Democracy Watch is filing an application in the Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa to proceed with a private prosecution of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for pressuring, and directing others to pressure, then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to stop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin in 2018.
Wayne Crookes, founder of Integrity B.C., is a key supporter of the application. Private prosecutions allow an individual citizen to initiate criminal proceedings against another person when they believe a crime has been committed and the police have either chosen not to investigate or press charges.
Responses to repeated access to information requests have led Democracy Watch to believe that there is reasonable grounds to charge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with the offences of breach of trust and obstruction of justice contrary to ss. 122 and 139(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada.
Jen Danch of Swadron Associates law firm, is representing Democracy Watch for the application. It includes a legal opinion by a retired superior court justice (who did the opinion on the condition of remaining anonymous) supporting prosecuting the PM for the allegation of obstruction of justice, and possibly also for breach of trust.
The application also includes a “will say” document that summarizes the reasons for the application, and a summary of how the RCMP failed to investigate and uphold the law properly.
The RCMP’s internal records obtained by DWatch and also included in the application, show that the RCMP’s investigation was weak, incomplete, delayed and buried for years. In a news release, DWatch alleged "an attempted cover up."
The RCMP only interviewed four of 15 key witnesses, and is hiding key testimony from Wilson-Raybould, her Chief of Staff Jessica Prince, and her friend and confidante Jane Philpott.
The RCMP also accepted the Trudeau cabinet hiding key internal communication records, and trusted without question the biased, self-interested public statements of the PM and everyone else who pressured the AG.
As the “will say” document details, the RCMP applied an improper legal standard for proving obstruction of justice, and didn’t consider prosecuting anyone for the general violation of breach of trust.
“The RCMP did a very superficial investigation into the Trudeau Cabinet’s obstruction of the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, didn’t even interview many witnesses or try to obtain key secret Cabinet communication records, and buried the investigation with an almost two-year delay, and then made a behind-closed-doors, very questionable decision not to prosecute anyone,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.
“Democracy Watch’s position is that the evidence and testimony of all witnesses should be considered by a judge in an open court hearing, and that is why it is applying for court approval to proceed with a private prosecution.”
Conacher added, “A public inquiry is needed to determine why the RCMP’s national command tried to cover up its investigation, and exactly how and why they decided not to prosecute anyone."
The watchdog complains the RCMP lacks independence as cabinet picks the commissioner, deputy commissioners and division heads through a "secretive process." DWatch is calling for a new "anti-corruption police force" to be formed that includes independent prosecutors.