Trudeau takes `full responsibility` after ethics commissioner says he broke rules on SNC-Lavalin
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he takes “full responsibility� but disagreed with key findings of a damning report that concluded he broke federal ethics law in pressuring then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the criminal case against SNC-Lavalin.Trudeau told reporters “I recognize this is a situation that shouldn’t have happened� but he defended his actions in speaking to the former attorney general, saying that his job is “to stand up for Canadians and defend their interest.�The prime minister turned aside calls to step down or fire anyone in his office. “The buck stops with the prime minister and I assume full responsibility for everything in my office.� He said “Canadians will get to make a choice� in the coming election on how his government has handled itself.Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion ruled Trudeau’s actions — directly and through his senior staff — violated a section of Conflict of Interest Act that prevents the prime minister from using his position to influence a decision in a way that would improperly advance “another person’s private interests,� in this case, SNC-Lavalin. In a blow-by-blow account, Dion dismantled explanations offered by Trudeau, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and their senior staff, saying while they did not expressly “direct� Wilson-Raybould to go easy on SNC-Lavalin and negotiate an out-of-court settlement of criminal charges, their actions “were tantamount to political direction.�The timing of the ruling — barely a month before the start of the federal election campaign — could hardly be worse for the Liberals who had been hoping that the SNC-Lavalin controversy had finally died down after dominating the news cycle at the start of the year.Instead, the conclusions of the ethics commissioner put the Liberal government under an ethics cloud once again, pro ...