Gerald Butts is taking responsibility for what he calls a “breakdown” of trust between former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and Justin Trudeau.
The prime minister’s former principal secretary testified before the House of Commons justice committee today.
Butts says his office told the Attorney General it would be appropriate for her to seek independent advice from a panel of jurists over the SNC-Lavalin case.
Butts says he and Wilson-Raybould had brief discussions about the company.
However, Butts says he’s surprised by allegations that she felt she was being pressured.
“I fully accept that two people can experience the same event differently. I believed at the time that the Minister shared my interpretation of our dinner, and I only quote these messages so you can appreciate why I was so surprised to hear a couple of months later that the Minister experienced that dinner as pressure. I did not and do not see how our brief discussion of that file constituted pressure of any kind,” says Butts.
Butts also testified January’s cabinet shuffle had nothing to do with the SNC-Lavalin case.
Wilson-Raybould was shuffled from the Justice portfolio to Veterans Affairs but quit cabinet last month.
The Prime Minister’s Office faces allegations it pressured Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the criminal prosecution of the Quebec-based engineering firm which employs 9,000 people.
