Documents show why police didn’t investigate PM

RCMP didn’t find enough evidence after interviews, reviewing public materials

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to pursue a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s actions during the SNC-Lavalin affair in part because the federal police force was thwarted in a bid to get confidential cabinet materials, newly released documents show.

Absent those, the records show, the RCMP reviewed all publicly available materials, and conducted a handful of interviews before it ultimately came to the conclusion there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue a criminal probe. Among the reasons: the fact the former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould — who was at the heart of the incident — never alleged that what had happened was a crime.

“Given the current legislative framework, the overall assessment of the evidence, and the evidence threshold required for criminal conviction, it is believed there is insufficient evidence to support further investigative actions or a criminal prosecution,” reads the RCMP’s investigation report, obtained under Access to Information by the group Democracy Watch and shared with the Star.

The records shed rare light on what goes into the early stages of a police force’s investigation and a decision not to pursue charges.

The RCMP was assessing whether Trudeau broke the law in 2018 by pressuring Wilson-Raybould to permit SNC-Lavalin to negotiate a special settlement in a fraud and corruption case, which would allow the construction company to avoid a criminal prosecution. At issue at the time was a fear that there would be political fallout if the company ended up having to go to court.

After Wilson-Raybould refused, she was replaced as justice minister and attorney general in a subsequent cabinet shuffle, and eventually ejected from the Liberal caucus entirely.

The ethics commissioner at the time, Mario Dion, concluded in a 2019 report that Trudeau broke ethics laws in how the pressure was applied. Dion was also stymied by a refusal by the government to grant a broad waiver to cabinet confidences, although limited exemptions were given at the time.

Duff Conacher, the co-founder of Democracy Watch, said what’s troubling about what is found within the hundreds of pages of documents his group received is that the RCMP didn’t push harder to get the information that could have changed the course of its probe.

“The records show the RCMP is a negligently weak lapdog that rolled over for Prime Minister Trudeau by doing a very superficial investigation into his cabinet’s obstruction of the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, not trying to obtain key secret cabinet communication records, and burying the investigation with an almost two-year delay,” he said.

The records suggest that when the force finished its assessment in 2021, there was a request from the RCMP commissioner’s office to ensure it had “pushed as hard as possible” and “exhausted all avenues” to get evidence.

What happened after that request is redacted in the documents received by Democracy Watch, as is the legal opinion the RCMP would have relied upon in deciding against pursuing criminal charges.

The investigation report disclosed that the RCMP had also sought a broader waiver of cabinet confidence, which was denied. The RCMP also noted that at no point did Dion suspend his own investigation because he found evidence of criminal wrongdoing, which the RCMP said he would have to do.