That's true.
Evidence of meeting #137 for Justice and Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meeting.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #137 for Justice and Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meeting.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
—and I'm asking who then picked the texts that you were to receive and look at.
11:15 a.m.
As an Individual
You may recall that there was a small story on the front page of The Globe and Mail about this a few weeks ago. When that story ran, I said to myself.... Actually, it wasn't when the story ran; it was the next day when I got a very specific question from The Globe and Mail through the office, directed at me about my meeting with Minister Wilson-Raybould. I believe they were even specific enough to say “at the Château Laurier hotel”. My first instinct then was to look at my phone and see if I remembered as correctly as I thought I did.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
Talking about the cabinet shuffle, your testimony is that it wasn't about SNC-Lavalin. Why then did the deputy minister of justice say that the Prime Minister wanted to talk to the new Attorney General about the SNC-Lavalin matter first thing?
11:20 a.m.
As an Individual
I have no idea. You'd have to ask the deputy minister of justice that.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
Okay.
Do you believe that SNC-Lavalin was entitled to a deferred prosecution agreement?
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
I'm going to read you a part of the mandate letter.
Did you draft the mandate letters for the ministers?
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
11:20 a.m.
As an Individual
I'm not sure. I think that's a subjective standard.
I probably read them before they were sent, but I don't think I had a heavy hand in them.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
One interesting piece for me is this: “As the Attorney General of Canada, you are the chief law officer of the Crown, responsible for conducting all litigation for the federal government and for upholding the Constitution, the rule of law, and respect for the independence of the courts.”
That would seem to be the marching orders for the former attorney general of Canada—
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
Okay.
You mentioned a minute ago, Mr. Butts, that Elder Marques and Mr. Bouchard have “sterling reputations” and would not engage in certain matters of politics. Now, I want to take you through the chronology, because what I find interesting is that it was consistent how many times attempts were made to either get directly to the director of public prosecutions, which is completely not acceptable.... The only connection between the director of public prosecutions and the government is through the Attorney General. Would you agree with me on that?
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
When Ben Chin started negotiating on behalf of SNC-Lavalin, indicating what it was prepared to agree to, as one of the chiefs that report to you, did you find that to be acceptable?
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
Ben Chin, on September 6, said that SNC's legal counsel was a former Supreme Court justice and he also indicated that SNC was prepared to agree to certain things in order to get a deferred prosecution agreement. That's the testimony of Jody Wilson-Raybould. If he did that, is that acceptable behaviour, in your opinion?
11:20 a.m.
As an Individual
I'm not going to answer a conditional question like that, because I don't know if he did it—
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Milton, ON
Well, okay.... Mr. Bouchard and Mr. Marques said on September 16—
11:20 a.m.
Conservative