Opposition MPs are clamouring for the House Justice Committee to call Jody Wilson-Raybould to testify for a second time on the SNC-Lavalin scandal, but a Liberal member of that committee said itâs time to move on.
In an interview with CTV Question Period host Evan Solomon, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre said that a newly released audio recording of a 17-minute-long phone call between the former attorney-general and outgoing Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick makes it all the more necessary that Wilson-Raybould be invited to provide a second round of testimony.
âIf (Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) has nothing to hide, why wonât he let her complete her testimony?â Poilievre said.
In the audio recording of the Dec. 19 phone call that Wilson-Raybould provided to the Justice Committee on Friday, Wernick warns Wilson-Raybould of a potential âcollisionâ with the prime minister over her decision not to offer SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement that would forestall its criminal prosecution on bribery and corruption charges in exchange for the payment of a hefty fine.
Wilson-Raybould, who resigned from cabinet last month, tells Wernick that âwe are treading on dangerous ground hereâ and adds that âthis is going to look like political interference by the prime minister.â
Wernick resigned from his role on Mar. 18.
Poilievre said that the recording stands in stark contrast with Trudeauâs assertions that Wilson-Raybould should have come forward if she felt any of the conversations on the SNC-Lavalin file were inappropriate.
âUsing words like âa collisionâ is clearly a veiled threat, which is exactly what she alleged at committee,â he said, âand now we know she was telling the truth.â
He is calling on Liberal MP Jane Philpott, who resigned from cabinet citing a lack of confidence in Trudeauâs handling of the SNC-Lavalin dispute, and all of the other people who have been linked to it, to testify before the committee, too.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said that the recording shows that no one in the Prime Ministerâs Office âseemed to understand the concept of prosecutorial independence,â adding that their behaviour amounts to âa very serious abuse of their office.â
She, too, thinks that Justice Committee has more to learn from Wilson-Raybould. The directive issued by Trudeau waiving attorney-client privilege and cabinet confidence that allowed her to testify was too narrowly-defined, she said.
âI think they made a huge mistake in deciding to shut down her ability to finish her testimony and also to know what happened between the moment she was made Minister of Veterans Affairs and the time she decided to step down,â she told CTV Question Period.
But Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault, who sits on the Justice Committee, disagreed, noting that Wilson-Raybould gave four hours of testimony before the committee last month -- longer than anyone else -- and was permitted to read a 38-minute opening statement.
The written statement, copies of text messages, emails and the audio recording that she provided to the committee âconfirms what we already knew,â Boissonnault said.
âLiterally, itâs time to get on with what Canadians expect us to do, which is to improve their lives and get on to the business of governing,â he added.
The Liberal-dominated justice committee shut down further hearings in the SNC-Lavalin affair last week.
NDP finance critic Peter Julian said that the recording laid out âa very clear patternâ of âoutrageousâ behaviour and is calling for a public inquiry.
Wilson-Raybouldâs claim during her testimony that she was subjected to âveiled threatsâ was an underestimation of what was actually happening, he said.
âItâs a very, very clear threat,â he said, noting that the SNC-Lavalin scandal has given Canada âa black eye internationally.â
Boissonnault repeated Trudeauâs oft-repeated defense that any conversations between his office and Wilson-Raybould on the SNC-Lavalin file were about âsticking up for jobs.â
The dispute is âa fundamental disagreement over the intensity of the kind of conversations that can take place between an attorney-general, and in this case, her colleague,â he said.
The real âethical breach,â Boissonnault added, was Wilson-Raybouldâs decision to secretly record her conversation with Wernick -- something she admitted was an âextraordinary and otherwise inappropriate step.â
Boissonnault would not say definitively whether Wilson-Raybould and Philpott should be booted from the Liberal caucus.
âWeâre here to make lives better for Canadians and as long as people share our Liberal values, theyâre welcome in the team,â he said. âIf they decide theyâre no longer able to do that, thatâs their call.â
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied inappropriately pressuring Wilson-Raybould on SNC-Lavalin and has not apologized. The scandal, which comes just months before a federal election in October, has led to the resignation of two cabinet ministers, Canadaâs top civil servant and Trudeauâs former principal secretary.