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“Because of the decisions to deny our office further access to cabinet confidences, witnesses were constrained in their ability to provide all evidence,” Dion wrote. “I was, therefore, prevented from looking over the entire body of evidence to determine its relevance to my examination.”

In a statement published on Wednesday afternoon, Wilson-Raybould said she is “concerned by the government’s decision to deny even its ethics commissioner requested access to cabinet confidences, as there were apparently constraints on a number of witnesses from telling the whole story.”

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer went further, calling for an investigation by the RCMP. “We now know from the ethics commissioner’s report that there are several key witnesses who were unable to testify to the ethics commissioner because Justin Trudeau blocked that from happening,” he said. “If Justin Trudeau believes that he did nothing wrong, if he believes that he has nothing to hide, he should let the light of day shine upon this entire scandal.”

Despite the limitations, Dion found that Trudeau, “directly and through his senior officials, used various means to exert influence over Ms. Wilson-Raybould” after she made clear that she would not overrule the decision of the director of public prosecutions not to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin. The company is charged with offering Libyan government officials $48 million in bribes between 2001 and 2011, and would face a 10-year ban on federal contracts if convicted. SNC-Lavalin has been lobbying for a remediation agreement, which would circumvent a criminal trial, arguing that all senior officials involved with the alleged crimes have been dismissed.

The federal government introduced remediation agreements as part of the 2018 budget, and this is the first case where one might have been used. The agreements are intended to hold companies accountable for economic crimes without making innocent employees suffer the consequences.

In his submissions to the ethics commissioner, Trudeau wrote that he was concerned about the impact of a criminal conviction on SNC-Lavalin’s employees, pensioners and customers. He was also concerned about how to justify the decision to the Canadian public.

But Dion found that Wilson-Raybould was improperly asked to consider partisan political interests as well, “contrary to longstanding constitutional principles relating to prosecutorial independence and the rule of law.”

Wilson-Raybould was shuffled out of her role as attorney general in January, and resigned from cabinet after the allegations were made public the following month. The scandal, which played out through the spring, also saw the resignation of Wernick and Trudeau’s principal secretary, Gerald Butts. Former Treasury Board president Jane Philpott also resigned from cabinet in solidarity with Wilson-Raybould. Trudeau ejected both former ministers from the Liberal caucus in April. They are now running as independent candidates in the October election.

• Email: mforrest@postmedia.com | Twitter: MauraForrest