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OTTAWA — Michael Wernick wandered into the justice committee like a sun-struck madman and gave real answers to the questions he was asked by MPs not used to such transparency.

After two weeks of politicians citing “solicitor-client privilege” in the SNC Lavalin case, we finally got somewhere.

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The public service generally operates on the principle that if there is nothing to be gained by saying something, it is generally better to say nothing than anything.

But the country’s top bureaucrat was provocative and unapologetic — perhaps because he is the likely source of any pressure, undue or otherwise, said to have been put on Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former attorney general, over the prospect of a deferred prosecution agreement that would curtail the criminal prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

From his opening statement, it was clear the clerk of the Privy Council was in feisty mood. He said he is worried about his country, about foreign interference in elections, about rising tides of incitement to violence (“I’m worried someone is going to get shot in this country this year during the political campaign”) and about people losing faith in the institutions of governance in the country.