Bob Mackin
One of the biggest scandals of Justin Trudeau’s time as prime minister involved meddling in the corruption prosecution of SNC-Lavalin (now known as AtkinsRealis), for which he was found in conflict of interest.
On Feb. 18, Democracy Watch released 1,832 pages it obtained after a July 2022 access to information request for records from the RCMP’s aborted investigation of Trudeau.
Jessica Prince (X)
Democracy Watch called the RCMP’s work a “weak, incomplete investigation and attempted cover up.”
The file includes redacted RCMP interview transcripts with Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and her aide, Jessica Prince. Prince is now an assistant deputy minister in B.C. Premier David Eby’s office.
In one section, Prince recalled a Sept. 16, 2018 phone call with Trudeau senior aides Mathieu Bouchard and Elder Marques.
“…we were getting a lot of attention from Ben CHIN on this file [Editor’s note: Chin was B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s executive director of communications; he now works in the Prime Minister’s Office]. Um, a-, and then yeah. So September the 16th I have a phone call with Elder and Mathieu, who at that point, Elder MARQUES and Mathieu BOUCHARD are both in the PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE at this point in time, they’re n-, neither of them are anymore but, um, they are both, they were both very Senior Advisors to the Prime Minister and they’ve both lawyers as well. Um, and they are, their roles at the time, I don’t if it, it’s said this on paper, but the understanding in government was that they were the most senior lawyers in the PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE. Um, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and his principal advisor and the Prime Minister himself are not lawyers. And so, the understanding was if anything legal was ever going on, you had to talk to Elder or Mathieu. And um, so, the fact that they were the ones who called me, like I kn-, I, I sorta knew what this was about. Um, uh, they wanted to have a conversation about SNC-LAVALIN and then sort of the content of that conversation um, is, is, is captured here in the document. I don’t know if there’s much more to add in terms of the content. I would say it was notable that they both called me, like it was pretty rare to get, I mean, it was pretty rare frankly, for me to get a call from one of them, but for me to get a call from both of them at the same time, again, like would make me think okay, this is, this is, uh, like this has captured the attention of the PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE now. It’s not just the Finance Minister’s office, now PMO is involved and if they have both Elder and Mathieu it’s like, it’s ser-,like serious I guess? Um, so, uh, uh, yeah. So it look that on the next day September 17th, I had a conversation with, with our Deputy Minister. Um, and it looks like that’s when w., we had that discussion.
Jody Wilson-Raybould testifying on Feb. 27, 2019 (CPAC)
Prince also told the RCMP about an Oct. 26, 2018 phone call with Bouchard, who unsuccessfully appealed for Wilson-Raybould to intervene in order to protect the Liberals’ re-election chances.
He said, you know, Jess, we could have the best policy in the world, but if we, we have to get re-elected, right? And he was talking about the political context in Quebec, he was talking about the possibility of the company pulling its headquarters out of the province of Quebec. Um, he said you know, uh, there’s no, uh, ’cause I, at this point I think the Quebec election had passed, so I was like, what’s the time pressure? You know like, we, the election happened in Quebec, there’s no federal election coming up, and he said well look, uh-, there’s no per-, time pressure now but if six months before an election, they pull their headquarters out of Quebec, that’s really, really bad for us. Um, and, uh, y-, y-, you know, he just said we just don’t wanna make sure, we wanna make sure that no doors are closed, like we wanna make sure we’ve explored every avenue. So, again, I said look, like if you wanna talk to the Minister, she’s happy to talk to you, we can, we can set something up, right?
theBreaker.news sought Prince’s comment, including whether she recalls what the RCMP is withholding. Her office absence auto-response said she will return Feb. 25.
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