There has been considerable questioning of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former principal secretary Gerald Butts’ recent assertion that “thousands” of jobs are at stake if SNC-Lavalin is criminally prosecuted.
I presume that this is based in large part on the fact that, if charged, the company would be banned from bidding on federal government contracts for 10 years. But whether 9,000 jobs are at risk or some small fraction of that, why should any rank and file employee be made to suffer for the crimes of company executives?
I also wonder how the company executives view the whole thing. Between 2001 and 2011, they are alleged to have paid $47 million in bribes to Libyan officials to win contracts there. Would any company stand a chance of winning a contract in Libya unless they resorted to bribery?
Even in Quebec, SNC-Lavalin’s ex-CEO Pierre Duhaime and several others face charges involving a $22-million bribe to secure a hospital construction contract. Corruption in the Quebec construction industry has been standard operating procedure for decades: bribery, price fixing, use of Hells Angels to intimidate other firms, on and on.
It goes way beyond SNC. So, prosecute the executives and the politicians whose pockets they line, but don’t punish the employees.
Phil Redgrave
Cordova Bay
