A majority of the Commons ethics committee yesterday voted against questioning cabinet dealings with SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. “Unacceptable,” said Conservative MP Michael Barrett (Leeds-Grenville, Ont.): "We have government members looking to shut down a hearing on a very serious matter."

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. was awarded a $150 million pandemic contract despite former executives being cited for bid-rigging, fraud, bribery and illegal campaign contributions, records show. Opposition MPs have questioned why the Québec engineering firm is not blacklisted as a federal contractor: "We look like a banana republic."

The Department of Public Works confirms it will not prohibit SNC-Lavalin Group from bidding on federal projects, marking the end of a Government-Wide Integrity Regime blacklist intended to punish contractors found guilty of wrongdoing. Blacklisting was launched five years ago on a promise that contractors would be “accountable for their misconduct”.

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. must be blacklisted as a federal contractor after pleading guilty to fraud, says an MP. The engineering firm received more than $19 million in federal contracts in the past year as it awaited trial: "We look like a banana republic."

Shares in SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. yesterday jumped fourteen percent following opposition parties' election defeat Monday. Critics had sought an independent investigation of Lavalin influence in the Prime Minister’s Office to avert a pending trial on fraud and bribery charges: "Canadians deserve to know the truth."

The Commons justice committee will vote today on whether to quash or call testimony from a second official to resign over allegations of political interference in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. The Prime Minister’s principal secretary Gerald Butts abruptly resigned yesterday, six days after ex-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould quit cabinet: "Life is full of uncertainties."

The Commons justice committee yesterday voted 5 to 4 against summoning ex-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to testify on alleged political interference in the Department of Justice. Liberal MPs agreed to investigate allegations, but set no hearing schedule or deadline to report to Parliament: "This is really a joke."

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is suing federal prosecutors to save the company from a costly corruption trial. Conviction on charges unproven to date could see the nation’s largest engineering firm blacklisted from public works for 10 years. "They’re going to have to figure it out for themselves," said Public Works Minister Carla Qualtrough.

Federal officials went to unusual lengths to keep the country’s largest engineering firm off a government ethics blacklist, according to Access To Information records. Treatment of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. included a “Dear Bob” letter to the company’s CEO, and assurances the company had “learned its lessons” after facing RCMP corruption charges: 'It's cleaning up the way it does business'.

SNC-Lavalin Group pandemic field hospitals delivered by rush order two years ago under a $150 million contract remain warehoused at a secret location, records show. The Department of Public Works has estimated storage of the little-used units is costing taxpayers an additional $135 million: "The exact location of the warehouse cannot be shared."

Cabinet yesterday denied the RCMP is investigating the Prime Minister's Office over attempts to quash a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin Group Incorporated. Police in a letter to the advocacy group Democracy Watch said an investigation was ongoing: 'They were hounding me and my staff.'

Internal records identify a Department of Public Works manager, Shawn Gardner, as the contact man for SNC-Lavalin lobbyists who won a $150 million contract for pandemic supplies nobody asked for. Documents show Gardner contacted SNC-Lavalin within days of the pandemic’s outbreak: "The actual contract was signed by Shawn."

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos yesterday could not explain a $150 million Covid contract from his own department to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. The sole-sourced deal  was finalized almost two years ago for “urgently” needed mobile hospitals that were never used: "We're not getting a lot of clarity here."

The Department of Public Works yesterday faced demands for a full accounting of emergency field hospital equipment contracted through SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. One MP questioned the whereabouts of 200 hospital beds complete with ventilators and self-contained generators bought as back-up for overcrowded intensive care units: "We want to know where that money went and what it actually did."

Booksellers yesterday rated Jody Wilson-Raybould’s SNC-Lavalin exposé the bestselling Canadian political memoir of the entire year after two months on the market. The former attorney general wrote that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had to “come clean” on dealings with the Québec engineering company: "Deny, delay and distract."