Rideau Hall has stripped the Order of Canada from former SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. CEO Jacques Lamarre following years of controversy tied to corruption scandals that engulfed the engineering giant.The revocation, announced Saturday, removes one of Canada’s highest civilian honours from Lamarre, who led SNC-Lavalin from 1996 to 2009 during a period later marked by bribery convictions and fraud cases involving company executives.Blacklock's Reporter said Lamarre had previously faced professional sanctions in Québec, where the province’s Order of Engineers banned him for life earlier this year.“Events of recent years have been trying for me both personally and professionally,” Lamarre wrote in a January statement following the disciplinary ruling.He defended his tenure at the company, saying SNC-Lavalin became a major force in both the Québec and Canadian economies under his leadership.The company’s legal troubles culminated in 2019 when SNC-Lavalin pleaded guilty to fraud in Québec court and agreed to pay a $280 million penalty. Court records showed company executives admitted to paying $47.7 million in bribes to secure contracts in Libya.Several former executives were also convicted or pleaded guilty in related corruption cases over the past decade..One executive was convicted in Québec Superior Court in 2018 on charges including bribery, fraud and laundering proceeds of crime. Another admitted to bribery offences in a Swiss court in 2014. A third pleaded guilty to arranging illegal campaign donations to Liberal Party organizers in violation of the Canada Elections Act.Rideau Hall also revoked the Order of Canada from Peter Dalglish, a former United Nations advisor and co-founder of Street Kids International.Dalglish was convicted in Nepal in 2019 of sexually assaulting two minors and sentenced to nine years in prison.Revocations of the Order of Canada remain uncommon but have occurred in several high-profile cases in recent years.In 2023, Rideau Hall rescinded honours from Buffy Sainte-Marie after reports challenged her longstanding claims of Cree ancestry. CBC’s Fifth Estate reported documents showed the singer was born in Massachusetts to an Italian-American family.That same year, former Saskatchewan judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond also lost her Order of Canada after questions emerged regarding claims of indigenous ancestry.The Order of Canada was established in 1967 under then-prime minister Lester B. Pearson as a national honour recognizing Canadians for outstanding achievement and service.
