FILE PHOTO: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a Liberal Climate Action Rally in Toronto, Ontario, Canada March 4, 2019. REUTERS/Mark Blinch
March 7, 2019
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had made mistakes in the handling of a political crisis that could dash his chances of winning re-election in October, but insisted that nothing illegal had happened.
Trudeau’s remarks were made at a news briefing to address allegations by former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould that officials had inappropriately pressured her to help construction firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a criminal trial.
“As we look back over the past weeks, there are many lessons to be learned and many things we would have liked to have done differently,” Trudeau said.
“I can repeat and reassure Canadians that there was no breakdown of our systems, of our rule of law, of the integrity of our institutions,” he said.
The crisis has so far prompted the resignation of two high- profile Liberal cabinet ministers and Trudeau’s closest political aide. On Wednesday, that aide denied he had inappropriately pressured Wilson-Raybould to offer SNC-Lavalin a deal to avoid a criminal trial.
Trudeau echoed those comments on Thursday, saying: “There was never any inappropriate pressure.”
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
