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That was not so, argued Trudeau’s former principal secretary Gerald Butts, who also resigned his position last month. Butts and privy council clerk Michael Wernick, who announced his retirement last week, testified that there was no wrongdoing, only a desire to protect Canadian jobs.

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All three of them, plus Trudeau himself and other officials not invited to appear before MPs, are listed in the Senate Conservative leader’s motion. Sen. Larry Smith moved Feb. 28 the legal committee should investigate the “serious and disturbing allegations” of interference, which if true were “potentially undermining the integrity of the administration of justice.”

The government’s representative, Sen. Peter Harder, moved an amendment that would scrap that plan in favour of waiting for an ethics commissioner investigation. Senators were waiting for a speaker’s ruling this week on whether the amendment is in order, since it fully rewrites Smith’s motion.

If the Senate wants to act as the independent check that Trudeau intended, Smith argued Monday, independents should allow a study. “If this motion is defeated, it will be defeated by the votes of our (Independent Senators Group) senators, who will be seen as not prepared to display the independence they claim they have from the political executive and, in this case, especially the prime minister himself,” he said. “This is the moment of truth for my friends and colleagues across the aisle. How they proceed will be one for the history books.”