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OTTAWA — Andrew Scheer did his level best Wednesday to provoke Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into following through on his threat to sue him over allegedly libellous criticism of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

The Conservative leader repeated, word for word, the March 29 statement that prompted Trudeau’s lawyer, Julian Porter, to send him notice of a potential libel suit.

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For good measure, Scheer did it outside the House of Commons — making the point that he’s not trying to hide behind parliamentary privilege that protects anything said in the chamber from lawsuits.

“I’m not withdrawing my remarks. In fact, I’m standing by them and I repeated them outside of the House of Commons,” Scheer told Trudeau during question period a short time later.

“Will he have the backbone to stand by his threats and show up in court to fight this case?”

Trudeau did not respond directly to Scheer’s repeated taunts but he didn’t withdraw the threat either.