Jody Wilson Raybould

The SNC-Lavalin scandal cost the Liberals two cabinet ministers, their leader’s most-trusted aide, and nearly a second term in office.

Wilson-Raybould said she believes she was shuffled out of her portfolio to veteran affairs in January because she resisted pressure from the prime minister and his senior staff.

The former justice minister resigned from the federal cabinet one day after Trudeau suggested her continuing presence there was proof she didn’t think she'd been improperly pressured to help SNC-Lavalin avoid criminal prosecution. At an appearance in Winnipeg late afternoon on Feb. 12, Trudeau said the government did its job on the SNC-Lavalin file and if anyone in the cabinet thought anything improper had happened, they had a duty to raise it with him at the time. Wilson-Raybould never mentioned it, he said. Nevertheless, her departure added fuel to opposition accusations of political interference in the justice system. And it left Trudeau’s reconciliation agenda with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples in tatters.

The news came out during a cabinet meeting on Feb. 12, days after allegations surfaced that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured the former attorney general and justice minister to help SNC-Lavalin avoid criminal prosecution.