Canada's Trudeau shuffles cabinet

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet on Friday and filled the vacancy left by Jody Wilson-Raybould, who resigned as minister of veterans affairs last month over the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

Trudeau announced that he is moving three ministers in the shuffle.

Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay was to become the minister of the veterans affairs and associate minister of national defense. Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau will take over the agriculture post. Maryam Monsef was named the international development minister while retaining her role as minister for women and gender equality.

It is Trudeau's second cabinet shuffle in less than two months.

Wilson-Raybould, former attorney general and justice minister was moved to the veterans affairs post on Jan. 14. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan has been acting minister of veterans affairs since her resignation.

Wilson-Raybould told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that she believed she was shuffled out of the Justice Department because she refused to buckle under the pressure from officials in the prime minister's office and other departments, who wanted her to give the multinational engineering firm SNC-Lavalin a way out of bribery and corruption charges.

The prime minister said that his government "always acted appropriately and professionally" on the SNC-Lavalin file, and he "completely disagreed" with Wilson-Raybould's "characterization of events."

After Wilson-Raybould's testimony, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called for Trudeau to resign as prime minister. Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada's left-of-center New Democratic Party, demanded that a public inquiry be held over the accusations.

An emergency debate was held Thursday night in the House of Commons to address Wilson-Raybould's testimony. Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen, who requested the debate, said the SNC-Lavalin scandal has created a crisis of confidence in the prime minister.

In an open letter to Commissioner Brenda Lucki of Royal Canadian Mounted Police, two former Canadian justice ministers and three former attorney generals of Alberta, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, said "there is reason to believe that pressure and interference did occur" in the SNC-Lavalin case.

According to the country's Criminal Code, "it is prohibited to attempt to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice," they said in the letter, adding that "we believe that there are reasonable and probable grounds to suspect that the conduct of the Prime Minister's Office has crossed that threshold."Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet on Friday and filled the vacancy left by Jody Wilson-Raybould, who resigned as minister of veterans affairs last month over the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

Trudeau announced that he is moving three ministers in the shuffle.

Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay was to become the minister of the veterans affairs and associate minister of national defense. Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau will take over the agriculture post. Maryam Monsef was named the international development minister while retaining her role as minister for women and gender equality.

It is Trudeau's second cabinet shuffle in less than two months.

Wilson-Raybould, former attorney general and justice minister was moved to the veterans affairs post on Jan. 14. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan has been acting minister of veterans affairs since her resignation.

Wilson-Raybould told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that she believed she was shuffled out of the Justice Department because she refused to buckle under the pressure from officials in the prime minister's office and other departments, who wanted her to give the multinational engineering firm SNC-Lavalin a way out of bribery and corruption charges.

The prime minister said that his government "always acted appropriately and professionally" on the SNC-Lavalin file, and he "completely disagreed" with Wilson-Raybould's "characterization of events."

After Wilson-Raybould's testimony, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called for Trudeau to resign as prime minister. Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada's left-of-center New Democratic Party, demanded that a public inquiry be held over the accusations.

An emergency debate was held Thursday night in the House of Commons to address Wilson-Raybould's testimony. Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen, who requested the debate, said the SNC-Lavalin scandal has created a crisis of confidence in the prime minister.

In an open letter to Commissioner Brenda Lucki of Royal Canadian Mounted Police, two former Canadian justice ministers and three former attorney generals of Alberta, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, said "there is reason to believe that pressure and interference did occur" in the SNC-Lavalin case.

According to the country's Criminal Code, "it is prohibited to attempt to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice," they said in the letter, adding that "we believe that there are reasonable and probable grounds to suspect that the conduct of the Prime Minister's Office has crossed that threshold."Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet on Friday and filled the vacancy left by Jody Wilson-Raybould, who resigned as minister of veterans affairs last month over the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

Trudeau announced that he is moving three ministers in the shuffle.

Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay was to become the minister of the veterans affairs and associate minister of national defense. Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau will take over the agriculture post. Maryam Monsef was named the international development minister while retaining her role as minister for women and gender equality.

It is Trudeau's second cabinet shuffle in less than two months.

Wilson-Raybould, former attorney general and justice minister was moved to the veterans affairs post on Jan. 14. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan has been acting minister of veterans affairs since her resignation.

Wilson-Raybould told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that she believed she was shuffled out of the Justice Department because she refused to buckle under the pressure from officials in the prime minister's office and other departments, who wanted her to give the multinational engineering firm SNC-Lavalin a way out of bribery and corruption charges.

The prime minister said that his government "always acted appropriately and professionally" on the SNC-Lavalin file, and he "completely disagreed" with Wilson-Raybould's "characterization of events."

After Wilson-Raybould's testimony, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called for Trudeau to resign as prime minister. Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada's left-of-center New Democratic Party, demanded that a public inquiry be held over the accusations.

An emergency debate was held Thursday night in the House of Commons to address Wilson-Raybould's testimony. Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen, who requested the debate, said the SNC-Lavalin scandal has created a crisis of confidence in the prime minister.

In an open letter to Commissioner Brenda Lucki of Royal Canadian Mounted Police, two former Canadian justice ministers and three former attorney generals of Alberta, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, said "there is reason to believe that pressure and interference did occur" in the SNC-Lavalin case.

According to the country's Criminal Code, "it is prohibited to attempt to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice," they said in the letter, adding that "we believe that there are reasonable and probable grounds to suspect that the conduct of the Prime Minister's Office has crossed that threshold."