OTTAWA—The Trudeau government has refused an opposition demand to recall Parliament to deal with the SNC-Lavalin affair, and is setting the stage to counter Jody Wilson-Raybould’s allegations of improper political meddling in the company’s criminal trial.

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh wrote Trudeau jointly Friday to ask him to recall MPs next week so the Commons could hold the government to account for its actions in the ongoing SNC-Lavalin Affair.

The House of Commons has risen for a two-week break, but the opposition parties say Trudeau owes the country a detailed explanation of his actions.

Cameron Ahmad, a spokesman for the prime minister, said Friday the government has no intention of recalling the Commons, but will continue to cooperate and watch the work of the Commons justice committee as it probes the affair.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, will be far from Ottawa as the MPs look into the allegations.

He is expected to attend a climate-change rally in Toronto Monday evening, the start of a number of events planned across the country next week in which his office says he will talk to Canadians about his “climate action” incentive plan — which the Conservatives call a “carbon tax.”

Read more:

SNC-Lavalin scandal will intensify tensions between Alberta and Quebec, profs say

Opinion | Chantal Hébert: Four important questions in the SNC-Lavalin scandal

Jody Wilson-Raybould’s political interference allegations have plunged government into crisis, MPs say in emergency debate

Wilson-Raybould’s testimony has captivated the interest of Canadians unlike many inside-Ottawa stories. It’s shifted the conversation even in Quebec in newspaper editorial pages and beyond, where initially there had been sympathy for the company’s arguments.

“If what is alleged is true, it is, indeed, worrisome that someone pressured her and that worries me a lot,” said Quebec provincial justice minister Sonia Lebel, who was the chief prosecutor for the Charbonneau commission into corruption in that province.

The federal opposition parties intend to keep the focus on Wilson-Raybould’s stunning allegations.

In their letter to Trudeau, they slammed his failure to address the questions she raised.

“So far, your only defence is to disagree with Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s justice committee testimony, but you have thus far failed to provide Canadians with your account of these events. This is absolutely unacceptable,” wrote Scheer and Singh.

“You also continue to hide behind the Ethics Commmisioner, who, as you are aware, has no mandate whatsoever to investigate political interference into criminal proceedings.

“As the leaders of Canada’s two main opposition parties, we stand united in our belief that you owe Canadians nothing less than full transparency in this matter.”

Despite the break in parliamentary sittings, the Commons justice committee will reconvene Wednesday to hear testimony by Trudeau’s former principal secretary Gerald Butts, who resigned and denied wrongdoing in the SNC-Lavalin case.

Butts is expected to offer the first account by a key political actor on Trudeau’s side, of the government’s dealings with the former attorney-general.

The committee has previously heard a partial account from Michael Wernick, clerk of the privy council and a supposedly non-partisan public servant, but has yet to hear from anyone on the political staff in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Wernick and deputy justice minister Nathalie Drouin will also reappear to answer questions raised by Wilson-Raybould.

Butts is almost as high as it gets.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

So far, the Liberal-dominated justice committee has refused opposition requests to call Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford, among others, who were fingered by Wilson-Raybould in a list of 11 people she suggested were acting to pressure her.

In an exhaustive account Wednesday, Wilson-Raybould laid out the “sustained” efforts, including what she said were “veiled threats” by the prime minister through his representatives to persuade her to overrule the public prosecutions director and offer to mediate criminal charges against the Quebec engineering and construction company.

The Vancouver MP, who remains in Trudeau’s Liberal caucus for now, says she resisted what she called their inappropriate “political and partisan” pressure, and said she believes she was moved out of her job as justice minister and attorney general as a result — all of which the prime minister denies.

The prime minister, meanwhile, has now “familiarized himself” with all of her testimony, and has not yet made a decision on her future in the caucus, his office said.

On Friday, one of Trudeau’s ministers from Quebec, where SNC-Lavalin is headquartered, promoted the kind of deal SNC-Lavalin is seeking to settle criminal charges — that Wilson-Raybould had expressly refused.

Marie-Claude Bibeau emerged from Rideau Hall as the new — and first female — minister of agriculture and said “deferred prosecution agreements” are a “tool,” not a way to escape blame.

“A deferred prosecution agreement is not a free ride,” said Bibeau.

“It’s a way to provide for justice, but to punish people differently in terms of any individuals who are responsible and the corporation, while, at the same time, protecting innocent parties, such as employees, retirees, partners and suppliers.”

Bibeau repeated the prime minister’s claim that his government is obliged to consider “9,000 jobs” he says are in play. She upped the ante, saying that “when you include suppliers in the equation, we’re talking about as many as 100,000 people across Canada who are affected.”

“So I do think we have to look at all the options within the proper legal framework and the budget.”

The Quebec company is charged with bribery and fraud in a Libyan payment scheme to win contracts from Moammar Gadhafi’s regime. It wants to negotiate an agreement that would allow the company to avoid a potential criminal conviction and federal contracting ban in exchange for an admission of wrongdoing, a steep fine and corporate reforms and independent oversight.

It has gone to court to seek judicial review of the decision by the director of public prosecutions — Wilson-Raybould upheld this — to deny it a remediation or deferred prosecution agreement.

A Federal Court judge has reserved her decision on the company’s challenge.

In the meantime the preliminary inquiry into the criminal charges resumes April 1.

Read more about: