Best report on SNC-Lavallin/Liberals scandal next to one is talking about is definitely
this in La Presse posted today. Holy Hell, it kind of add a new dimension to the whole thing.
Basically it's an interview with a criminal lawyer that explains that the whole remediation agreement the Liberals added to the 2018 C-74 omnibus bill was modified before being approved and no one really cared about it except the senate.
They are not sure who added the extra clause
but one was added saying that when a company is charged with the corruption of foreign government officials then no remediation agreement can be made under the pretense of national economic interest.
Car les changements au Code criminel qu'il a insérés dans un projet de loi visant à mettre en oeuvre le budget fédéral (C-74) qui a été adopté au printemps dernier comportent une clause qui interdit explicitement au Service des poursuites pénales du Canada de prendre en compte «les considérations d'intérêt économique national» si l'entreprise fautive est visée par des accusations en vertu de la Loi sur la corruption d'agents publics étrangers.
No media talked about this except La Presse and it's kind of a key in all this. The Lawyer interviewed says it kind of make the whole "remediation agreement" useless in this situation (the company is charged with the corruption of government officials in Lybia) and why the chief prosecutor's office didn't use it as it's now part of the criminal code. The laywer calls it a pretty big parliamentary mistake as it makes the whole law useless.
This added clause should have been debated by the judiciary committee but since it was an omnibus budget bill it was the fiance committee that worked on it instead. Still some judiciary committee member tried to ask the then minister Wilson-Raybould about this clause but she denied the invitation.
Thus the lawyer proposes two hypothesis. Either she saw the added clause when it was too late and was thus stuck with it or she was the one that added it in the first place so that no one could weasel their way out of corruption charges.
So basically the whole feud right now could be because she's the one that added the clause behind the Liberal's back and they've chastised her for it or they were trying to pressure her into finding a solution against this particular clause that was added to the criminal code which is shady.
In the light of all that is happening right now this is super interesting. Basically someone definitely tried to prevent SNC-Lavallin's lobbying from working but was it people that wanted justice to prevail or people that would be pretty like some of their competitors if they would crumble and die?
