Jane Philpott has been quietly getting out the word in recent days that she will be doing interviews within the coming weeks.

It’s a good idea, because the former minister has only hinted in her newest interview with Maclean’s magazine about what led her to quit Justin Trudeau’s cabinet at the beginning of March.

Why wait a couple more weeks, though? “My sense is that Canadians would like to know the whole story,” Philpott told Maclean’s columnist Paul Wells.

Indeed we would. The saga of former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and SNC-Lavalin has now consumed six full weeks of federal politics. It has eclipsed the federal budget and pretty much anything else that may be on the Trudeau government’s agenda.

Remember those Canadians being held in China, including one facing the death penalty? The international panel warning that the world has 12 years to get its act together on climate change or face environmental catastrophe?

Well, as the automated answer machine says: Please hold, your call is very important.

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Philpott and Wilson-Raybould may be correct, that whatever led them to quit cabinet on a point of high principle is worth all the collective, breathless attention of the political class in Canada and a voting marathon in the House of Commons (which they were sitting out, granted immunity from cranky caucus mates.) These two ex-ministers keep telling us they have more to say.

So let’s have it. If the truth is this urgent and all-consuming, worth putting every other issue on hold, why does it keep hiding behind some obscure, debatable rules?

Lately I’ve been imagining how something like this would play out in the United States — even Donald Trump’s United States. If two senior members of the U.S. cabinet had quit their posts amid allegations of corruption at the top levels of government, they would probably hold a news conference, maybe on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

That’s what speaking truth to power looks like. It doesn’t dance behind anonymous leaks, cryptic interviews or polite, “No I couldn’t possibly break the rules” evasion. It doesn’t issue vague statements and then shrink from interviews and hard questions, including sharp ones from their caucus colleagues.

Up to now, the only thing that Wilson-Raybould and Philpott have sacrificed are their ministerial perks and salary for the sake of their principles. Certainly that’s no small thing.

But again, if what they’re alleging is as serious as they keep hinting, why not risk the punishment of breaking the rules they keep talking about — some of which have been waived already?

What would happen if they convened a news conference and told the whole story? Do they think they would be led away in handcuffs?

Philpott’s interview with Maclean’s, with no disrespect to interviewer or interviewee, was baffling in many parts. She confirms that she knew a full month before the SNC-Lavalin story broke — and warned the prime minister — that Wilson-Raybould would see this as the cause for bouncing her out of her job as justice minister.

“I think Canadians might want to know why I would have raised that with the prime minister a month before the public knew about it,” Philpott said.

Again, yes we would. Moreover, quite conveniently, we are allowed — even entitled — to know that.

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Trudeau waived solicitor-client privilege for the period of time during which Wilson-Raybould was justice minister. She was still justice minister when Philpott spoke to him. Trudeau has spoken freely about this meeting, and did again on Thursday, in the hours after the Maclean’s story was published.

He said, intriguingly, that Philpott herself had offered to help him soften the career blow to Wilson-Raybould in moving from justice to the Indigenous services portfolio, which was the original idea of the now-infamous cabinet shuffle.

“She then mentioned it might be a challenge for Jody Wilson-Raybould to take on the role of Indigenous services and I asked her for her help, which she gladly offered to give,” Trudeau said.

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From that account, it doesn’t sound like Philpott left the meeting with an urgent need to tell Canadians of what she knew about SNC-Lavalin, or call the police or some parliamentary authority. She still hasn’t said what she knows. Why not?

Philpott was asked in the Maclean’s interview why she hadn’t taken advantage of other ways to tell her truth, whether that’s in Parliament, where she enjoys privilege, or some other forum. It’s complicated, she answered.

Actually, it’s not. “There’s much more to the story that should be told,” Philpott said.

Agreed. So let’s move up those proposed interviews a couple of weeks, or just call a full news conference on Friday. That’s what the power of truth looks like.

Susan Delacourt is the Star’s Ottawa bureau chief and a columnist covering national politics. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt

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