Justin Trudeau violated ethics for pressuring A-G over engineering giant

A finding that Trudeau broke conflict of interest laws over a company’s prosecution could topple him.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been found to have violated the ethics laws. Picture: AP.

Canada’s ethics watchdog has ruled that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke conflict-of-interest laws by trying to steer the then Attorney-General away from criminally prosecuting a Montreal company.

The findings from Canada’s Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on Wednesday represent a fresh blow to Mr Trudeau and his incumbent Liberal government, weeks before his re-election campaign is set to start toward the Oct. 21 vote.

The Liberals had recently begun to recover in the polls after public support for Mr Trudeau tumbled in the wake of revelations in February that the Canadian leader and his senior officials had tried to persuade the Attorney-General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to let engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Group avoid a criminal trial on bribery and fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors last fall denied a request by the Montreal-based engineering company to avoid a trial and negotiate an out-of-court settlement. Ms Wilson-Raybould backed the prosecutors’ decision.

Mr Trudeau and senior officials in his office pressed her and her chief aide on multiple occasions in calls and messages as well as in person to reconsider to decision to prosecute, arguing that it could put thousands of jobs across Canada at stake. according to testimony at parliamentary hearings. She resisted and earlier this year was moved to another cabinet post. Ms Wilson-Raybould stepped down from cabinet in February after the allegations became public.

“The prime minister, directly and through his senior officials, used various means to exert influence over Ms Wilson-Raybould,” said Mario Dion, the ethics commissioner. “The authority of the prime minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the decision of [federal prosecutors] as well as the authority of Ms Wilson-Raybould.”

Mr Trudeau admitted responsibility for the breaches, telling a news conference: “I disagree with some of (the ethics commissioner’s) conclusions but I fully accept this report and take responsibility for everything that happened.”

Mr Dion’s report found that actions by Mr Trudeau and his aides were improper because they were contrary to the principles of prosecutorial independence.

The ethics watchdog said Mr Trudeau violated a section of Canada’s conflict-of-interests law that prohibits public-office holders from using their posts to improperly further someone else’s private interests. SNC-Lavalin had significant financial interests to avoid a trial, the report found.

Mr Trudeau faces no penalty as a result of the watchdog’s finding, a spokeswoman for Mr Dion said.

According to the commissioner’s report, Mr Trudeau, through his lawyer, said he didn’t use his position to persuade the attorney-general to overrule federal prosecutors regarding the SNC-Lavalin trial, and “especially not to improperly further the private interests of SNC-Lavalin.”

Representatives for Ms Wilson-Raybould weren’t immediately available for comment.

The Wall St Journal