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Zimmer says Prime Minister Trudeau should step down

Jody Wilson-Raybould testifying at the justice committee hearing Wednesday. Bob Zimmer/Facebook photo
Jody Wilson-Raybould testifying at the justice committee hearing Wednesday. Bob Zimmer/Facebook photo

Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies MP Zimmer is echoing Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s call for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign in the wake of former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony to the justice committee yesterday.

Zimmer was at the committee table when Wilson-Raybould alleged political interference involving the justice department’s decision to not negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin.

“For a period of approximately four months, between September and December of 2018, I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the attorney general of Canada, in an inappropriate effort to secure a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin,” Wilson-Raybould said in her opening remarks to the committee. “These events involved 11 people, excluding myself and my political staff, from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Privy Council Office, and the office of the minister of finance. This included in-person conversations, telephone calls, emails and text messages.”

Zimmer he was shocked by her testimony.

“I was in the room when Ms. Wilson-Raybould gave her testimony and being that close you could hear the emotion in her voice as she described the sustained and escalating pressure she endured from the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Clerk of the Privy Council, and the Office of the Finance Minister to change her mind and interfere in the SNC-Lavalin criminal case,” he said. “The events and conversations laid out by Ms. Wilson-Raybould are not only shocking but corrupt and speak to a Prime Minister who has lost all moral authority to govern.

“The Prime Minister must resign and the RCMP must immediately open an investigation into the examples of obstruction of justice the former Attorney General gave in her testimony, as well as those she was unable to speak about.

Zimmer said there are still many unanswered questions in the affair, which broke February 7 when the Globe and Mail published an article saying Wilson-Raybould’s office had been pressured to reach a deal with SNC-Lavalin and that she may have been moved to the Veteran’s Affairs ministry as a result of her decision to prosecute SNC-Lavalin.

“Unfortunately, the prime minister has forbidden Ms. Wilson-Raybould from discussing her resignation from cabinet, the presentation she gave to cabinet after her resignation, or discussions she had after being fired as Attorney General,” Zimmer said. “There are also questions surrounding alleged political interference in the criminal case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman. I firmly believe that the law should apply equally to everyone, regardless of who you are or where you come from. Canadians deserve answers and not a government that continuously keeps them in the dark while attempting to bend the rule of law to benefit their friends.”

 

 

 

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