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August 14th, 2019

Trudeau Violated Ethics Law to Further Corporate, Partisan Interests

Ethics Commissioner reveals that the Prime Minister acted inappropriately

VICTORIA – In a bombshell report responding to a complaint launched by the NDP, Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion revealed today that Prime Minister Trudeau broke the law to further the interests of SNC-Lavalin and the Liberal Party.

“It is absolutely outrageous that Prime Minister Trudeau violated the trust of Canadians to further the interests of his corporate friends. This report proves that the Liberal government has put the wealthy and the well-connected above the law – and the Prime Minister himself is directly responsible,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

Commissioner Dion was clear that SNC-Lavalin “overwhelmingly stood to benefit from Ms. Wilson-Raybould's intervention”, and that he has “no doubt that the result of Mr. Trudeau's influence would have furthered SNC-Lavalin's interests”. He concluded that Trudeau’s actions were against the constitutional principles of prosecutorial independence and the rule of law.

“Justin Trudeau is not who he pretends to be,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay). “Behind closed doors, we now have proof that this Prime Minister went so far as to break the law to cut backroom deals for his corporate friends and to benefit his political party. It’s absolutely unacceptable that the Prime Minister has been twice found in violation of the Conflict of Interest Act, a first. Canadians are rightly outraged.”

In A New Deal for People, Singh has pledged that a New Democrat government would formally prohibit corporations facing criminal charges from lobbying elected officials.