Robert Fife had 'a lot of sleepless nights' after breaking the SNC-Lavalin story - Action News
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Power and Politics

Robert Fife had 'a lot of sleepless nights' after breaking the SNC-Lavalin story

Globe and Mail Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife said he was worried for weeks after breaking the SNC-Lavalin story that has rocked the Liberal government, fearing that former cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould would refute his reporting.

The Globe and Mail reporter said he feared Jody Wilson-Raybould would refute his reporting

Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould leaves the Parliament buildings following Question Period in Ottawa, Tuesday, February 19, 2019. The House of Commons justice committee will begin hearings today into the allegation that the Prime Minister's Office improperly pressured former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to help Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin avoid criminal prosecution. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Globe and Mail Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife said he was worried for weeks after breaking the SNC-Lavalin story that has rocked the Liberal government, fearing that former cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould would refute his reporting.

"I had a lot of sleepless nights," Fife said in an interview with CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

"I don't really know Jody Wilson-Raybould very well and she says herself that she was not a source I had no idea whether they were going to get her and say, 'Go there and deny this story.' Because if she came out and denied the story, I'm dead in the water."

Fife told Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos he felt a lot of pressure until Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick testified before the Commons committee investigating the controversy.

"I was out there all by myself ... nobody else was able to confirm it until Wernick testified."

Since Fife and his Globe and Mail colleagues first reported that Wilson-Raybould faced pressure to interfere in the case against SNC-Lavalin, cabinet ministers Wilson-Raybould andJane Philpott,and the prime minister's principal secretary Gerald Butts, have all resigned over the controversy.

Fife said he doesn'tthink there's more to come on the story.

"I think the story is over. I don't think we're going to learn much more than we already have."

Watch Vassy Kapelos' conversation with Robert Fife about the SNC-Lavalin controversy

Fife had 'sleepless nights' after break SNC-Lavalin story

5 years ago
Duration 11:58
Robert Fife discusses breaking the SNC-Lavalin story in an interview with Vassy Kapelos.