First you need to know that SNC-Lavelin has lobbied the conservatives, the liberals and the NDP. Had there been any attempt to do a legitimate journalistic report those facts would have been in the original story and not left to others to report or the public to hear from other media sources.
A deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) allows an entity to plead guilty without going to trial, penalties are assessed and rules of operation implemented to prevent further breaches of the law. In other words it allows a corporation to continue to operate under pre-assessed conditions thereby avoiding bankruptcy or closure which may affect a large number of employees.
This is not the first time the DPA has been used the most recent being the KPMG fraud deal in 2005.
Again good journalism would have reported this as well however the Globe and Mail chose not to do it's journalistic duty but rather put out an explosive innuendo without all the information.
Why and what occurred with Jody Wilson-Raybould is as yet unknown. Will the facts come out we don't know but we do know the ethics commissioner is investigating so what is the point of a partisan committee investigation? Really?
While I don't like the idea of a DPA I understand that in certain circumstances it is vital to the economy, in the case of SNC- Lavelin it is vital to Quebec more so than the rest of Canada. Why, in the case of SNC-Lavelin, Jody Wilson-Raybould did not want to allow it's use is not known I guess we will just have to wait for her book.
A DPA is just as political as it is legal and is no different than a plea bargain where there are penalties applied and conditions set.
At this point I am willing to wait and see what comes out of the ethics commissioners investigation and hopefully we get some unbiased journalism for a change.
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