Federal Veterans Affairs Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould announced in a tweet Tuesday morning that she is resigning from cabinet.
In an open letter Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first Indigenous Justice minister and Attorney General, said that she ran for office “with the goal of implementing a positive and progressive vision of change on behalf of all Canadians and a different way of doing politics.
“My resignation as a Minister of the Crown in no way changes my commitment to seeing that fundamental change achieved. This work must and will carry on.”
Whitby MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, meanwhile, has shown clear support for Wilson-Raybould.
The Globe and Mail reported last week that her demotion came after pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office last fall to make a deal with Quebec construction giant SNC-Lavalin that would have helped it avoid a prosecution on charges it bribed the Libyan government.
No deal was reached and the government is resisting a court appeal the company has filed over it.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Winnipeg Tuesday that the government did its job on the SNC-Lavalin file and if anyone in the cabinet thought anything improper had happened, they had a duty to raise it with him at the time.
