Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes his way to Caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 20, 2018. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood

TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said he welcomed an investigation by Canada’s ethics commissioner into allegations his office interfered in the criminal case against SNC-Lavalin, the latest twist in the week-old scandal that has rocked the Liberal government.

“We welcome the ethics commissioner’s investigation,” he told reporters in Burnaby, B.C., where he was stumping with the Liberal Party candidate in the Feb. 25 byelection.

“This is an issue that has been much talked about over the past few days and I think it’s extremely important that Canadians can continue to have confidence in our system.”

This is the fifth ethics investigation involving the Trudeau cabinet, which has been in office for less than four years.

Only hours before Trudeau’s planned press conference on the West Coast, the NDP made the bombshell announcement that the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion had accepted its request to investigate the allegations, first reported by The Globe and Mail last week.

[READ MORE: Trudeau denies PMO interfered in SNC-Lavalin case; Scheer slams careful denial]

The Globe reported that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured Wilson-Raybould to cut a deal with SNC-Lavalin that would allow the company to avoid going to trial over allegations it paid millions in bribes to secure government contracts in Libya.

The Globe story claims that Wilson-Raybould resisted pressure to intervene with the Public Prosecution Service’s decision to proceed with a trial. A few months after that decision, she was moved from the attorney general’s office to become the new minister of veterans affairs.

Trudeau denies the allegations but Dion has decided they’re worth investigating.

“I have reason to believe that a possible contravention of section 9 may have occurred,” Dion wrote in a letter to NDP MPs Nathan Cullen and Charlie Angus, who filed the complaint.

“Section 9 prohibits a public office holder from seeking to influence a decision of another person so as to improperly further another person’s private interests.

“As a result, I have initiated an examination under subsection 45(1), and have so informed Mr. Trudeau.”

[READ MORE: Liberal MP comes to Wilson-Raybould’s defence against attacks]

Last week Trudeau repeatedly denied the report, but wouldn’t directly answer whether any pressure was put on Wilson-Raybould to interfere in the case.

Since Thursday, Wilson-Raybould has refused to comment on the allegations, citing solicitor-client privilege.

The Conservatives issued a letter over the weekend urging Trudeau to waive that privilege so that Wilson-Raybould can clear the air on what they called “very troubling” allegations.

Trudeau wouldn’t commit to that on Monday, and instead told reporters he has asked his new attorney general, David Lametti, to review that option and report back.

“The issue of solicitor-client privilege is not a simple one so I have asked our attorney general to provide me with advice on this matter,” he said.

Lametti was tightlipped with reporters at an event in Ottawa on Monday, but, speaking to CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, he left the door open to granting SNC-Lavalin the deal that the Globe reports Wilson-Raybould refused to pressure the PPS to offer.

Trudeau also appeared to use the media availability to attempt to quell rumours of a rift between him and Wilson-Raybould, repeatedly referring to her as “Jody” and saying they’ve met twice since he arrived in B.C. on Sunday.

However, Wilson-Raybould was not in attendance at the event, despite representing a neighbouring riding.

Trudeau dismissed a question about her absence, pointing out that other B.C. Liberal MPs also weren’t there.

“We spoke about our shared goals for our country and for this government,” he said, adding that her “presence in cabinet should actually speak for itself.”

In those meetings, Trudeau said Wilson-Raybould “confirmed for me a conversation we had this fall where I told her directly that any decisions on matters involving the director of public prosecutions were hers alone.”

On Wednesday, the House justice committee will meet to review a request from the opposition parties that the committee investigate the allegations.

Liberal MP Wayne Long is supporting those calls, writing in a statement that he is “extremely troubled” and “deeply unsettled” by the Globe’s report. Long is not a member of the justice committee, however.

Trudeau cabinet has broken ethics rules in two other cases

The ethics commissioner’s office has found rules violations in two of the four investigations into the Trudeau cabinet it has completed.

In the first ruling, Dion’s predecessor Mary Dawson ruled that Trudeau breached federal ethics rules when he and his family vacationed with the Aga Khan on his private island in the Bahamas in 2016.

The December 2017 report found Trudeau broke four sections of the Conflict of Interest Act, including Section 11, which prohibits the receipt of gifts unless they are from friends and relatives.

The ruling made Trudeau the first sitting prime minster to be found guilty of violating federal conflict of interest rules.

The second case investigation, completed in September 2018, found that Trudeau’s close ally and then fisheries minister Dominic LeBlanc broke ethics rules when he approved a lucrative Arctic surf clam licence to a company linked to a family member.

That license was later cancelled.

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