OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer released few details Thursday about his promise to launch a judicial inquiry into Justin Trudeau’s actions in the SNC-Lavalin prosecution and to make it easier for the RCMP to ask the Supreme Court of Canada for Trudeau’s cabinet secrets.

However Paul Cavalluzzo, an Ontario lawyer who served as commission counsel to Justice Dennis O’Connor on two judicial inquiries, said Scheer’s suggestion is “absolutely not” the right way to use inquiries or the courts.

Cavalluzzo advised O’Connor in a provincially named inquiry into the deaths of seven people in the tainted water scandal at Walkerton, and a federal inquiry into the role played by Canadian security officials in the post-9/11 Syrian jailing and torture ordeal of Canadian Maher Arar. The latter inquiry led the Harper government to pay $10 million in compensation to Arar and his family.

“In respect of calling for a judicial inquiry in the midst of an election campaign, that’s very very dangerous,” said Cavalluzzo.

“You shouldn’t be politicizing questions of whether you have a public inquiry because they’re too important an institution like obviously Scheer is doing right now. That’s number one.

“Number two … anything that a witness says during a public inquiry is protected under section 13 of the Charter,” and cannot be used against the witness in other legal proceedings, he said.

Scheer appeared in Trudeau’s riding of Papineau in Montreal and repeatedly accused him of lying and corruption in the affair. He cited the finding of the federal ethics watchdog that Trudeau breached ethics rules in attempting to have his attorney general settle criminal charges against SNC-Lavalin.

“When a politician uses the power of his position to interfere in a criminal process, that hindered the independence of our legal system, that is a corrupt act, yes, absolutely,” said Scheer.

To facilitate the RCMP’s probe of the SNC-Lavalin matter, Scheer said he would pass “a No-More-Coverups Act to prevent corrupt politicians like Justin Trudeau from hiding behind cabinet confidentiality to escape police investigation.”

A background document issued by the Conservative party says Scheer would “allow the RCMP to make an application to challenge a certificate of Cabinet Confidence during criminal investigations, including those pertaining to the administration of justice. This will cover both obtaining records as well as conducting interviews.” It specifically refers to amending s. 39 of the Canada Evidence Act, that’s the section of the act that leaves the decision whether to release cabinet confidences with the clerk of the privy council, the top public servant who serves as deputy minister to the prime minister.

Government leaders can choose to release documents to police or courts. Former prime minister Stephen Harper agreed to let a judge decide disclosure in the trial of Vice. Adm. Mark Norman. Justin Trudeau granted a limited waiver that released Jody Wilson-Raybould to discuss with a parliamentary committee her dealings on SNC-Lavalin, but only up to the time she was shuffled out of the justice ministry job. The ethics commissioner said nine witnesses with relevant information were barred from discussing cabinet secrets with him. And the Globe and Mail reported at the start of the campaign that the RCMP’s early queries hit a roadblock due to cabinet confidentiality.

The Conservative backgrounder says the principle of cabinet confidence is not absolute and “in criminal investigations, this principle must be balanced against the need for police to fully investigate allegations of wrongdoing.”

“Cabinet confidentiality exists to protect sensitive matters of policy in order to create good policy. It doesn’t exist to protect corrupt leaders,” Scheer told reporters. He suggested the changes would apply “in the most serious criminal cases” and that the RCMP could directly ask the Supreme Court of Canada to rule on the disclosure of evidence. “No longer will a corrupt prime minister be able to be the gatekeeper of his own crimes,” he said.

Scheer said it is “ultimately up to the RCMP to decide” if any crime was committed. But the Conservative leader made clear he’d already reached a conclusion. “I think each time a politician tries to interfere in a judicial inquiry, it’s corruption.”

“Mr. Trudeau you are unfit to lead,” Scheer said in the most direct condemnation out of the mouth of any of the federal leaders towards their rivals in the campaign.

Cavalluzzo said a witness at a public inquiry may be compelled to give evidence that could guide the RCMP in pursuing evidence against others, but he said investigations are best left to the police.

“If you want to lay charges, you don’t use a public inquiry to do that. What you do is you follow the normal criminal process where the police have certain powers and the certain powers are restrained by the Charter. That’s the appropriate way to do a criminal investigation.”

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As for allowing the RCMP to seek disclosure of cabinet secrets at the Supreme Court of Canada, “It seems to be a nice quick resolution but it really isn’t, because there are a lot of layers under that question of what’s protected by cabinet confidence,” Cavalluzzo said.

Joe Pickerill, a spokesman for the Liberal campaign, later issued a response, saying, “We’ve been clear from the beginning, and as the prime minister has said on a number of occasions, we will not apologize for standing up for Canadian jobs because that is what Canadians expect us to do, they expect us to fight for our communities. That’s the job of a prime minister. Andrew Scheer has no plan.”

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