Opposition leader says Canadian PM's lawyer threatens him with libel suit over SNC-Lavalin scandal

OTTAWA -- Canada's opposition Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer said on Sunday that a letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's lawyer threatened him with libel suit over SNC-Lavalin scandal.

"I stand by every single criticism I have made of Mr. Trudeau's conduct in regards to this scandal, including those Mr. Trudeau's lawyer cites in his letter," Scheer told a news conference Sunday afternoon.

Scheer received the letter from Trudeau's lawyer Julian Porter on March 31.

The letter took issue with comments in a statement made by Scheer on March 29 in response to new documents tabled in the Justice Committee of House of Commons from former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Scheer's March 29 statement accused the prime minister of political interference, of lying to Canadians and of corrupt conduct.

"The statement contained highly defamatory comments about Prime Minister Trudeau," Porter said in the letter.

Porter said that it is "entirely false" to say Trudeau interfered in the SNC prosecution, which has not been halted, or that he personally directed Wilson-Raybould to "break the law" and "fired" her when she refused.

He said it is also entirely false to suggest Trudeau was aware of Wilson-Raybould's concern that he was politically interfering in the SNC case but lied to Canadians about it.

Scheer challenged Trudeau to follow through on the threat to sue him over his assertion that the prime minister politically interfered with the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

The opposition leader called the threatened lawsuit "a bullying attempt" to prevent his party from holding the government to account.

Trudeau has been under fire for the last two months over allegations that there was pressure on Wilson-Raybould to interfere in criminal proceedings against Quebec construction giant SNC-Lavalin. In an appearance before the justice committee, she said top government officials asked her to help ensure a special legal deal was extended to the company.

She later provided emails, a written statement and a taped recording to the committee.

Wilson-Raybould maintains she was inappropriately pressured last fall by the prime minister's office to stop criminal proceedings against SNC-Lavalin on bribery charges related to contracts in Libya. She believes she was moved to Veterans Affairs in a mid-January cabinet shuffle as punishment for refusing to override the director of public prosecutions, who had decided not to negotiate a remediation agreement. She resigned from cabinet a month later.

Last week, Trudeau expelled both Wilson-Raybould and fellow former cabinet minister Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus. Philpott resigned from cabinet in early March, citing a loss of confidence in the government's handling of the SNC-Lavalin case.