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1Justin Trudeau loses second minister over scandal
2AP
3MARCH 5, 2019
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5Another member of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet has resigned over a scandal that has shaken the government in an election year.
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7Treasury Board president Jane Philpott, considered a star minister, said in a resignation letter that it was “untenable” for her to continue in the cabinet because she could not defend the government.
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9Ms Philpott’s friend, former Attorney-General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, testified last week that Mr Trudeau and senior members of his government inappropriately tried to pressure her to avoid prosecution of a major Canadian engineering company in a case involving allegations of corruption in Libya. Ms Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet last month after being demoted to veteran affairs minister the previous month.
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11The scandal has rocked Mr Trudeau’s government. Gerald Butts, his closet adviser and best friend, resigned last month and is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before a parliament justice committee in Mr Trudeau’s defence.
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13Mr Trudeau has acknowledged raising the issue with Ms Wilson-Raybould, but has said that was appropriate.
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15Ms Philpott sided with Ms Wilson-Raybould over Mr Trudeau over the matter. “I have been considering the events that have shaken the federal government in recent weeks and after serious reflection, I have concluded that I must resign as a member of cabinet,” Mr Philpott wrote.
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17“Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised.”
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19Ms Philpott is a former minister of health and minister of indigenous services and was widely viewed as of one of Mr Trudeau’s most competent cabinet ministers. “Unfortunately, the evidence of efforts by politicians and/or officials to pressure the former Attorney-General to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence as to the content of those efforts have raised serious concerns for me,” Ms Philpott wrote.
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21“I must abide by my core values, my ethical responsibilities and constitutional obligations. There can be a cost to acting on one’s principles, but there is a bigger cost to abandoning them.”
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23Mr Philpott said she would continue as an MP for Mr Trudeau’s Liberal Party.
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25Ms Wilson-Raybould said the same but last week declined to say she had confidence in Mr Trudeau. The Prime Minister said earlier he was still deciding whether Ms Wilson-Raybould could remain a member of his party in parliament.
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27Mr Trudeau thanked Ms Philpott for her service in a short statement that said he would have more to say later in Toronto.
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29The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, tweeted that the second resignation demonstrates “Justin Trudeau’s government is in chaos.” He called again for Mr Trudeau to resign and for a police investigation of the affair.
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31Ms Wilson-Raybould testified last week she was pressured to instruct the Director of Public Prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin. The agreement would have allowed the company to pay reparations but avoid a criminal trial on charges of corruption and bribery. But Ms Wilson-Raybould said the pressure was not illegal and said she was not instructed to interfere. If convicted criminally, the Montreal-based company would be banned from receiving any federal government business for a decade. SNC-Lavalin is an economic force in Canada, with 9,000 employees in the country and about 50,000 worldwide.
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33Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, who announced last week that she won’t seek re-election, tweeted her support for Ms Philpott and thanked her.
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35“When you add women, please do not expect the status quo. Expect us to make correct decisions, stand for what is right and exit when values are compromised,” she tweeted.
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37Mr Trudeau promoted himself as a feminist when he became prime minister in 2015. Having two of his most high-profile female cabinet ministers resigning in solidarity is a “spectacular blow” said Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. “It has become rare that ministers resign on principle in Canada. And now we’ve had two in such a short time. It reveals deep division in the cabinet about how to deal with Jody Wilson-Raybould.” He said he thinks that most ministers and Liberal politicians want to kick her out of the party and that Ms Philpott does not agree with them.
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39Mr Wiseman said the last time he could recall a similar crisis was in 1963 when three cabinet ministers resigned over then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s opposition to the stationing of American nuclear weapons on Canadian soil. “This blow won’t bring down the government, and Trudeau, like Diefenbaker, will survive and fight back,” Mr Wiseman said. “Perhaps, again like Diefenbaker, he will lose the next election but it is too early to be definitive about an election so many months away.”