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Some opposition MPs and pundits have suggested Wernick went too far in supporting the government.

The clerk of the privy council, Michael Wernick, is an extraordinary public servant

“Wernick’s arrogance, thinking that he knows better than the people elected by Canadians for the express purpose of telling him what to do, is on display here, as is Trudeau’s complicity,” Conservative MP Michelle Rempel tweeted Friday. “No public servant should follow this lead.”

Trudeau emphasized Wernick’s decades of service as a senior public servant under Liberal and Conservative governments, saying it “leaves him well positioned to understand what our institutions are grounded in and make sure we are doing the right things as a government.”

SNC-Lavalin, much of whose business is civil engineering and public construction projects, is facing charges of fraud and bribery in relation to its efforts to secure government contracts in Libya.

Photo by Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Trudeau’s government has been rocked by anonymous allegations that Wilson-Raybould was under pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office to instruct the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin — a kind of plea bargain that would force the company to pay restitution but would spare it a criminal conviction that could cripple it by barring it from bidding on government contracts for up to 10 years.

Wernick told the committee that Trudeau was worried a prosecution might result in SNC-Lavalin’s moving its operations overseas or closing up shop, hurting innocent employees, shareholders, pensioners, third-party suppliers and communities in which the company operates. Wernick said he told Wilson-Raybould about those concerns during a conversation in December but that his intention was to provide “context,” not pressure.