SNC-Lavalin is an international company employing 50,000 people. They are based in Quebec.
A man walks past the headquarters of SNC Lavalin in Montreal on November 6, 2014. For more than a century, SNC-Lavalin has been viewed with pride in Quebec as it grew from a small firm specializing in hydraulics into a global engineering and construction giant.Founded in 1911, it gained a reputation for building a large dam in Quebec that spearheaded the province's development of hydroelectricity and developing the skillsets for thousands of Quebec workers.
The new provincial government appears ready to assist SNC-Lavalin from any takeover attempt by reportedly putting it on a list of 10 “strategically important” companies.
Toronto — For more than a century, (click here) SNC-Lavalin has been viewed with pride in Quebec as it grew from a small firm specializing in hydraulics into a global engineering and construction giant.
Founded in 1911, it gained a reputation for building a large dam in Quebec that spearheaded the province’s development of hydroelectricity and developing the skill sets for thousands of Quebec workers.
Today the company has 50,000 employees around the world, after adding 18,000 with the acquisition of WS Atkins in 2017. However, its head count in Canada has fallen to 9,000 — including 3,400 in Quebec — from 20,000 in 2013.
For that, the Montreal-based company is seen as a provincial crown jewel that needs to be protected despite having its reputation tarnished in 2012 over bribery allegations that led to convictions of several senior executives, says an industry observer.
The province is acutely sensitive about losing another corporate headquarters — and associated jobs in law, accounting and consulting — following the exodus of many in the 1970s and later the sale of aluminum producer Alcan to Rio Tinto and Rona to U.S. rival Lowe’s, said Karl Moore, a professor at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management.
“There’s a sense that we don’t want to lose any more corporate headquarters,” he said in an interview.
The new provincial government appears ready to assist SNC-Lavalin from any takeover attempt by reportedly putting it on a list of 10 “strategically important” companies....
...And so, the reported political pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould — denied by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — to help SNC-Lavalin avoid a criminal prosecution is viewed differently in Quebec, said Moore....
I am not quite sure why the cabinet is leaving, but, I do know that PM Trudeau pledged to have a better relationship with the native people. AG Jody Wilson-Raybould is a native person, so in putting her in the AG office was a major coup for all native people.
She was looking at this company to prosecute those involved with a bribery scandal some time ago in Libya when Gadhafi was still in power. She probably is correct in looking to corruption carried out internationally, however, the legislature did not believe it should be the destruction of the company.
I am going to precede this article by saying the world knows the habits of Gadaffi and his family, especially when it comes to women and the "forever party" they believed they were entitled to. In that lies a guarantee for corruption.
AG Jody Wilson-Raybould found the Canadian involvement with these elements objectionable and rightfully so, but, the legislature took a pragmatic view rather than an idealistic one. PM Trudeau is caught between an AG Native Canadian attempting to live up to the dignity of women and corruption standards she rightfully adheres to and a legislature protecting the jobs of Canadians. To hold PM Trudeau responsible for legislation that was to protect Canadians and their futures is more political than rational. This is not his war.
I wish AG Jody Wilson-Raybould had set her initiative on the shelf while continuing to build a case for the antics of the Gadaffi family and the brevity of their role in this unfortunate case of SNC Lavalin. She can still produce a good effect if she will continue her investigation and at this point publish a book about the wayward enterprises engaged with Gadhaffi. It is import for the world to understand the ruthlessness of that regime and ways to prevent such problems in the future. AG Jody Wilson-Raybould still has a remarkable opportunity before her even as a private citizen.
March 3, 2019
By Scott Taylor
...As a result of the increased scrutiny, (click here) we are now aware of many of the more sordid details of the alleged bribery at the centre of this burgeoning scandal. According to media reports, back in 2008, Saadi Gadhafi, the third son of the late Libyan president, came to Canada as a guest of SNC-Lavalin. The Quebec based engineering corporation was seeking to curry favour with Gadhafi the younger in order to land lucrative construction contracts in Libya worth millions of dollars.
Hired to protect Saadi during his stay was GardaWorld, but the services actually provided went far beyond close-in protection. It is alleged that Garda submitted bills to SNC-Lavalin totaling about $30,000 for debauchery ranging from high-class escorts to tickets for a Spice Girls concert....
Prime Minister Trudeau needs to reflect on the values he brought to the Canadian people, the exercising of his promises and ultimately the reason the AG left in the face of obvious wrong doing of SNC-Lavalin.
He needs to strike a consiliatory tone with the Canadian people and reiterate to carry out his promises to the native people and women. I do believe he is sincere in those views and for his Prime Ministership to be trashed for others less sincere is a poor decision by the Canadian people.
He needs to continue to listen to the concerns over the events in Libya. He can reflect the wishes of the Canadian legislature and the views of Montreal and Quebec in regard to SNC-Lavalin. The actions of the company was wrong to any reasonable morality. But, Libya has been and will continue to be a global concern and the question is how much of the past was actually that of the company by choice or by intimidation of the Gadaffi family.
