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She explained the reasons for her position, but the barrage continued, encapsulated in the very first warning from Morneau’s aide: “If they don’t get a DPA they will leave Montreal and it’s the Quebec election right now so we can’t have that happen.”

Photo by David Kawai/Bloomberg

Fear of a backlash in Quebec ignored the fact the legislation — crafted by Trudeau’s own government — specifically excluded economic concerns as consideration for a DPA. Yet it was the core of the case brought to her: do something for Lavalin or they’ll pull up stakes and the government will take a hit. Most startling of all was when it came from the very top, in a session she’d arranged with Trudeau on another matter.

She found him accompanied by Wernick. Trudeau went straight to the Lavalin situation. He wanted her to “help out … to find a solution here for SNC.” She found herself in the perverse position of explaining, to the prime minister of the country, “the law and what I have the ability to do and not do under the Director of Public Prosecutions Act.” She informed him “I had done my due diligence and made up my mind on SNC and that I was not going to interfere with the decision of the DPP.”

I was not going to interfere with the decision of the DPP

They ignored her. Wernick pointedly indicated there was a Lavalin board meeting soon, that they might pull up stakes, “and there is an election in Quebec soon,” at which point “the PM jumped in” to stress that “I am an MP in Quebec — the member for Papineau.”

Still she held her ground. Options were offered: an outside counsel — a former supreme court justice maybe — could be brought in to provide cover for a retreat. The PMO could whip up some op-ed pieces for friendly newspapers to indicate she was doing the right thing. It was suggested Roussel might not appreciate the full gravity of the situation. There were “veiled threats” of what might happen if Lavalin didn’t get its DPA.