Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer asks a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, April 3, 2019.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
April 07, 2019 - 11:31 AM
OTTAWA - Andrew Scheer is challenging Justin Trudeau to follow through on a threat to sue him over his assertion that the prime minister politically interfered with the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.
The Conservative leader has released a letter he says he received on March 31 from Trudeau's lawyer, Julian Porter, threatening a libel suit.
Scheer says the threatened lawsuit is "an intimidation tactic" aimed at silencing the Conservatives, who have been demanding a thorough, independent investigation of the affair.
He's urging Trudeau to proceed with the lawsuit immediately so that the scandal can be investigated in court — where, Scheer notes, Liberals do not control the proceedings.
Last month, the House of Commons justice committee shut down its investigation into the affair, with Liberal members saying they were satisfied no rules or laws were broken.
Trudeau's former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, maintains she was inappropriately pressured by the Prime Minister's Office to intervene to stop criminal proceedings against SNC-Lavalin on bribery charges related to contracts in Libya.
She has said she doesn't believe anything illegal occurred.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2019