The Latest: Canada's ex-AG removed from Liberal party caucus
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The Latest on Canada's ex-attorney general (all times local):
5:55 p.m.
Canada's former attorney general says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told her she's been removed from the Liberal party caucus amid a scandal that has rocked Trudeau's government in an election year.
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Jody Wilson-Raybould tweeted Tuesday that Trudeau removed her and will not be a Liberal candidate in the fall election.
Truderau and Liberal lawmakers were meeting Tuesday evening to discuss Wilson-Raybould after she publicized a secretly recorded conversation she had with Michael Wernick, Canada's top civil servant.
Wilson-Raybould believes she was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister to minister of veterans' affairs because she didn't give in to pressure to enter into a remediation agreement with a Canadian company so that it would avoid a potentially crippling criminal prosecution.
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The scandal has led to multiple resignations and damaged the party for eight weeks.
In a letter, Wilson-Raybould acknowledged her colleagues are enraged but said she was "trying to help protect the Prime Minister and the government from a horrible mess."
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4 p.m.
Canada's former attorney general pleaded with her colleagues Tuesday to let her remain in the Liberal party caucus amid a scandal that has rocked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government in an election year.
Liberal lawmakers are expected to vote as soon as Tuesday evening to oust Jody Wilson-Raybould after she publicized a secretly recorded conversation she had with Michael Wernick, Canada's top civil servant.
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Trudeau is meeting with Liberal lawmakers and will make remarks to the media after.
Wilson-Raybould believes she was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister to minister of veterans' affairs because she didn't give in to pressure to enter into a remediation agreement with a Canadian company so that it would avoid a potentially crippling criminal prosecution.
The scandal has led to multiple resignations and damaged the party for eight weeks.
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In a letter, Wilson-Raybould acknowledged her colleagues are enraged but said she was "trying to help protect the Prime Minister and the government from a horrible mess."
"Now I know many of you are angry, hurt, and frustrated. And frankly so am I, and I can only speak for myself. I am angry, hurt, and frustrated because I feel and believe I was upholding the values that we all committed to," Wilson-Raybould wrote to colleagues.
"Ultimately the choice that is before you is about what kind of party you want to be a part of, what values it will uphold, the vision that animates it, and indeed the type of people it will attract and make it up."
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Trudeau has been on the defensive since the Globe and Mail newspaper reported Feb. 7 via sources that Trudeau's staff put pressure on Wilson-Raybould. She denied she was the source of the story, writing "I am not the one who tried to interfere in sensitive proceedings, I am not the one who made it public, and I am not the one who publicly denied what happened."
The secret recording Wilson-Raybould made public shows Wernick telling Wilson-Raybould that Trudeau "is determined, quite firm" in finding a way to avoid a prosecution that could put 9,000 jobs at risk.
It also reveals Wilson-Raybould saying she regards the pressure as "inappropriate."
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Wilson-Raybould has refused to express support for Trudeau, a demand many Liberal lawmakers say is necessary if she is to remain in Parliament as part of the party caucus.
Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said he expected Wilson-Raybould to be expelled.
"Her letter, I believe, sets the stage for her run at the Liberal leadership if the Liberals lose in October and Justin Trudeau steps down," Wiseman said.
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"She is a victim of the parliamentary system which in Canada imposes sturdier party discipline than in any of the other Westminster parliamentary systems. The letter reveals her naiveté, as a rookie Member of Parliament, about how the system works."
The Liberal caucus could also vote to remove Jane Philpott, a former Cabinet minister who stepped from her role after she said she lost confidence in how the government has handled the affair.