Watchdog upset RCMP did not interview PM in investigation of SNC-Lavalin affair

Opposition MPs and a democratic watchdog are dissatisfied after top RCMP brass told a House committee that Mounties concluded their investigation into the SNC-Lavalin affair without interviewing the prime minister.When RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme and Sergeant Frédéric Pincince spoke to the committee on Tuesday, they said they interviewed only four people, one being Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.Conservative MP Larry Brock told the committee the approach was unheard of.“In my over 30 years of experience as a defence counsel and a Crown attorney, I have never heard of any investigation where there wasn’t any attempt — whether they agree to interview or not — to interview the person of interest,” said Brock.In 2019, the RCMP investigated whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had broken the law in pressuring Wilson-Raybould to let the Montreal construction firm benefit from a deferred prosecution agreement to avoid a criminal prosecution. Potential charges included obstruction of justice and the intimidation of a justice system participant.The two Mounties who oversaw the investigation into SNC-Lavalin were supposed to testify last October but the Liberals shut down the meeting, purportedly because their appearance was confirmed at the last minute.Duheme testified the RCMP reviewed media reports and relevant testimonies before the House committee on justice as it pursued its investigation. In addition to four interviews, Mounties also considered publicly available documents such as the reports from former minister Anne McLellan and the ethics commissioner.Duheme also said the RCMP had not been able to “acquire or obtain enough information or evidence” to warrant a production order for confidential cabinet documents.“We did everything we could to gain as much information or access as much information as possible within the confines of the regulations,” he said.NDP MP Matthew Green noted the two-year span between the time the decision was made to not pursue criminal charges and when it was shared with the main people involved was “highly problematic given the timing of the politics at that time.”An assessment report prepared by Pincince in February 2021 noted its contents “does not translate to the absence of a criminal offence.”“Instead, given the current legislative framework, the overall assessment of the evidence and the evidence threshold required for a criminal conviction, it is believed that there is insufficient evidence to support further investigative actions or a criminal prosecution,” reads the report.In March 2021, RCMP superintendent Mike MacLean emailed Pincince to ask him to confirm that “we pushed as hard as possible and explored every avenue to meet and speak to any/all witnesses” and “that we have exhausted all avenues to get evidence.”Not until January 2023 was the assessment report submitted to Wilson-Raybould. The file was reviewed for conclusion in May 2023.Duheme said the delay was due to “a change of resources within the organization” and that measures have been put in place since to ensure that reports such as these aren't neglected.“With these allegations floating out there about the prime minister, the kind of lack of trust and cynicism that hyper partisanship would bring in this environment, it warrants more than a response of an inadvertent change in command,” said Green.However, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather noted the RCMP will usually not disclose whether they are working on an investigation unless they are proceeding with charges, so sharing the state of its work on the SNC-Lavalin file was above its normal practices.Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, was dissatisfied with the findings."The failure of the RCMP Commissioner and lead investigator to provide good answers to many key questions shows that the RCMP is a lapdog that rolled over for Prime Minister Trudeau by doing a very weak investigation into his Cabinet’s obstruction of the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin and not really trying to get access to secret Cabinet documents that likely show what actually happened," said Conacher."Even though the RCMP committed to give more internal records to the committee, it is clear that a public inquiry must be established that has access to all internal RCMP and Cabinet documents in order to determine everything that happened, when it happened and who was responsible in the Trudeau Cabinet and RCMP."Conacher also claimed the RCMP has not yet fully responded to his information request on documents related to the investigation, including legal advice on why no one was prosecuted.

Watchdog upset RCMP did not interview PM in investigation of SNC-Lavalin affair

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