a letter of complaint about the way the Chinese were treating Uighur (Muslim) people in western China. Today, the government admitted that trade relations with China are likely to slow for the foreseeable future.

Other consequences for Canada could be substantial as SNC-Lavalin employs thousands of people across the country and around the world. If they were found guilty of corruption, it would render SNC-Lavalin ineligible for any Canadian government contracts for 10 years. The possibility of a complete collapse of the company and thousands of people thrown out of work is neither good for the economy, not is it good for Liberal re-election plans.

I am not without sympathy for SNC-Lavalin as it was doing business the way business is done in so many countries around the world - bribery, kickbacks, corruption. You can't do business on an international scale without it. Nevertheless, it must be fought against. We can do better.

Corruption is Everywhere - Certainly in Quebec Construction

Former SNC-Lavalin CEO pleads guilty

in superhospital fraud case

CBC News 

Former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime leaves a Montreal courtroom on Friday, after pleaded guilty to a charge of helping a public servant commit breach of trust for his role in the MUHC superhospital bribe scandal. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime pleaded guilty to helping a public servant commit breach of trust in a Montreal courtroom Friday morning, six years after he was first arrested in a major fraud case related to a new hospital complex.

According to the Crown, Duhaime, 64, admitted to turning a blind eye to bribes made by his company in order to rig the bidding process so SNC-Lavalin would win the contract to build the new McGill University Hospital Centre (MUHC) superhospital in Montreal.

That contract was worth $1.3 billion.

"Instead of acting upon that knowledge, and stopping this from happening, which he could have done, he chose to look the other way," said prosecutor Robert Rouleau.

Quebec's anti-corruption squad arrested Duhaime in November 2012 on 15 charges, including fraud, conspiracy and forgery. Fourteen of those charges were withdrawn Friday.

​Duhaime's trial was supposed to begin next Monday.

He was alleged to have paid a total of $22.5 million in bribes to secure the MUHC contract. Of that money, $10 million went to Yanaï Elbaz, the former director of redevelopment for the MUHC.

Provincial court Judge Dominique Joly accepted a joint recommendation from the defence and Crown that Duhaime be sentenced to 20 months of house arrest, 240 hours of community service, and make a $200,000 donation to a fund that compensates victims of crime.

The wealthy have their own judicial system. House arrest!!!? Mind you, SNC Lavalin has been involved in corruption accusations all over the world as bribery is a way of life in construction, not just in Quebec but, most likely, in nearly every country. If a company is going to compete internationally, they have to play the game.

4th to plead guilty

Duhaime is the fourth person to plead guilty to charges in connection with the hospital contract, which one Quebec police investigator has called "the biggest case of corruption fraud in Canadian history."

Last November, Elbaz was sentenced to 39 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges including breach of trust and conspiracy.

Riadh Ben Aissa, SNC-Lavalin's former vice-president of construction, was sentenced to 51 months in prison in July. He pleaded guilty to one charge of using a forged document.

Pamela Porter, the wife of Arthur Porter, the former chief executive of MUHC who died in Panama in 2015, was jailed for money laundering in 2014. 

Duhaime hasn't been CEO of the engineering company since 2012, when he stepped down after an internal audit found he signed off on "improper payments" to undisclosed agents.