Political Science Report: Detailed Analysis of SNC-Lavalin Scandal

This report provides a detailed analysis of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, a controversial political affair in Canada involving alleged political interference by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The report examines the circumstances surrounding the scandal, including the attempted intervention in a criminal case against SNC-Lavalin, a construction giant, and the subsequent resignations and investigations. It explores the bribery charges against SNC-Lavalin related to activities in Libya, the findings of the Justice Committee hearings, and the ethical violations identified by the Ethics Commissioner. The report further discusses the impact of the scandal on SNC-Lavalin's financial position and reputation, as well as the potential benefits for its competitors. The analysis covers the political and business environment, highlighting the implications of the scandal and its lasting effects on Canadian politics and the company's future. The report concludes by summarizing the key aspects of the scandal and its ramifications.

Running head: ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS
Business Environment Analysis
8/19/2019

ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
SNC Lavanlin Scandal...........................................................................................................2
SNC-Lavalin bribery charges.............................................................................................3
Conclusion of the hearing of Justice Committee...............................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 2
Introduction
The intent of this report is to present the environment analysis on the topic SNC
Lavanlin Scandal. The report is providing detailed description of the scandal, including
reasons of the scandal, outcomes of the scandal, implications, along with future possibilities
due to scandal. In addition to this, the report is also presenting a little portion of reflection.
SNC Lavanlin Scandal
The SNC-Lavalin Scandal is said to be the most ontroversial political affairs in
Canada comprising apparent political intrusion with the system of justice by the Justin
Trudeau the Canada’s Prime Minister. The Canada’s Ethics Commissioner identified that
Trudeau indecorously exerted influence on the Justice Minister and Jody Wilson-Raybould
the Attorney General to intrude in the continuing criminal case against one of the
construction giant based in Quebec that is SNC-Lavalin though she was not atoll focussed to
interfere and no real political intrusion taken place. The government of Trudeau upheld that
no excessive pressure was exerted and no law broken, that providing SNC-Lavalin DPA that
is deferred prosecution agreement can save the jobs and that the dispute caused from
confusion and a corrosion of trust (Global News, 2019).
This affair spread in the public the time an article was published by the Globe and
Mail on 7th February in the year 2019, soon after Wilson-Raybould trundled to different
position in the cabinet. Wilson-Raybould along with other parliament member resigned from
the cabinet. The Trudeau’s Principal Secretary Gerald Butts, later resigned. Not just this, the
Privacy Council Clerk that is Michael Wernick, took the early retirement from his post. Even
the opposition Andrew Scheer demanded for the resignation from Trudeau (Westwood,
2019). The Opposition party member requested the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for

ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 3
investigating for identifying whether the action of Trudeau will be considered as the justice
obstruction. According to the analysis of Wernick, Butts, and Wilson-Raybould argued at the
hearing of the Justice Committee that there was a break of prosecutorial independence
whereas the government members stressed her to provide DPA to SNC-Lavalin in place of
continuing by suiting a criminal case. Wilson-Raybould highlighted that secretly she has
managed to take the recording of the conversation with Wernick. Due to the revelation,
Philpott and Wilson-Raybould were disqualified from the Liberal assembly. After the
investigation conducted for five months, the Commissioner of Ethics presented a report that
determined that Trudeau the PM of Canada had broken the federal conflict of interest act
under Section 9 by incorrectly compelling Wilson-Raybould. Under the act, the destruction of
the law brings no sanctions. After the report of the commissioner, it was revealed that PM of
the country took the complete responsibility for the mistakes (Gollom, 2019).
SNC-Lavalin bribery charges
The Board of Directors of SNC-Lavalin came under the knowledge of financial
misdeeds related to the activities of the company in the Libya by 2009. The board of the
company argued and raised the issue related to the trip’s cost that Saadi Gadhafi took for the
Canada in the year 2008, with the total of around $1.9 million for which SNC-Lavalin
compensated (The Conversation, 2019). The directors issued a serious warning against
Stéphane Roy who is the financial controller of the company for the Ghadhafi bill size. In
addition to this, the Board of the company raised issue related to the cash maintained by
Libyan office of SNC of around $10 million. In the month of May of 2009, the company’s
board released a rule that cash of more than $1 million cannot be maintained in the safe in
Libya. In the year 2015, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raised case against SNC-
Lavalin Group Inc. along with its subsidiaries that are SNC-Lavalin Construction Inc. and
SNC-Lavalin International Inc. All the subsidiaries of the group was charged under the

ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 4
section 380 of Criminal Code, and also under Section 3(1)(b) of the Corruption. The charges
claim that between the year 2001 and 2011, CA$48 million was paid by SNC-Lavalin as the
bribe to the government officials of Muammar Gaddafi. They also claim that the organization
deceived Libyan organizations. Besides this, SNC-Lavalin proclaimed that company is
planning to enter a non-guilty petition (Praet, 2019).
Conclusion of the hearing of Justice Committee
In the final hearing of the scandal, in the month of March of 2019, the Justice
Committee that was conducted where the Liberal members accepted a gesture for concluding
and providing an end to the further investigation in relation to the SNC-Lavalin scandal,
representing that they favoured to leave the residual inquiry to the commissioner of ethics
(Bremang, 2019). In the written letter, the Liberal members highlighted that there was no
witness presented as the evidence during thee period concealed by the waiver, and decided
that people of Canada can judge for themselves the perspectives, the legal principles and the
facts. In all, the Committee of Justice conducted around 11 meetings in five weeks, accruing
13 hours of verification from 10 diverse witnesses (Zimonjic, 2019).
Recently, the SNC Lavanlin Scandal again came under the news in relation to the
health of the company and due to some possible economic consequences that the company
could experience in the coming future. SNC Lavanlin Group’s stock price as well as
reputation is the major concern that has experienced its own financial afflictions conflated
with its part in the political level scandal that endures to impact the Prime Minister of the
country (Reynolds, 2019).
As per my opinion the Canada’s Prime Minister was the part of this Scandal due to
which the affair became a huge controversy in the public. On the other side, as per the
analysis presented by me, the scandal has majorly impacted the financial position of the

ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 5
company and it will in the future also impact the performance. Further, I would like to raise
the concern that due to the scandal the competitor like Aecon Group Inc. of the company has
gained profit.
Conclusion
The above paper has presented the discussion related to the topic SNC Lavanlin
Scandal in which the Prime Minister of Canada interfered in one of the criminal case by
influencing the Justice Minister to intervene. According the detailed analysis of the case and
the hearing, it has been identified that the Prime Minister was involved in the case and also
took responsibility for the mistake.

ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 6
References
Bremang, K.N. (2019). The SNC-Lavalin Scandal, Explained. Retrieved from
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2019/02/224927/what-is-the-snc-lavalin-scandal-
justin-trudeau
Global News. (2019). SNC Lavalin Scandal. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/tag/snc-
lavalin-scandal/
Gollom, M. (2019). What you need to know about the SNC-Lavalin affair. Retrieved from
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-wilson-raybould-attorney-general-snc-
lavalin-1.5014271
Praet, N.V. (2019). Fraud, bribery charges against former SNC-Lavalin executive Stephane
Roy thrown out. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-
fraud-bribery-charges-against-former-snc-lavalin-executive-stephane-2/
Reynolds, C. (2019). SNC-Lavalin faces questions about future after release of ethics report.
Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/5766691/snc-lavalin-questions-ethics-
report/
The Conversation. (2019). SNC-Lavalin: Canada’s anti-foreign bribery laws did their job.
Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/snc-lavalin-canadas-anti-foreign-bribery-
laws-did-their-job-112758
Westwood, R. (2019). What You Need To Know About SNC-Lavalin And Jody Wilson-
Raybould. Retrieved from https://www.chatelaine.com/news/snc-lavalin-scandal/

ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 7
Zimonjic, P. (2019). Liberals on justice committee say it's time to end SNC-Lavalin probe.
Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jody-wilson-raybould-committee-
close-inquiry-1.5061858