Thank you, Chair, and thank you both for being here today.
Your timing is quite fortuitous. In the Toronto Star this morning there is a story that says, “Documents reveal why RCMP didn't pursue criminal probe of Justin Trudeau in SNC-Lavalin affair.” It says:
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.
That is not the documents they were seeking, just documents about the process that they used to seek them.
This came down to the RCMP googling open-source information, public information, to try to get the answers they needed, instead of having access to the information they were actually looking for. This, of course, is a scandal that saw the Prime Minister found guilty under the Conflict of Interest Act of using his power to interfere in the independence of the Attorney General for the purpose of helping his friends who were facing a criminal investigation, his friends in a multinational company.
The question this raises, of course, is whether Prime Minister Trudeau used his power to break section 139 of the Criminal Code, which says that everyone who “wilfully attempts in any manner to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice in a judicial proceeding” is guilty of an offence. If so, it would mean that he was using his power to help a multinational company that had defrauded and bribed its way around the world, among a host of other awful conducts.
This law, the Conflict of Interest Act, was broken. The question is whether the Criminal Code was broken in this scandal, the saga that saw Canada's first indigenous Attorney General fired and, of course, the then health minister having to follow her out the door.
Some knowingly and some unknowingly undertook a cover-up to make sure Canadians didn't get the answers they needed. This is tremendously concerning for Canadians. It's still the subject of media reporting all these years later. Five years later people are still trying to get answers about what happened, because Canadians have a desire to get the truth, and Canadians deserve that truth.
While you are here, I'd just like you to indulge me for a moment while I give notice of a motion, which is:
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(h) and in relation to media reports, the committee undertake a study to investigate why the RCMP did not pursue a criminal probe of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his involvement in the SNC-Lavalin affair; that the committee dedicate no fewer than four meetings to the study; that the committee invite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to appear before the Committee for no fewer than two hours, in addition to any further witnesses the committee may consider relevant to appear; and that the committee begin the study forthwith.
We'll send that to the clerk.