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Dion released his report last week, and it concluded Trudeau directed a pressure campaign on then-Justice Minister and Attorney General Jody-Wilson Raybould to have her overrule federal prosecutors and allow SNC-Lavalin to avoid a corruption trial.

“The authority of the Prime Minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. Wilson‑Raybould as the Crown’s chief law officer,” Dion’s report said.

It concluded Trudeau had broken section nine of the act, which prohibits public office holders from attempting to influence other people “to improperly further another person’s private interests.” In this case, the private interests were those of SNC-Lavalin, the massive Quebec engineering firm.

The Conservatives, New Democrats, and the Green Party all urged the committee to hear Dion’s testimony. Conservative MP Peter Kent described Dion’s finding that Trudeau violated the principle of prosecutorial independence as “unprecedented in Canadian history.”

“I try to approach things in a very non partisan way,” Green Party leader Elizabeth May said. “This is in a lot of way red meat right before an election, and I know that. But something was really wrong here. Something’s deeply wrong here. And I beg my friends around the table to allow Mr. Dion to speak to us.”

Something's deeply wrong here

The opposition MPs noted that Dion had requested, but not received, cabinet confidence waivers that would have allowed nine witnesses to give further testimony. They also said Dion should be able to respond to Trudeau’s assertion that Dion was wrong in some of his conclusions.

“When you’re the prime minister of this country, you’re expected to meet the highest ethical code,” NDP MP Charlie Angus said. “We have the commissioner ready to speak, to respond to the report. His normal function is to come to our committee and present that report.”

The Liberals were unmoved. Liberal MP Steven MacKinnon argued that Trudeau was only ever acting to protect jobs that could be affected by SNC-Lavalin going to trial — though when the Conservatives asked him to table evidence that jobs were truly at risk, MacKinnon had to acknowledge he didn’t have any documents to table. (Dion’s report noted the government had never conducted any study of the economic impacts of the trial.)

MacKinnon pointed to the report Trudeau had commissioned from former Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan on whether the attorney general role should be separated from the justice minister role. McLellan’s report did not recommend splitting the roles, but Trudeau has said he’ll consider implementing McLellan’s other recommendations on protecting prosecutorial independence from inappropriate political considerations.