The SNC Lavalin saga finally came to an end on December 18, 2019 with the company pleading guilty to a fraud charge and receiving a whopping $280,000,000 fine. The guilty plea brought to a conclusion charges filed against the company by the RCMP and the Public Prosecution of Canada in 2015. Interestingly, the result the company obtained was basically the same as the deferred prosecution agreement would have yielded – the now infamous deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) that the company lobbied so hard to obtain.
However, the finalization of the SNC Lavalin charges does not absolve the Prime Minister or his senior colleagues of responsibility in the matter. RCMP spokespeople promised last September to relaunch their investigation into the Prime Minister’s role in the Wilson-Raybould/SNC Lavalin affair after the October 2019 election. There is no word yet that they have done so.
