The Legal Implications Surrounding the SNC-Lavalin Controversy

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PUBLISHED: 03/17/2019

Today on the Unpublished Cafe podcast: Sunny Ways has given in to gloomy days for the federal Liberals after former Attorney General, Jody Wilson Raybould blew the whistle on the PMO for trying to pressure her into giving SNC-LAVALIN a Deferred Prosecution Agreement for it’s plying the Gadhafi regime with millions of dollars to secure infrastructure contracts in the North African country.

It all came to light during the Arab Spring when several Middle East nations faced uprisings, including in Libya. For its part, SNC-LAVALIN faces charges and a possible conviction could mean the company would be barred from bidding on federal government contracts for 10 years which would be a serious blow to its bottom line. Its share prices have tumbled since the federal court rejected the company’s request for a remediation agreement. SNC-LAVALIN has maintained it should get a DPA because the people responsible for the fraud and bribery are gone, there is new leadership and some new board members.

In a veiled threat, SNC-LAVALIN points to the thousands of jobs it creates and the possibility of moving its head office out of Montreal. It was at this point, that the PMO allegedly got involved with several meetings with the Attorney General to suggest that DPA could save them a lot of headaches heading into the October election. This two headed monster is what the Liberals now face. On the one side, there is the scent of political meddling in a justice case and on the other, the view that SNC-LAVALIN wants to get off its conviction much easier because it creates jobs and in particular jobs in Montreal. And to add another twist to Trudeau’s shorts, is that the new CAQ gov’t in Quebec is applying pressure to the Feds to save SNC-LAVALIN from a criminal trial. The world is watching as well.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Working Group on Bribery, maintains that Canada will face a "phase four" OECD review — an evaluation of Canada's compliance with the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention by experts from two member countries and the secretariat of the working group. ————————————

https://www.unpublished.vote/issue/340/the-legal-implications-of-the-snc-lavalin-controversy

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GUESTS:

Jennifer Quaid

https://droitcivil.uottawa.ca/en/peop...

Assistant Professor of Civil Law at University of Ottawa

Nelson Wiseman

https://politics.utoronto.ca/faculty/...

Professor, Political Studies at University of Toronto

Shachi Kurl

http://angusreid.org/shachi-kurl/

Angus Reid Institute Executive Director

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/opinion/facebook-fake-news-philosophy.html

https://www.macleans.ca/general/michael-and-michael-celebrate-10-years-of-legalized-same-sex-marriage-in-canada/

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https://ottawasun.com/category/opinion

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/chris-alexander-announces-tory-leadership-bid-wants-canada-to-boost-immigration-to-400000-a-year

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trud

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5047248?__tw

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019

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https://ipolitics.ca/2019/02/08/snc-lavalin-affair-evokes-humiliation-of-sponsorship-scandal-in-quebec/

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