OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was warned that Jody Wilson-Raybould might connect her removal from the justice portfolio to her refusal to offer a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin, his former top aide says.

Gerald Butts said former Treasury Board President Jane Philpott told Trudeau on Jan. 6 that Wilson-Raybould might view her shuffle to minister of indigenous services as a “demotion,” and “might wonder if her move (was) connected to the ‘DPA issue.’”

“That was the first time I ever heard anyone suggest that this cabinet shuffle was in any way related to the SNC-Lavalin file,” Butts testified to the House of Commons justice committee Wednesday.

Trudeau “was clearly disturbed and surprised by what Minister Philpott had said,” Butts said.

“I said to him that he had to factor into his thinking the possibility that the assertion she made would be made publicly … He replied that he knew that was not why he was moving her, and he would not change his mind.”

Butts repeatedly pushed back against the suggestion that Wilson-Raybould was removed as attorney general because she would not grant SNC-Lavalin a deal to avoid criminal prosecution on fraud and bribery charges.

“The January cabinet shuffle had absolutely nothing to do with SNC-Lavalin,” Butts said.

Instead, he said it was caused exclusively by former Treasury Board president Scott Brison’s decision to resign, informed by political considerations in Nova Scotia and the need to replace him with a strong minister.

Butts told the committee he was concerned that Brison’s departure would jeopardize the Liberals’ fortunes in the Maritimes.

“This left us two large challenges that could not be solved with one person,” Butts said.

“All signs pointed to Minister Philpott moving to Treasury Board.”

Philpott had been serving in the newly created portfolio of Indigenous services. Trudeau was concerned that moving a minister widely seen as one of his most capable out of that portfolio would send the wrong signal to Indigenous communities.

Philpott told Trudeau that she felt Wilson-Raybould would be an “excellent choice,” Butts said.

However, he said, Wilson-Raybould rejected the idea.

“She said she had spent her life opposed to the Indian Act, and she couldn’t be in charge of the programs administered under its authority.”

Butts said she also told the prime minister, “I feel I’m being shifted out of justice for other reasons.”

“I could tell the prime minister was taken aback by this, but he simply replied that he was doing this shuffle because he had to, and because he thinks it’s the best thing for the government and the country,” he testified.

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Butts said he should have known Wilson-Raybould would not want to oversee the Indian Act, “and had we had more time to think of the cabinet shuffle, I probably would have realized it.”

But he said he had never before seen a cabinet minister refuse to be shuffled, and he advised Trudeau that he’d risk losing control of cabinet by allowing it. The following week, Wilson-Raybould was moved to veterans affairs.

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