The SNC-Lavalin controversy has resulted in some misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the legal mechanism at its heart: Deferred prosecution agreements.
The prospect of political interference is at the heart of the SNC-Lavalin controversy. But it raises more issues related to identifying and preventing inappropriate interference.
A standard political scandal involves a person who did something wrong out of negligence or motivations of money, personal ambition, sex, etc. But the SNC-Lavalin affair so far lacks those elements.
The SNC-Lavalin affair raises fundamental questions about how decisions to prosecute are made, and what role elected politicians should have in that process – if any at all.