Jody Wilson Raybould Resigns From Cabinet

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.
Jody Wilson Raybould Resigns From Cabinet
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould speaks during a news conference in Ottawa, on June 30, 2016. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
2/12/2019
Updated:
2/12/2019

OTTAWA—Veterans Affairs Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould is quitting the federal cabinet.

In a letter published on her website, the former justice minister says she has hired former Supreme Court judge Thomas Cromwell to tell her what she can say about her dealings with the prime minister on the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Wilson-Raybould’s letter does not say exactly why she’s quitting.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported last week that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or his staff pressured her to arrange a deal with the Montreal company that would have let it avoid a criminal prosecution on allegations of corruption and bribery in relation to its efforts to win government contracts in Libya.

Since then, Trudeau has denied he did any such thing.

On Feb. 11, he said in Vancouver that he'd told Wilson-Raybould that any decision on the subject was hers alone.