Justin Trudeau row over Gaddafi bribes ‘may clarify IRA victims plight’

Investigations into claims that a major Canadian company bribed Col Gaddafi’s family could help uncover any secret deal which might be holding back compensation for victims of Libya-IRA bombings, Lord Empey has said.
Prime Minister Theresa May talking with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his office on Parliament Hill in Ottowa in 2017. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA WirePrime Minister Theresa May talking with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his office on Parliament Hill in Ottowa in 2017. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Prime Minister Theresa May talking with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his office on Parliament Hill in Ottowa in 2017. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Canadian Prime Minister Justice Trudeau is facing the biggest political scandal of his administration following allegations that some of his closest advisers improperly pressured his former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to drop prosecutions against Montreal based engineering company SNC-Lavalin .

The company is accused of paying C$48m worth of bribes to Muammar Gaddafi’s family from 2001-2011 in order to secure lucrative contracts.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The scandal has already forced the resignation of Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s friend and closest adviser, followed by Wilson-Raybould.

Polls show the issue is politically damaging for Trudeau’s party ahead of elections.

And pressure has now mounted even further after Wilson-Raybould released an 18-minute phone recording of Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick telling her that Trudeau wanted prosecutions of SNC-Lavalin dropped.

UUP peer Lord Empey said the scandal is “rocking the establishment in Ottawa to its foundations”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The former UUP leader is pushing a bill through Westminster which aims to allow the UK government to tap £13bn of Gaddafi assets frozen in the UK, to compensate victims of IRA bombs which used Gaddafi-supplied Semtex.

Lord Empey said that recent revelations that the Italian and Belgium governments have both released some frozen Gaddafi assets to unnamed beneficiaries appear to be “smoking out other tentacles” of the regime, eight years after his death.

“Events in Canada could indirectly shed light on what was happening between the Blair administration and Gaddafi in the same period,” he said.

“While there is no evidence of any wrong doing, we have long felt that some secret deal was done by Tony Blair with Gaddafi, maybe to protect British oil interests. We feel this could be the hidden obstacle that has held successive UK governments back from pressing Libya for compensation for IRA victims, years after France, Germany and the US all secured compensation for their victims.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In 2017 the NI Affairs committee published a report on compensation of Libya-IRA victims which highlighted that Tony Blair’s visit to Libya in 2004 was accompanied by the announcement that Shell had signed a £550 million deal for gas exploration rights off the coast of Libya.

The report noted that Mr Blair said of Gaddafi at the time: “He’s very easy to deal with. To be fair to him there’s nothing that I’ve ever agreed with him should be done that hasn’t happened.”

MPs also noted that as Blair left office, BP also resumed investment in Libya.

Lord Empey noted that William Shawcross has now been appointed as a special adviser to the Foreign Secretary on compensation for Libya-IRA victims.

“With recent developments in Europe and now Canada, he will have his work cut out!” he added.

Related topics: