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Over the past month, you’ve probably seen ‘Justin Trudeau’, ‘SNC-Lavalin’, and ‘Jody ‘Wilson-Raybould’ on news headlines, and the scandal created outrage and conversation across the nation. For those who’ve missed this or are confused by this drama, below is a breakdown of how events unfolded.





According to former Minister of Justice and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould’s four-hour testimony , the meetings regarding SNC involved 11 people excluding her and her political staff. It included the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council Office and the office of the minister of Finance













Jody Wilson-Raybould is a Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Vancouver Granville. She served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada in the cabinet of Justin Trudeau from 2015 until January 2019, and then as Minister of Veterans Affairs of Canada from January 14, 2019, until resigning on February 12, 2019. Before that, she was a Crown Prosecutor for British Columbia, a Treaty Commissioner and Regional Chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations.





SNC-Lavalin is a Montreal-based company that provides engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services in various industries including; mining and metallurgy, oil and gas, environment and water, infrastructure, and clean power. The firm has 50,000 employees worldwide with offices in over 50 countries and operations in over 160 countries.





SNC-Lavalin came under investigation by the RCMP in 2011 regarding fraud, corruptions and bribery in connection to Libya as well as secret payments of tens of millions of dollars made to Libyan officials.









The 11 people including the Prime Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould referenced repeatedly asked and encouraged her then eventually pressured her to interfere in the SNC-Lavalin case starting from September of 2018 and lasted until January.





Prime Minister Trudeau mentioned thousands of Canadians will lose their jobs if SNC was not shown leniency, and SNC would move their headquarters out of the country if a suitable solution was not reached. Jody Wilson-Raybould remained steadfast in her decision to not be involved in the SNC-Lavalin case and repeatedly explained why it was inappropriate for a criminal investigation to be interfered with by politics and politicians. The attorney general must remain non-partisan and independent. This trait is exclusive to the attorney general and not other cabinet roles. They are supposed to oversee federal prosecutions, and in doing so, they must remain nonpartisan





As a result, Jody Wilson-Raybould was removed from the Minister of Justice and Attorney General position to Minister of Veterans Affairs in January, she subsequently resigned in February.





This scandal is being investigated by both the justice committee and the federal ethics commissioner. This investigation is revolved around one question: Did the Prime Minister, government officials or someone in his office, pressure Wilson-Raybould when she was attorney general to step in and fix the fraud and corruption case against SNC-Lavalin to make them pay a large penalty instead of a criminal conviction.





In conclusion, it is deeply troubling for the Prime Minister of Canada to get involved and sway an ongoing criminal investigation attempting to use the help of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General. This unfortunate incident undoubtedly tainted the image and reputation of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party leading to mistrust and anger from the Canadian people. Jody Wilson-Raybould disagreed with her boss; she stood in her conviction for what is right and as a result, lost her job.