Comment by Alfred Apps LLP

Trudeau was acting in the “public interest”, not a “private interest”. THE ETHICS COMMISSIONER WAS WRONG. He misunderstands our OECD Treaty, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Criminal Code amendments of 2018 and the legislative purpose and intent of the introduction of the DPA, as well as the application of analogous tools in other jurisdictions. SNC-Lavalin is not and was not a criminal organization like the mafia where every member is properly presumed to be a criminal but, rather, an organization where the actions of a few individuals put tens of thousands of innocent Canadians (employees, customers, shareholders, pensioners) at risk. There WAS a legitimate public interest of primary concern which the PM and his staff took seriously. And the AG seriously fell short in the proper exercise of her discretion including her arbitrary refusal to follow best practice by seeking a second opinion in respect of her role in light of the 2018 Criminal Code amendments. The real scandal here is the complete failure of the Ethics Commissioner to understand the lawful and proper consideration of the public interest in this matter. The Ethics Commissioner should have secured a legal opinion too. His findings are complete and unadulterated BULLSHIT!!