Apologies Anon….was in a rush…should have indicated only one of the articles discussed Mennie.
SNC-Lavalin announced confidential deal with feds, four days after Trudeau's first throne speech in 2015
Four days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals opened their first session of Parliament with a throne speech in 2015, the federal government entered into a new confidential deal with SNC-Lavalin.
The Quebec construction and engineering giant touted the deal in December of that year, noting that it would allow it to continue scoring lucrative public contracts with the federal government. But to this day, the details and content of this deal remain a secret.
The agreement is different from the deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) that former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould has testified she was improperly pressured into pursuing by the prime minister, his senior officials and the country’s top public servant.
Both agreements are meant to address the fraud and corruption charges hanging over the Montreal-based engineering firm. But while Wilson-Raybould’s replacement, David Lametti, is still considering offering a DPA, the administrative agreement was long ago successfully enacted. It remains on the books, more than three years later.
Public Services and Procurement Canada reached the deal with SNC-Lavalin that took effect on Dec. 8, 2015, which was the Tuesday following the government’s first and only throne speech. SNC-Lavalin’s deal was the first under what the government described as its new "integrity regime," and no other company has reached any similar arrangement, according to the department's list of agreements on its website.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/03/11/news/snc-lavalin-announced-confidential-deal-feds-four-days-after-trudeaus-first-throne
From the article: (By ironic coincidence, the federal Liberals enlisted retired Supreme Court of Canada justice Frank Iacobucci to promote Indigenous approval for the Trans Mountain pipeline project after the B.C. Court of Appeals ruled prior First Nation consultations had failed to meet constitutional obligations. Iacobucci was simultaneously retained as outside legal counsel by SNC-Lavalin to help secure a coveted deferred prosecution agreement when Jody Wilson-Raybould was Attorney General.)
http://ecosocialistsvancouver.org/article/snc-lavalin-and-trans-mountain-two-sides-counterfeit-coin
I wonder what further connections retired Supreme Court of Canada justice Frank Iacobucci has to SNC Lavalin and Transmountain pipeline. I wonder if Trudeau's intent was to have SNC Lavalin build the TMX pipeline.
Here is a biography of Frank Iacobucci from the Trudeau Foundation website.
http://www.trudeaufoundation.ca/en/community/frank-iacobucci
Frank Iacobucci is one of the most influential lawyer-lobbyists in all of Canada. He has been at the crux of the nation’s political, legal, and business communities well before he retired his post as a Supreme Court Justice in 2004. Today he is a partner at Torys, Bay Street’s whitest-shoe law firm, and is the most statured attorney in the firm’s indigenous law practice.
Suddenly, this week, nearly everyone in Ottawa wants him to testify before the House of Commons’ justice committee regarding his involvement in the SNC Lavalin scandal, following widespread rumors that it was Iacobucci who first insisted that Jody Wilson Raybould be removed as Attorney General.
Iacobucci led SNC-Lavalin‘s efforts to secure a ‘Deferred Prosecution Agreement’ last summer and into the fall. He was instrumental in persuading Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to insert the new legal provision as a policy rider into last year’s budget bill, acting as SNC Lavalin’s in-house attorney.
Last August, Iacobucci ‘demanded’ a Deferred Prosecution Agreement for SNC Lavalin, even dictating to Finance Minister Bill Morneau the terms that his client ‘would accept’ from the Trudeau government. Sources close to Morneau say that’s a familiar posture for Iacobucci, who months earlier helped colleagues at Torys ‘bully’ Morneau into acquiring Kinder Morgan‘s Trans Mountain Pipeline in May — on terms that CEO Steve Kean would accept.
When Wilson-Raybould refused to offer his client the legal mechanism that he lobbied to invent, he was livid. Iacobucci regularly communicates with Morneau and the former Treasury Board President Scott Brison. He was not shy about articulating his displeasure with the Attorney General to either man.
https://buffalochronicle.com/2019/03/11/political-grandmaster-frank-iacobucci-is-at-the-center-of-snc-lavalin-kinder-morgan-scandals/
The federal Liberal government ended up choosing a seasoned judge to lead renewed Indigenous consultations efforts on the Trans Mountain expansion project after Ottawa received a stunning rebuke from the Federal Court of Appeal last month that quashed cabinet approvals.
Frank Iacobucci, an 81-year-old former Supreme Court of Canada justice, has a daunting task before him: jump-starting a reboot of the so-called Phase 3 consultation process with Indigenous peoples so the government can meet its constitutional duty to consult with them before making another final decision on whether to proceed with construction.
Iacobucci will do this without a set deadline from Ottawa — a signal, experts told CBC News, that the government expects this new process will take months, not weeks. That's a troubling sign for oilpatch boosters who increasingly are restless about constrained pipeline capacity, and for the opposition Conservatives who are pushing for a fast resolution to the legal quagmire.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tasker-trans-mountain-frank-iacobucci-indigenous-consultation-1.4849012
Frank Iacobucci's name popped up a couple of times in Jody Wilson-Raybould's bombshell Feb. 27 testimony before the House of Commons justice committee about allegations of political interference in her last months as attorney general of Canada.
Some First Nations in British Columbia will also recognize the name from recent invitations to attend talks about the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
Jody Wilson-Raybould said Canada's top public servant told her that Frank Iacobucci "is not a shrinking violet." The retired Supreme Court justice, now in the news over his role as lawyer for SNC-Lavalin, is also PM Trudeau's special envoy on #TMX
Iacobucci is a retired Supreme Court justice and lawyer for Torys LLP, whom Quebec engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin hired to help it secure a plea deal and avoid a criminal conviction on corruption charges.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/03/05/news/snc-lavalin-lawyer-iacobucci-urged-resign-trudeaus-trans-mountain-envoy
According to the article (from Nov 2006), "Frank Iacobucci sits on various boards of directors, and serves as a Conduct Review Advisor for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. As well, he is Chair of the Rhodes Scholarships Ontario Selection Committee, and is also a Trudeau Foundation Mentor.
https://www.mcgill.ca/channels/news/honourable-frank-iacobucci-receive-fr-scott-award-22752