Prime Minister Justin Trudeauâs long-time friend and former principal secretary Gerald Butts is testifying on Wednesday to the House of Commons justice committee about the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Butts, 47, resigned on Feb. 18, a week before former attorney general and justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould told the committee that she allegedly experienced pressure and âveiled threatsâ from the Prime Ministerâs Office and others to interfere in the prosecution of the giant Quebec engineering firm.
Wilson-Raybould has alleged that Butts told her she âneeded to find a solutionâ on the SNC-Lavalin file and that he didnât âlike the lawâ set up by former prime minister Stephen Harper that prevented Wilson-Raybould from stepping in.
Wilson-Raybould also read the committee text messages from her chief of staff, alleging that Butts had said âthere is no solution here that doesnât involve some interference.â
Here are five things to know about Butts.
Butts is one of Trudeauâs university buddies
Butts and Trudeau were born in 1971 and met two decades later at McGill University, where they were both English majors.
Butts was a decorated debater, twice winning the Canadian National Debating Championship. Trudeau was also on the team.
Butts told Trudeau biographer Althia Raj that they talked about Trudeau becoming prime minister, but the discussion wasnât serious. âWe talked about it like I'd like to be goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens.â
The two remained friends after school. Butts helped craft Trudeauâs well-received eulogy to his legendary father in 2000.
Three years later, they retraced P.E.T.âs famous canoe trip along the South Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories.
Butts didnât grow up in a rich or famous household
Butts wrote an in which he revealed a bit about life in Cape Breton.
âDuring the 40 years my dad worked, 726 people drew their last breath deep underground in Nova Scotia, or due of mortal injuries sustained there,â he wrote. âThe most tragic year in my lifetime was 1979. I was in Grade 3 when Number 26 Colliery exploded in late February. Twelve men were killed that awful, monstrous day.â
Butts also told the story of his dadâs calm approach to discipline after finding his underage sonâs empty Jack Daniels bottle.
Butts helped Dalton McGuinty win with a positive message
Butts worked for former Ontario Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty as his principal secretary starting in 1999, and oversaw policy in the years leading up to McGuintyâs big victory in 2003.
McGuinty won the premierâs chair after portraying himself as a âpositiveâ alternative to the Progressive Conservativesâ Ernie Eves, who was sending out attack ads.
In McGuintyâs victory speech, he said voters had ârejected the politics of divisionâ â a phrase the Trudeau echoed in his campaign.
Butts pointed out Monday that Trudeau won after focusing on âbeing positive with his vision for the countyâ and âaccomplished this without a single negative personal attack ad on any of his opponents."
Butts is okay with running deficits
McGuintyâs government promised to deal with âeducation deficitsâ and âhealth deficitsâ by continuing fiscal deficits, at least for the first few years of the mandate. Ontario has struggled to reduce its debt ever since, and Moodyâs has downgraded the provinceâs outlook to ânegative.â
Butts, however, has continued to promote deficit spending. In a 2014 interview with CTVâs Robert Fife, he called the federal Conservativesâ deficit budgets ârelatively austereâ and said not spending enough was a âbig problem.â
Trudeau later campaigned on running âmodest deficitsâ in order to allow more spending on infrastructure and social programs.
Butts worked as an environmental activist
In 2008, Butts took over World Wildlife Federation Canada (WWF), a non-profit organization committed to conservation and sustainable development.
During his time there, he said, â100 per cent sustainable, renewable energy is possible and economical by 2050 if we start the transition today.â
A number of NDP supporters were ridiculed for making a earlier this year, in part because of the impact that would have on the Alberta oil sands and economy.
However, in the 2014 interview with CTVâs Robert Fife, Butts acknowledged that âone of our most important (natural resources) is bitumen, is oil sands.â