'He's not a bad person, but …' Justin Trudeau voters lament scandal

Nicola Papadakis says he is done voting for Justin Trudeau.

The decision clearly bothers the retired cleaner, 76. Like many Greeks in the Montreal neighbourhood of Park Extension, Papadakis has a nearly unshakable loyalty to Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. “He gave us hope, he kept us together,” says Papadakis of the elder Trudeau.

But his son? Perched on a stool in a tobacco-tinged community centre, Papadakis flips a set of worry beads and considers his answer. “He is a movie star,” Papadakis says. “I voted for him before. He’s not a bad person, but he’s just not ready to be leader.”

Papadakis’s harsh assessment of Canada’s 23rd prime minister is particularly damning, coming as it does from a voter in Papineau, the electoral riding that Justin Trudeau has represented since 2008.

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The reason behind Trudeau’s sudden fall from grace is the government’s handling of a scandal involving the Quebec-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin. Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould alleged last month that she was subject to a “consistent and sustained effort” on the part of senior members of Trudeau’s Liberal government to secure a deal for the company that would have seen it avoid criminal prosecution on bribery charges – against which the company has said it will “vigorously defend itself”.

Wilson-Raybould says she refused to do so, noting that the country’s prosecution office had already declined to drop the charges against SNC-Lavalin, which stem from the company’s Libyan operations between 2001 and 2011. She said was shuffled out of her cabinet position after she resisted this “political interference.”

Though positively genteel compared with the myriad political scandals south of Canada’s border, what has become known as “Lavscam” has nonetheless shaken the Trudeau government.

A recent Campaign Research poll says it trails the opposition Conservative party by six points – the largest gap in nearly a year. Another poll, by Leger Marketing, suggests Lavscam has been particularly damaging in Trudeau’s home province of Quebec, which is a crucial political battleground in the general election this fall.

Nowhere is that clearer than in Papineau. The multi-ethnic neighbourhood of 111,000 is home to both recent immigrants and burgeoning gentrification and in many ways reflects Trudeau’s conspicuous liberalism. It is also a crucial piece of his political narrative. Trudeau has won three elections in Papineau, home to one of the country’s poorest postal codes – a contrast with neighbouring Mont-Royal, the wealthy riding where his father held a seat.

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Prompted by a desire to see an end of the Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s reign, many Papineau progressives voted en masse for Trudeau, helping him to achieve a double-digit victory over his closest rival in the 2015 election.

Yet while they appreciate Trudeau’s pro-immigration stance — which contrasts dramatically with that of the current Conservative party leader, Andrew Scheer – some of those voters are experiencing a bit of buyer’s remorse over Lavscam.

“SNC-Lavalin has done some very, very bad things,” says Bob Moore, a film-maker who lives in Papineau. “How do you defend what SNC-Lavalin has done when you are also defending human rights around the world? Trudeau has a certain arrogance, and it’s becoming less and less effective as his tenure goes on.”

The charges against SNC-Lavalin stem from its operations in Libya between 2001 and 2011.Photograph: Christinne Muschi/Reuters

And it’s not just in Libya. Montrealers are uniquely aware of SNC-Lavalin’s misdeeds, which are etched into the city’s landscape about a 15-minute drive from Trudeau’s riding. In 2014, SNC-Lavalin executives were accused of having given upwards of $23m in bribes to hospital officials to secure the contract to build the McGill University health centre. Two employees pleaded guilty in 2018 plea deals.

Among the hospital’s features is a “underground” parking lot that is actually many storeys above ground ground – a cost-saving measure. This enduring visual curiosity, secured by a well-placed SNC-Lavalin consultant, is a daily reminder of the company’s scandal-ridden recent past.

It is perhaps why Québécois in Papineau and beyond are particularly wary of Trudeau’s relationship with SNC-Lavalin. “We were with him because of his father,” says Christos Manikis, editor of the Greek-language newspaper BHMA. “But he’s not his father yet, and when we look at how he handled the SNC case, we realize we can’t vote for him with closed eyes any more.”

Still, even his rivals acknowledge Trudeau’s enduring ability as a politician. In 2015, Sasha Dyck campaigned in Papineau for the New Democratic party, which sits well to the left of Trudeau’s Liberals. Along with Lavscam, Dyck faults Trudeau for ignoring many of Papineau’s pressing housing needs. (More than one in three dwellings in the riding are cockroach- or rodent-infested, according to a 2011 city report.)

Yet Dyck is under no illusions about an NDP victory in Trudeau’s domain. “He’ll win the next election,” says Dyck, somewhat begrudgingly. “People feel like he’s a good man, so it doesn’t really matter what he does.”