Image copyright Reuters Image caption Jody Wilson-Raybould (L) and Health Minister Jane Philpott (R)

Two Canadian politicians who were expelled from the Liberal party over the SNC-Lavalin affair are running again as independents.

Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott have both announced their intention to seek re-election later this year.

The two former cabinet ministers had cried foul over how the Trudeau government was handling the prosecution of the Quebec firm.

The next Canadian general election is scheduled for this October.

"I am confident running as an independent is the best way to transform our political culture," Ms Wilson-Raybould told reporters in Vancouver on Monday.

In a separate announcement in a Toronto suburb, Ms Philpott also announced her intention to run again without any party affiliation.

Ms Philpott and Ms Wilson-Raybould both said that Canadians need to elect more politicians empowered to represent their constituents in the House of Commons.

Earlier this year, Ms Wilson-Raybould resigned from her cabinet post and accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his inner circle of attempting to meddle in a criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin.

Not long after, Ms Philpott - one of Mr Trudeau's top ministers - quit, saying she has lost confidence in the government's handling of the affair.

What is the background?

Both former ministers were central actors in a political controversy that dogged Mr Trudeau for weeks and hammered at his popularity.

The affair began in early February, when the Globe and Mail newspaper reported allegations of political interference in the case against SNC-Lavalin.

The newspaper reported that Mr Trudeau's office had pressured Ms Wilson-Raybould - at the time serving as federal justice minister and attorney general - to push the public prosecution service to consider a deferred prosecution agreement for the firm.

An attorney general is supposed to act independently with respect of his or her prosecutorial function.

On 12 February, Ms Wilson-Raybould resigned suddenly from cabinet.

She later testified before a parliamentary committee that, as attorney general, she and her staff had faced four months of a "sustained" and "inappropriate effort" to push for a possible agreement for SNC-Lavalin.

The agreement - similar to regimes in the US and the UK - essentially suspends prosecution while allowing a firm to agree instead to alternative terms or conditions.

Ms Philpott resigned shortly after.

In April, Mr Trudeau expelled both women from the Liberal party caucus, saying that trust had been broken between the two and other Liberal MPs.

SNC-Lavalin is one of the world's largest engineering and construction companies.

The company and two of its subsidiaries face fraud and corruption charges in relation to approximately C$48m ($36m; £28m) in bribes it is alleged to have offered to Libyan officials between 2001 and 2011.

It has openly lobbied to be allowed to enter into a remediation agreement instead of going to trial, saying it has cleaned house and changed its ways. </s> Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott will both be running as independents in the federal election this October.

Both made the announcement in their home ridings on Monday afternoon, Wilson Raybould in Vancouver Granville and Philpott in Markham-Stoufville

Wilson-Raybould said she was inspired to run as an independent by the people who supported her, and voters who told her she inspired them to speak truth.

The former Liberal cabinet ministers, both of whom resigned over the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

Wilson-Raybould served as justice minister in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet before she was shuffled to the portfolio of veterans affairs in January.

She later revealed she thought the decision to move her out of the justice role was motivated by her handling of a request to intervene in the criminal prosecution of the Quebec engineering giant, SNC-Lavalin.

Philpott, a former health minister, Indigenous-services minister and president of the Treasury Board, resigned from cabinet in early March over Trudeau’s handling of the affair.

In early April, both were ousted from the Liberal caucus. </s> OTTAWA — Former Liberal cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott say they will run as independents in the next federal election.

They made separate but co-ordinated announcements in their ridings — Wilson-Raybould in Vancouver and Philpott outside Toronto.

Wilson-Raybould served as justice minister in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet before she was shuffled to the portfolio of veterans affairs in January.

She later revealed she thought the decision to move her out of the justice role was motivated by her decision not to intervene in the criminal prosecution of the Quebec engineering giant, SNC-Lavalin.

Philpott was health minister and then minister of Indigenous services and president of the Treasury Board before resigning over Trudeau’s handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Both were ousted from the Liberal caucus in early April and sit as independent MPs in the House of Commons.

Wilson Raybould told supporters in Vancouver today that she has heard an “overwhelming” message on the need to do politics differently, adding she believes running under no political banner is the best way for her to achieve that.

“I know that it will not be easy to run a campaign as an independent,” she said.

“There will be challenges, but with your support, I am confident that running as an indepedent is the best way to … go about it at this time and the best way to transform our political culture.”
• Jody Wilson-Raybould’s last act as justice minister described as ‘inconsistent with democratic values’
• House speaker rules that Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould’s privileges were not breached in caucus ouster </s> MARKHAM, Ont. — Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott are set to reveal their next moves today.

The former Liberal cabinet ministers, both of whom resigned over the SNC-Lavalin controversy, have scheduled announcements in their respective ridings.

Wilson-Raybould is the independent MP for the B.C. riding of Vancouver Granville and Philpott is the independent MP for the Ontario riding of Markham-Stouffville.

Neither has said what they have in mind, other than that constituents have been invited to meet with them as they share announcements about their political futures.
• Jody Wilson-Raybould’s last act as justice minister described as ‘inconsistent with democratic values’
• House speaker rules that Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould’s privileges were not breached in caucus ouster

Wilson-Raybould served as justice minister in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet before she was shuffled to the portfolio of veterans affairs in January.

She later revealed she thought the decision to move her out of the justice role was motivated by her handling of a request to intervene in the criminal prosecution of the Quebec engineering giant, SNC-Lavalin.

Philpott, a former health minister, Indigenous-services minister and president of the Treasury Board, resigned from cabinet in early March over Trudeau’s handling of the affair.

In early April, both were ousted from the Liberal caucus. </s> OTTAWA -- Former Liberal cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott say they will run as independents in the next federal election.

They made separate but co-ordinated announcements in their ridings -- Wilson-Raybould in Vancouver and Philpott outside Toronto.

Both were ousted from the Liberal caucus in early April and sit as independent MPs in the House of Commons.

Wilson Raybould told supporters she has heard an "overwhelming" message on the need to do politics differently, adding she believes running under no political banner is the best way for her to achieve that.

"I know that it will not be easy to run a campaign as an independent," she said.

"There will be challenges, but with your support, I am confident that running as an independent is the best way to ... go about it at this time and the best way to transform our political culture."

Wilson-Raybould served as justice minister in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet before she was shuffled to the portfolio of veterans affairs in January.

She later revealed she thought the decision to move her out of the justice role was motivated by her decision not to intervene in the criminal prosecution of the Quebec engineering giant, SNC-Lavalin.

Philpott was health minister and then minister of Indigenous services and president of the Treasury Board before resigning over Trudeau's handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

"I didn't lose my voice," said Philpott of sitting as an independent. "I found my voice."

Both she and Wilson-Raybould spoke highly of the Green party and its leader Elizabeth May, and acknowledged having repeated conversations about running for that party, but decided that Canadian politics needs more people beholden to no central authority. </s> Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott are running as independent candidates in this fall's federal election.

They made separate but co-ordinated announcements in their ridings — Wilson-Raybould in Vancouver and Philpott outside Toronto.

Wilson-Raybould, who resigned over the SNC-Lavalin controversy, says she is committed to the betterment of Vancouver and the country.

"The message is clear," she said. "There is too much power in the centre."

"I know that it will not be easy to run a campaign as an independent. There will be challenges," said Wilson-Raybould. "It's the best way to transform the political culture."

Wilson-Raybould said she received 15,000 emails, letters, cards messages of encouragement.

She and Philpott, both of whom were removed from the Liberal caucus in the wake of the controversy, had scheduled announcements Monday about their political futures in their respective ridings.

Wilson-Raybould, the former attorney general, is now an independent MP for the B.C. riding of Vancouver-Granville. She's been at the heart of the SNC-Lavalin affair, alleging she was subjected late last year to sustained "inappropriate" political pressure by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his officials to coax her to intervene in the criminal prosecution of the Quebec engineering giant.

"We sometimes hear that politics is a team sport, that politics is also a bloodsport. Well I do believe in the importance of a strong team, but I'm not sure there has to be any blood involved," Wilson-Raybould said.

She was shuffled to the portfolio of veterans affairs in January and later revealed she thought the decision to move her out of the justice role was motivated by her handling of a request to intervene in the case. </s> Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott will put the questions to rest and announce their next steps on Monday morning.

Simultaneous press conferences are scheduled for around noon eastern time in which both former cabinet ministers will unveil their plans for what comes next. That comes after their ejections from the Liberal caucus in April for raising concerns about the allegations of attempted political interference at the heart of the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

Both have sat as Independent MPs ever since.

READ MORE: Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott kicked out of Liberal Party caucus

Wilson-Raybould, who as the former attorney general, named both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and 10 of his senior advisers in the scandal, resigned from cabinet in February after the allegations were first reported by the Globe and Mail.

Philpott followed suit and quit her post as president of the Treasury Board, saying the government wasn’t taking the allegations seriously enough.

WATCH BELOW: Philpott says SNC-Lavalin critics don’t realize Canadians expect more

In his decision to eject them both from the caucus, Trudeau also revoked both of their candidacies to run for the Liberal Party again this fall.

There has been speculation as to whether either will join another political party, run as independents, or leave political life altogether.

Wilson-Raybould, in particular, has been the subject of questions over whether she will run for the Greens.

She was spotted attending Green Party Leader Elizabeth May’s wedding this spring and retweeted a Green Party Twitter post congratulating Paul Manly, their newest MP, for his win in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith byelection earlier in May.

— More to come … </s> Treasury Board President Jane Philpott has resigned from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s cabinet over his handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

The Liberal MP for Markham-Stouffville was named to the post of president of the Treasury Board in January 2019 during the same shuffle that removed Jody Wilson-Raybould from the post of attorney general. Her decision marks a stunning blow to the government as it is fighting to pivot from the controversy to promoting its carbon tax promises while the House of Commons is on a two-week break.

READ MORE: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony — read the full transcript of her opening remarks

“I have been considering the events that have shaken the federal government in recent weeks and, after serious reflection, I have concluded that I must resign as a member of cabinet,” she wrote in a letter posted on Twitter moments ago.

Her announcement comes after Philpott faced questions over Trudeau’s handling of the affair on Monday morning and refused to comment.

Philpott said that while she was proud of her own record, the evidence backing allegations of attempted political interference laid out by Wilson-Raybould in her testimony before the House of Commons justice committee last week was too great to ignore.

“The evidence of efforts by politicians and/or officials to pressure the former attorney general to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin and the evidence as to the content of those efforts have raised serious concerns for me,” she wrote. “Those concerns have been augmented by the views expressed by my constituents and other Canadians.”

She continued, adding that the “solemn principles” of judicial independence were at stake in the matter.

“Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government had dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised,” Philpott wrote.

Philpott’s stunning resignation comes just shy of one month after the Globe and Mail first reported that officials within the Prime Minister’s Office had pressured Wilson-Raybould last fall to intervene in the decision of the director of public prosecutions not to offer a remediation agreement to SNC-Lavalin.

It also comes just two days before Trudeau’s former right-hand man, Gerald Butts, is set to testify before the justice committee on the matter.

READ MORE: COMMENTARY — On SNC Lavalin affair, the Liberals have thrown away their credibility

Wilson-Raybould responded to Philpott’s resignation on Twitter, sharing a photo of herself and Philpott outside of the House of Commons, calling her a “leader of vision and strength.”

Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, who has been a vocal supporter of Wilson-Raybould since the allegations emerged, also tweeted her support for Philpott’s decision; Caesar-Chavannes announced over the weekend that she will not seek re-election.

Her tweet appeared to reference a frequent refrain by Trudeau when talking about the need to recruit more women to political life: “Add women, change politics.”

“When you add women, please do not expect the status quo,” Caesar-Chavannes wrote. “Expect us to make correct decisions, stand up for what is right and exit when values are compromised. Thank you @janephilpott for articulating this beautifully.”

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said other Liberal cabinet ministers need to look at her resignation and ask themselves tough questions.

“It’s time for every Liberal cabinet minister to ask themselves he same question Jane Philpott did: is this what you got into politics for?” he said in a press conference Monday following the news.

“If not, it’s time for them to stand up and be heard.”

SNC-Lavalin is facing charges of corruption and fraud for allegedly bribing Libyan officials for over a decade.

If convicted, the company faces a 10-year ban on bidding for lucrative federal contracts and has threatened to move its headquarters out of Montreal.

Trudeau initially called the report by the Globe and Mail “false” but has changed his remarks on the matter multiple times in the month since.

READ MORE: What Justin Trudeau has said about the SNC-Lavalin controversy

He has since shifted from denying the report itself to asserting that the government was focused on protecting Canadian jobs and has done that in a way that “respects our institutions.”

Following Wilson-Raybould’s testimony, Trudeau told reporters that while he had not seen the former attorney general’s full remarks, “I completely disagree” with her descriptions of what happened. Trudeau also characterized allegations of political interference as “disagreements in perspective.”

However, her testimony at the justice committee lobbed a political grenade into the heart of the government’s brand that has yet to settle.

READ MORE: Here’s how Wilson-Raybould’s version of the SNC-Lavalin affair differs from Trudeau, Wernick

In her remarks, Wilson-Raybould outlined a “consistent and sustained effort” by 11 individuals, including the prime minister, to pressure her into cutting SNC-Lavalin a deal.

Over the course of four hours, she also described “veiled threats” made by the clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, who had previously told the committee he pressured her to consider the potential loss of jobs if SNC-Lavalin moved out of Canada but denied that there was anything inappropriate.

WATCH: Wilson-Raybould says Wernick told her Trudeau would get a DPA ‘one way or another’

Wilson-Raybould painted a different description of the meeting, saying Wernick told her that the prime minister was in a “mood.”

“I think he is going to find a way to get it done, one way or another,” she said Wernick told her of Trudeau’s mindset after she had repeatedly made it clear that her mind was made up against offering to cut a deal with the firm.

READ MORE: The key players named in Wilson-Raybould’s bombshell testimony on SNC-Lavalin affair

That meeting on Dec. 19 was the last discussion Wilson-Raybould had on the matter before she was informed on Jan. 7, 2019 that she was being removed from her job.

The news came on the heels of what she described as months of pressure following the decision of the director of public prosecutions in early September 2018 to pursue criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin and not to use a newly created legal tool, introduced just months earlier by the Liberals following extensive lobbying on “justice and law enforcement” issues by the firm.

WATCH: Wilson-Raybould reads transcript of remarkable conversation with her chief of staff

By Sept. 17, 2018, Wilson-Raybould said she told Trudeau and Wernick that her mind was made up in a meeting on reconciliation in which Trudeau immediately raised the issue.

Wernick, she said, raised the issue of the Quebec election, which was at that time less than a month away.

Trudeau also raised his status as a member of Parliament for Papineau, a Montreal-area riding.

“I asked, ‘Are you politically interfering with my role, my decision?’” Wilson-Raybould told the committee she said to Trudeau at that time.

Between then and Dec. 19, Wilson-Raybould described an unyielding campaign of pressure targeting her from officials within the PMO.

READ MORE: ANALYSIS — The Trudeau brand takes a hit after Jody Wilson-Raybould testimony

Those included repeated requests to reconsider the matter and the upcoming federal election from two senior advisers to Trudeau, Elder Marques and Mathieu Bouchard, as well as meetings with now-former principal secretary Gerald Butts.

Wilson-Raybould said she told Butts the pressure needed to stop — but it did not.

Wilson-Raybould read out text exchanges between herself and her chief of staff, Jessica Prince, after Prince was summoned to a meeting with Butts and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff, on Dec. 18, 2018.

She said Prince raised concerns of political interference, to which Butts responded: “Jess, there is no solution here that does not involve some interference.”

Telford was also quoted by Wilson-Raybould as telling Prince that they were “tired of debating legalities” and wanted the matter dealt with.

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion announced an investigation into the matter last month, but his office has, for days, refused to confirm whether that investigation remains ongoing.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer asked the RCMP to investigate last week, citing potential attempts to obstruct justice and “provoke fear” in the attorney general, both criminal offences.

RCMP has so far been mum on whether it will pursue an investigation.

Under the Conflict of Interest Act, the ethics commissioner must halt any investigation underway if a matter before that office becomes the subject of an investigation by the RCMP. </s> Jane Philpott, one of Justin Trudeau's most trusted ministers, announced she has resigned from cabinet as the Liberal government's crisis over the SNC-Lavalin affair deepens. Philpott's resignation from her role as Treasury Board president comes less than a week after the riveting testimony from Jody Wilson-Raybould in front of the parliamentary justice committee.

Jane Philpott, one of Justin Trudeau's most trusted ministers, announced she has resigned from cabinet as the Liberal government's crisis over the SNC-Lavalin affair deepens. Philpott's resignation from her role as Treasury Board president comes less than a week after the riveting testimony from Jody Wilson-Raybould in front of the parliamentary justice committee. 3:42
In separate press conferences, former Liberal cabinet members Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, who both resigned over the government's handling of the SNC-Lavalin criminal case, announce they are running as independents in the October 2019 elections.