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Wilson-Raybould said it was not wrong for senior officials to raise concerns about job losses in the “early stages” of the decision, but once the decision was made, the “long sustained discussions about the job losses” crossed the line — and then became worse.

“Leaving aside job losses … where they became very clearly inappropriate was when political issues came up like the election in Quebec, like losing the election if SNC were to move their headquarters, conversations like that,” Wilson-Raybould said.

“Conversations like the one I had with the clerk of the privy council who invoked the prime minister’s name throughout the entirety of the conversation, spoke to me about the prime minister being dug-in, spoke to me about his concerns as to what would happen. In my mind those were veiled threats and I took them as such. That is entirely inappropriate.”

Speaking from Montreal after the committee testimony, Trudeau said he “completely disagrees” with Wilson-Raybould’s characterization of events, and said the decision on the SNC-Lavalin case was always “hers alone.” Yet he declined to respond to any of the specific allegations Wilson-Raybould made about comments from him and his senior staff.

“I strongly maintain, as I have from the beginning, that I and my staff alway acted appropriately and professionally,” he said. “Our government will always focus on jobs and our economy. We of course had discussions about the potential loss of 9,000 jobs in communities across the country, including the possible impact on pensions.”