Records show RCMP hiding AG Wilson-Raybould’s and others’ answers to key question re: whether PM and PMO actions were obstruction of justice
Given RCMP’s weak, incomplete investigation, and given extensive evidence of obstruction, group takes next step to hold PM accountable
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch released the 1,832-page second set of internal investigation records that the RCMP has disclosed about its investigation of the allegation that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Liberal Cabinet officials obstructed justice by pressuring then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to stop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin in 2018 (now operating under the name “AtkinsRéalis”).
Given the RCMP’s weak, incomplete investigation and attempted cover up, and given the extensive evidence of obstruction of justice and breach of trust, Democracy Watch will take its next step tomorrow to hold the PM accountable.
The records were disclosed, finally, in response to DWatch’s July 2022 Access to Information Act (ATIA) request for all the internal investigation records re: the PM Trudeau / SNC-Lavalin affair. Records requested under the ATIA are supposed to be disclosed within 30 days, with reasonable time extensions allowed. But the RCMP failed to disclose the Part 1 set of 1,815 pages of records until September 2023, and delayed the disclosure of the Part 2 set of records until May 2024.
For the Part 1 set of records, click here to see the List of records and links to the records, and click here to see a Summary of the records. And click here to see a Summary of the Part 2 set of records.
The Part 2 set of records raise serious questions because they show that the RCMP is hiding key answers to questions about the pressuring the AG to stop the prosecution given during RCMP interviews by:
1. Jody Wilson-Raybould in Feb. 2020 (see Part 2 of RCMP Records, pages 373 and 395-397).
2. Jessica Prince, former AG Chief of Staff, in Oct. 2020 (see Part 2 of RCMP Records, pages 472-474, 478, 487-488, 498, 519, 527, 528 and 532).
3. Jane Philpott, former Treasury Board President and confidante of Wilson-Raybould, in Oct. 2020 (see Part 2 of RCMP Records, pages 1792, 1796-1797, 1803, 1804, 1806-1808, 1810-1816).
4. And, overall, the Part 1 and Part 2 set of records show that the RCMP is still hiding approximately 300 pages of its investigation records (mainly legal opinions concerning the decision not to prosecute anyone).
“Jody Wilson-Raybould, Jessica Prince and Jane Philpott should be asked what exactly they told the RCMP that the RCMP is still hiding,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.
The Summary of the Part 1 set of records shows how weak and incomplete the RCMP’s investigation was as the RCMP:
1. Over an almost four-year period, only interviewed Wilson-Raybould, Prince, Philpott and the AG’s former Deputy Minister Nathalie Drouin (now Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council and Trudeau’s National Security and Intelligence Adviser). The RCMP never interviewed the PM or any of the dozen or so other people who pressured the AG or her staff.
2. Never considered prosecuting anyone for breach of trust.
3. Called the investigation an “assessment” so that it could say to the media that it wasn’t investigating anyone.
4. Accepted the Trudeau Cabinet’s restricted disclosure order and didn’t apply to court for a search warrant or try to obtain secret internal Cabinet and PMO documents.
5. Relied entirely on the public claims made by the PM and everyone who pressured Wilson-Raybould and her staff which, of course, were all aimed at trying to make it seem like they had done nothing wrong.
6. Initially established that, to prove obstruction of justice in court, pressure must have been placed on someone to obstruct a proceeding in the justice system, and that such pressure had been put on Wilson-Raybould by Trudeau and various other Cabinet officials.
7. But then switched the standard to require proof of “a corrupt intent to interfere” before a prosecution for obstruction would be pursued, even though that is not the correct legal standard.
“The evidence shows clearly that the RCMP is a negligently weak lapdog that rolled over for Prime Minister Trudeau by doing a very superficial investigation into his Cabinet’s obstruction of the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, not trying to obtain key secret Cabinet communication records, and burying the investigation with an almost two-year delay,” said Conacher.
“Given pressure by the Prime Minister and Cabinet officials to obstruct a prosecution is a situation that has not been revealed publicly before, and given no past court ruling makes it clear that the RCMP could not win a prosecution, a fully independent special prosecutor should have been appointed and tried to get a search warrant for secret Cabinet communications, and prosecuted so a judge could decide in an open court whether obstruction had occurred instead of the RCMP making a secret, behind-closed-doors and very questionable decision to cover up their investigation,” said Conacher.
The Part 1 and Part 2 records also show that the RCMP’s national command took from March 2021, when it received the final investigation report, until January 2023 to make its decision to conclude the investigation without prosecuting anyone.
The disclosure of the Part 1 set of records in September 2023 caused two MPs on the House Ethics Committee to file motions to call the RCMP and other witnesses to testify about why the investigation was so weak, delayed, secretive and biased in favour of the Trudeau Cabinet. The Committee approved one of the motions and finally questioned RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme and lead investigating officer Sgt. Frederic Pincince at a hearing on Feb. 27, 2024.
At the hearing, Commissioner Duheme committed to disclose all internal RCMP communications concerning why the RCMP took from March 2021 to January 2023 to make the final decision not to prosecute anyone. However, Commissioner Duheme did not keep his commitment, and instead sent a brief, vague letter on April 26, 2024 to the Committee (Click here to see the letter in English. Cliquez-ici pour voir la lettre en français).
Unfortunately, the Ethics Committee accepted Commissioner Duheme’s failure to keep his commitment, and MPs from the Committee gave up examining the scandal. Duheme also dodged questions about the RCMP’s negligently weak investigation asked at a Public Accounts Committee hearing in June 2024.
“A public inquiry is needed to determine why the RCMP’s national command tried to cover up its investigation, and exactly how and why they decided not to prosecute anyone,” said Conacher.
“All of the RCMP’s conflicting actions and statements and the problems and delays with the investigation in Trudeau-SNC-Lavalin scandal are due to their systemic culture of excessive secrecy and lack of independence from the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers who handpick the RCMP Commissioner through a secretive process,” said Conacher. “The RCMP consistently fails to enforce Canada’s anti-corruption laws in a timely, effective way, which shows the need for key changes that many experts have called for to make the RCMP more independent, effective and publicly accountable, or even better to establish a new fully independent anti-corruption police force and prosecutors.”
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
Email: [email protected]
Democracy Watch’s Government Ethics Campaign, Open Government Campaign and Stop Unfair Law Enforcement Campaign