Federal NDP Leader and Burnaby South byelection candidate Jagmeet Singh is calling for a public inquiry into the SNC-Lavalin scandal that has rocked Canadian politics in recent weeks.
Singh said Canadians deserve answers to questions about whether the Prime Minister's Office pressured now-former Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to the engineering firm – which would allow it to avoid a trial for fraud and corruption charges.
Wilson-Raybould, a Vancouver MP, resigned last week from her role as the Minister of Veterans affairs – a position she held since January.
Singh said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s shifting version of events has left Canadians with unanswered questions.
“It's become clear now that we need a public inquiry to get to the bottom of what's happened,” he said. “So we're calling on the government to launch a public inquiry, to have independence to ascertain the truth behind what's going on.”
Both the ethics commissioner and the Parliamentary justice committee are looking into the case, but Singh said that’s not enough because the “scandal cuts to the heart of our democracy.”
“The scandal cuts to the heart of the question: Does our government serve the people of Canada or does it serve its friends?” Singh said.
Singh made the announcement outside the Bill Copeland Sports Centre in Burnaby, where he had been attending Family Day activities.
In one week, the NDP leader will be attempting to win his first seat in the House of Commons as he runs in the Burnaby South byelection. His opponents are Liberal Richard Lee, Conservative Jay Shin, Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson of the People’s Party and independents Valentine Wu and Terry Grimwood.
Thompson said she would support a public inquiry.
“It’s time for corruption and lies and deception to be halted in Parliament and the higher levels in our land,” she said.
Sangeeta Lalli, a spokesperson for Lee, said the Liberal candidate was not available for an interview Monday. She did not directly answer whether Lee would support an inquiry.
“With respect to Mr. Singh's comments, as the prime minister has said, neither he or his office directed the former Attorney General with regards to this matter,” Lalli wrote in an email.
Shin said he’s not yet ready to support a lengthy and expensive public inquiry, but did not rule out the need for one down the road. He said the priority now for Parliamentarians should be pursuing a thorough justice committee investigation and calling on the prime minister to waive attorney-client privilege to allow Wilson-Raybould to tell her side of the story.
