Politically speaking, it is always tricky when a man is out in public repeatedly attacking a woman. The fact that Jody Wilson-Raybould was a star cabinet minister and first ever-Indigenous attorney general makes the strategy even more questionable.
By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on February 18, 2019.
OTTAWA—It is sad to watch the self-inflicted misery that the SNC-Lavalin affair is wreaking on the Liberals.
It did not have to be this way.
Someone in the Prime Minister’s Office has obviously decided the best way to fight is by personally targeting the former attorney general as someone who was remiss in her duties.
Politically speaking, it is always tricky when a man is out in public repeatedly attacking a woman. The fact that Jody Wilson-Raybould was a star cabinet minister and first ever-Indigenous attorney general makes the strategy even more questionable.
The first piece of bad advice came when someone suggested a cabinet shuffle should include a demotion for Wilson-Raybould. It was touted by the prime minister, as a lateral transfer but the optics were obvious.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a big risk in the first place when he asked Wilson-Raybould to take on responsibility for the Justice Department.
In a government that staked its reputation on aboriginal reconciliation, it must have been tough for the justice minister to advocate for her people and remain judicially impartial.
Wilson-Raybould has remained silent since her resignation letter but her father has been out in the media claiming she could topple the government. Hereditary chief Bill Wilson blasted the prime minister for not giving his daughter responsibility for Indigenous advocacy.
Instead, that role went to fellow minister Carolyn Bennett, and according to Wilson, nothing has moved on the file ever since.
The attorney general is also faced with court judgments on the consultative responsibility with aboriginal peoples, including hereditary chiefs that have a tremendous impact on the environmental assessment process for interprovincial pipelines.
So Wilson-Raybould had many balls in the air, and some must have conflicted with others.
In the case of SNC-Lavalin, Trudeau needs to make the case that when thousands of jobs are at stake, a government has a responsibility to find solutions.
Senior officials in the company were undoubtedly responsible for criminal activity in relation to business in Libya. They should be held to account but there is no need to torch a whole company because of the criminal decisions of a few.
Likewise, doing business in Libya is not the same as doing business in Canada, and anyone who says otherwise is simply being naïve or disingenuous.
The reason so many countries offer mechanisms for companies to admit guilt and pay fines is to protect jobs, and that is a noble objective.
Opposition members are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the Liberals including that fact that the Gomery Commission identified illegal campaign contributions to the Liberals (and the Conservatives), more than a decade ago.
Those donations were repaid, and since they went to virtually all active parties in Quebec, it is disingenuous to make any link to the SNC case today.
Trudeau needs to launch a full court offensive on the reasons why it makes eminent sense to save almost 9,000 jobs while ensuring a small group of executives are held criminally accountable.
There is nothing covert, secret, underhanded, wrong or dishonest about that. The justice system is not established to punish the innocent as peripheral damage in an attempt to convict the guilty.
Understandably, the story of SNC-Lavalin is playing quite differently in Quebec. The media in that province have been generally supportive of a judicial resolution that would allow the company to survive intact.
That same position was articulated by the new provincial premier and all those who have an interest in protecting one of the few remaining touchstones of Quebec Inc.
SNC-Lavalin has been a success story in the style of Nortel, BlackBerry, and others. There aren’t that many companies left so it is incumbent upon the government to do everything it can to resolve a situation that runs the risk of taking down the whole operation.
SNC-Lavalin has almost 9,000 employees in Canada, and 50,000 worldwide. It has worked on projects as diverse as the Diavik Diamond Mines in the Northwest Territories, the Western Alberta Transmission Line, and the Darlington and Bruce Power Life Extension in Ontario.
The notion that this is just another example of Quebec corruption is absurdly peddled by those in the opposition who should know better.
Trudeau must go on the offensive to protect Canadian jobs in a sector for which the country has developed a positive reputation worldwide.
By attacking the former attorney general, he is simply playing right into the opposition narrative.
The Prime Minister’s Office better wake up and change the channel.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.
