RCMP confirms it dropped investigation of Liberals’ SNC-Lavalin affair over lack of evidence

OTTAWA — RCMP said Monday that it was not currently investigating political interference allegations during the SNC-Lavalin affair, after a “comprehensive and impartial” review of the matter found insufficient evidence of criminality, and despite indications provided to a Canadian democracy watchdog that an investigation was underway.

However, the RCMP’s Monday-evening statement said investigators dropped the matter after determining there was no evidence of criminality.

“The RCMP’s Sensitive and International Investigations unit conducted an assessment pertaining to these allegations. As part of that review the RCMP spoke with and collected information from a variety of sources, and examined the matter in the most thorough, objective and professional manner,” the RCMP wrote.

The RCMP did not respond to reporter inquiries throughout Monday from National Post after the group Democracy Watch said it had evidence that there was an investigation underway. However, the police force issued a late-afternoon statement on social media stating that it was not investigating allegations of political interference in the federal government’s handling of the political scandal — one that saw Canada’s ethics commissioner rule that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had violated federal ethics laws by improperly pressuring Wilson-Raybould to curtail criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin for corruption charges.

Democracy Watch had received May 25 response to an access-to-information request filed by the group’s co-founder Duff Conacher that was partially denied by the Mounties, as the RCMP said the requested records concerned a matter “currently under investigation,” and invited him to resubmit his request once court proceedings had concluded.

“As it did in February 2021 in a letter to the RCMP, Democracy Watch again requests records with regard into all decisions made concerning the examination and any subsequent investigations that have been undertaken, and all decisions concerning prosecuting anyone involved in the situation of the allegation that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former finance minister Bill Morneau, some members of their staff, and former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick obstructed justice by pressing then-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to stop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin,” read Conacher’s original access-to-information request to the RCMP.

Late Monday afternoon, a message was posted on Facebook by the RCMP: “In response to numerous media reports, the RCMP can confirm it is not investigating allegations of political interference in the trial of SNC Lavalin.”

Democracy Watch responded Monday night on Twitter that the RCMP was “contradicting itself.” If the documents it had requested from the RCMP had been refused improperly, because the RCMP had claimed it was due to an investigation, which it now says it dropped, the group said they should be released now.

“(T)he RCMP should release the 86 pages they refused to disclose to DWatch because the matter was ‘currently under investigation,’” the group tweeted.

The ordeal began in February 2015 when the RCMP filed fraud and corruption charges against the Montreal-based engineering firm in connection with its business dealings in Libya.

Three years later, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada declined a request by SNC-Lavalin to negotiate a remediation agreement in connection with those charges in September 2018 — a deal that would allow the company to avoid a criminal trial in exchange for accepting responsibility for the crime, paying a fine and agreeing to an oversight regime.

Later that year, Wilson-Raybould claims the prime minister asked her to “find a solution” for SNC-Lavalin — a request that prompted the former attorney general and justice minister to ask if he was attempting to politically interfere with the matter, to which Trudeau said he wasn’t.

Despite SNC-Lavalin’s threats to cleave the company in two and divest itself of its Canadian offices and workforce, the prosecution service again denied SNC-Lavalin’s request for a remediation agreement — even after pleas from the company’s board chair to former Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick, who told him it was up to Wilson-Raybould.

SNC-Lavalin settled the matter in December 2019 by pleading guilty to a single count of fraud, accepting a $280-million fine to be paid over five years, and three years’ probation.

As RCMP investigators began to look into the matter throughout the summer of 2019, The Globe and Mail reported that, in September, investigators’ efforts were being hindered by the federal government’s refusal to lift cabinet confidentiality. The story was reported one day before Parliament was dissolved ahead of that fall’s federal election.

An RCMP source told the newspaper at the time that investigators were looking into launching an obstruction of justice investigation.

In response, Liberal House Leader Mark Holland stood and delivered a brief answer that wasn’t picked up by the House of Commons microphones, a response so brief that even Speaker Anthony Rota remarked he didn’t catch it.

Monday morning, Conservative Ethics Critic Michael Barrett tweeted that the prime minister needed to cooperate in the investigation.

“Interfering in a criminal prosecution is an incredibly serious offence that deserves to be investigated with the full scope and weight of Canada’s national police force,” he posted on Twitter.

— With additional reporting from The Canadian Press