In attendance at both events were Bill Morneau, Gerald Butts, Katie Telford, and Mathieu Bouchard — all key players in the recent SNC-Lavalin controversy
OTTAWA — A lobbyist for SNC-Lavalin and former Liberal adviser attended two exclusive donor events hosted by the party at the same time the Quebec engineering giant was lobbying Ottawa for a negotiated settlement to avoid a criminal trial, despite certain steps the Liberal Party has taken to end the controversial practice of cash-for-access fundraising.
Hartley, a former top aide to prime minister Jean Chrétien who now works for lobbying firm Prospectus, said he did not discuss SNC-Lavalin at the events, and said he attended as a Liberal Party member. He is registered to lobby on behalf of SNC-Lavalin, but is not listed in the public lobbying registry as having conducted any official meetings with the government on behalf of the company.
“For two years now, the Liberal Party has been the first and only party to move forward with the strongest standards in federal politics for open and transparent political fundraising events,” Liberal Party spokesperson Braeden Caley told the Post in an email. “No other party has yet adopted the same level of transparency.”
That decision set in motion a chain of events that led to the February resignation from cabinet of former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, who has claimed that Trudeau and officials in his office inappropriately pressured her for months to overrule the public prosecutor and negotiate an agreement with the engineering firm.
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