Jody Wilson-Raybould

The Canadian government is directly investing in women-owned businesses as part of its $2 billion Women Entrepreneurship Strategy. Introduced in the 2018 federal budget, the strategy aims to support women in entrepreneurship and double the number of women who own businesses in Canada by 2025.

Jody Wilson-Raybould would have brought a wealth of experience to the Indigenous services portfolio, including first-hand knowledge from the world of First Nations politics, some Indigenous leaders said on Thursday, March 7, 2019, as they questioned her decision to decline the cabinet post.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doubled down on Thursday, explaining that there was no inappropriate pressure on his former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, but taking responsibility for an erosion of trust between her and his office over the past few months.

On Dec. 5, 2018, Jody Wilson-Raybould met for dinner with Gerald Butts at a luxurious downtown Ottawa hotel. Roughly three months later, both are out of their former jobs, and the highly-disputed nature of that dinner sits at the centre of the largest political scandal the Trudeau government has faced.

Justin Trudeau hunkered down in the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, as he awaited what Liberals hope will be pivotal testimony on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, from his former principal secretary.

Liberals are hoping they'll get some ammunition today, March 6, 2019, to fight back against accusations of political interference in the justice system when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's former principal secretary tells his side of the SNC-Lavalin saga.

A prominent chief is urging SNC-Lavalin lawyer Frank Iacobucci to resign his position as special envoy to First Nations for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the Trans Mountain expansion project. Iacoubucci's name popped up a couple of times in bombshell testimony on Feb. 27 by former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould.

The challenge in Vancouver Granville was that Jody Wilson-Raybould had already declared her candidacy for the Liberal Party.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to divert attention from the disunity in Liberal ranks at a climate change rally in Toronto on Monday, but ran into protests about his government's treatment of Indigenous sovereignty and support for pipelines as well as against the meat industry as a major cause of pollution and environmental degradation.

Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, one of the stars of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet, has resigned as a minister over the SNC-Lavalin scandal

Federal Justice Minister David Lametti is publicly musing about whether Canada should consider separating the offices of its attorney general and its minister of justice in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin controversy, an idea that has backing from others who know the job intimately.

Rarely are Indigenous laws invoked on Parliament Hill, but that's exactly what happened this week when Jody Wilson-Raybould cited core values shaped by "a long line of matriarchs" in front a House of Commons justice committee.

When he was named on Friday, March 1, 2019, as Canada's latest minister of veterans affairs, Lawrence MacAulay was given the difficult task of sweetening the Trudeau government's relations with embittered veterans and selling the Liberals' controversial pension plan for those injured in uniform.

Welcome to your weekly roundup from National Observer.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to shuffle the federal cabinet on Friday, March 01, 2019, as he looks to fill the void left by the resignation of Jody Wilson-Raybould, a senior government source confirmed on Thursday, February 28, 2019, evening.