Graft allegations entangle Trudeau

OTTAWA, Mar 05 (New York Times): Four years ago, Justin Trudeau rose to Canada's highest office as the second-youngest prime minister in the country's history, promising "sunny ways" and a new era of honest government, equal representation and liberalism.

Now, Trudeau is entangled in a scandal involving allegations that his office pressured his justice minister to settle a criminal case against a major corporation accused of corrupt practices on three continents - including paying millions in bribes to Libyan officials during the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

As of Monday, two members of Trudeau's Cabinet have resigned, as has his top political adviser. The ethics commissioner for Canada's Parliament has opened an investigation, and several opposition party members have called for the police or an independent inquiry to take on the case.

At the center of Trudeau's political woes is SNC-Lavalin, a multinational engineering and construction firm based in Quebec.

The company has been trailed for years by allegations of corruption, including in Bangladesh, India, Canada and Mexico, where the authorities once accused a consultant to SNC-Lavalin of involvement in a plot to smuggle Saadi Gadhafi, a son of the former Libyan dictator, out of his home country.