OTTAWA—Jody Wilson-Raybould did not directly express concerns to the prime minister that he was shifting her out of the justice portfolio over her refusal to bend on the SNC-Lavalin prosecution in early January, according to notes and texts provided by Trudeau’s former top aide Gerald Butts.

The documents Butts provided to the House of Commons justice committee make no reference to Wilson-Raybould telling Trudeau her concern that her resistance to a mediated settlement in the SNC-Lavalin case had prompted prime minister to replace her.

Rather, his notes say she referred only vaguely to “other reasons,” contradicting what Wilson-Raybould herself has said in oral testimony on Feb. 27 and in written submissions released last week.

Butts’s handwritten notes, which he said he took as he listened to a Jan. 7 telephone call between Trudeau and Wilson-Raybould, confirm she told Trudeau she was “a little bit shocked” when he proposed making her the minister for Indigenous Services.

Butts quoted Wilson-Raybould as saying the Indigenous Services job “is not my dream job. I’m not going to lie about that.”

Trudeau replied, according to Butts: “I know it is not your dream job but it is core to this government to maintain a legacy and, to be crass about it, to our political legacy.”

Butts then quotes Wilson-Raybould as saying, “I feel I’m being shifted out of Justice for other reasons.”

In his record of their conversation, Trudeau replies, “We would not be doing this if it weren’t for (Scott Brison’s) decision (to resign from cabinet).”

Speaking at the justice committee in February Wilson-Raybould testified that “on Jan. 7, I received a call from the prime minister and was informed I was being shuffled out of my role as minister of justice and attorney general of Canada.”

She told the committee that, in response, “I stated I believed the reason was because of the SNC matter. They denied this to be the case.”

Wilson-Raybould repeated the allegation in her later written submission to the committee. “I did state to both of them that I believed that this shift was being made because of a decision I would not take in the SNC-Lavalin DPA matter, which they denied,” she wrote.

Wilson-Raybould was on vacation in Bali at the time Trudeau was organizing the Jan. 14 shuffle.

Although time zones seem to confound their ability to connect in a timely way, Butts told Wilson-Raybould on Jan. 8 that the prime minister wanted to speak with her again.

In text messages to Butts in the days that followed, Wilson-Raybould continued to resist after Trudeau offered her a different cabinet post, at veterans affairs.

But she did not specifically mention SNC-Lavalin in the text messages provided by Butts. Rather, she cast it in as a mistake in terms of the government’s relationship with Indigenous communities, especially at a time when the RCMP had made arrests at a pipeline protest in B.C. over the Coastal GasLink project and other protests were organizing.

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“Couple of comments on the protests across the country,” Wilson-Raybould wrote in a text to Butts.

“Timing of ‘pushing’ me out (which will be the perception — whether true or not) is terrible — it will be confounding and perplexing to people.

“This is not about me- believe me when I say this — but this is about an approach to indigenous peoples.”

Her text is redacted by Butts to exclude either personal information or matters of cabinet confidence, but continues with Wilson-Raybould saying:

“This situation is only going to deepen and I am very worried about it. I am getting texts/emails from indig (sic) leaders and BC etc. Just felt I had to text.”

Butts replied: “Nobody is ‘pushing you out.’ In fact, the PM has taken the extraordinary (in my experience unique) step of offering an alternative cabinet post to you.”

While Wilson-Raybould’s texts to Butts don’t put her SNC-Lavalin concern in writing, Butts testified that Wilson-Raybould’s friend Jane Philpott had already flagged to the prime minister on Jan. 6 that Wilson-Raybould might view her move as a “demotion” in light of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Butts said Philpott’s revelation was the first they heard of it and testified that Trudeau was “surprised” by the suggestion.

According to Butts’s notes, it does not appear that Trudeau directly asked Wilson-Raybould if she saw it that way or that he tried to proactively allay her concerns in that regard in their conversations on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8.

Butts testified that Wilson-Raybould did, however, convey her concern in phone calls with him in the days after those conversations with the prime minister.

The texts underscore a common element to both versions of events: in the week between Jan. 7 and Jan. 14, when the actual swearing-in occurred, the relationship appeared to grow even more tense.

“For what it is worth, I feel compelled to say — one last time — that what is being proposed is a mistake — irrespective of where I am going. There is no way to fully explain this,” Wilson-Raybould wrote in a text as she was about to return to Canada from Asia on Jan. 12.

“My eyes are wide open on this shift. What I know — as you must — is that there is a robust and proud record of what our government has done — through my work and that of the (Department of Justice) … I stand behind this hard work and all of my decisions and legal advice.”

She suggested Butts wanted her to take her chief of staff, Jessica Prince, with her to her new ministerial office because he wanted to place someone from the Prime Minister’s Office as chief of staff to the new justice minister, which he denied.

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She also appeared to be bitter about the communications ideas he said the PMO had in terms of communicating its rationale for her cabinet move.

On the eve of the shuffle, Jan. 13, she told Butts: “As to the ‘very good ideas’ you guys might want to consider sharing them with me. But know I will be prepared for tomorrow. And I know why this is happening.”

“Yes, you do because the PM told you why it is happening,” Butts replied, explaining again in detail the rationale that Brison’s move caused a series of shifts.

“Nobody wanted to move but everyone pitched in for the sake of the team.”

“There was less left to do at Justice than at GAC (Global Affairs), Finance or PS (Public Services), so of the most senior ministers, it made the most sense to move you.

“That is the truth and it is what we will say,” he wrote.

Deputy Conservative Leader Lisa Raitt said the exchange of messages between Butts and Wilson-Raybould underscores the belief of the former justice minister that she was being moved out because of her refusal to compromise on the SNC-Lavalin file.

“It shows there was pressure. She knew that she knew she was being shuffled from cabinet as a result of the SNC-Lavalin decision that she had taken,” Raitt said.

“The discussion back and forth where she is saying, ‘I know why you’re moving me, I know what’s going on here,’” Raitt said.

Raitt said the discussion about moving Wilson-Raybould’s chief of staff out of the office shows that the Prime Minister’s Office was “clearing the decks” of any opposition to a mediated agreement for SNC-Lavalin.

“They were trying to get rid of anyone in that Justice Department who was an impediment,” Raitt said.

In fact, in the messages that Butts provided, it was left to Wilson-Raybould to decide whether Prince would accompany her to the new portfolio.

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, chair of the justice committee, dismissed Conservative demands that the justice committee should be recalled to hear from other witnesses, such as other PMO officials named by Wilson-Raybould as participants in the “sustained campaign” to “hound” her into offering a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC-Lavalin.

Housefather said the committee already “gave everyone opportunity” to testify or make written submissions. “Nobody did,” he told reporters.

“They’re providing lists of people who have chosen not to speak.”

Trudeau was not in question period Tuesday.

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