The most acute political scandal in North America—the one with the greatest chance of toppling the head of government anytime soon—is occurring not in the United States, but Canada.* Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is barely hanging on to power after being accused last month of pressuring his attorney general to abandon the criminal prosecution of an influential company that hails from Quebec, his political stronghold.

Political media in the U.S. can’t comprehend how this can be so damaging. “There’s no money, no sex and nothing illegal happened,” wrote Rob Gillies of the Associated Press. “This is what passes for a scandal in Canada.”

It should also pass for a scandal in America, but selective prosecution—which spares the powerful while punishing those without connections—has become all too common in this country, and notably so under President Obama. As Democratic candidates seek to save America from President Trump’s kleptocracy, they ought to acknowledge that this era of unaccountability long predates him, and be as indignant about it as our Canadian neighbors.

SNC-Lavalin is a Montreal-based engineering firm that employs roughly 9,000 Canadians on numerous construction projects inside the country. It also does substantial business abroad, where it’s been accused for years of corruption and fraud. This specific case alleges that the company paid 48 million Canadian dollars (around 36 million USD) to Libyan government officials to secure construction contracts from 2001-2011, then defrauded the Libyans for about 130 million Canadian dollars.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police submitted these charges in 2015, before Trudeau entered office. A successful criminal prosecution would bar SNC-Lavalin from bidding on any federal government contracts for 10 years. But the Globe and Mail broke the news in early February that Trudeau’s office had asked Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to abandon the criminal charges. Wilson-Raybould, who also sat in Trudeau’s cabinet as justice minister, later confirmed a “barrage” of pressure from senior officials, including Trudeau himself, who asked her to “help out” with the case and “find a solution.” She rebuffed their campaign, was demoted, then resigned.