Wilson-Raybould: I recorded phone call out of fear it would be ‘inappropriate’
OTTAWA — Jody Wilson-Raybould threw another can of gas on the SNC-Lavalin fire — and prompted calls for her expulsion from the Liberal caucus — with the revelation Friday that she secretly recorded a phone call in which she claims her job as justice minister was threatened if she didn’t intervene in the criminal prosecution of the Montreal engineering giant.
An audio recording and transcript of the Dec. 19 call with Michael Wernick, the country’s top public servant, was released as part of additional written testimony Wilson-Raybould submitted to the House of Commons Justice committee, which last week shut down its examination of her allegation that she was relentlessly, improperly pressured to intervene in the case.
The 17-minute recording backs up Wilson-Raybould’s version of the words spoken during the conversation, about which she told the committee on Feb. 26 during nearly four hours of oral testimony. But it doesn’t resolve the question of whether the Privy Council clerk’s words constituted “veiled threats,” as she has alleged. Wernick’s tone throughout is calm and respectful, while Wilson-Raybould becomes increasingly agitated as she tries to impress on him her belief that intervening in the case would be perceived as political interference in the justice system.