the words you struggled to find were... 'giving direction'.
A completely meaningless distinction.
She may have perceived pressure, but if she was told by her boss that the decision was hers and she still perceived pressure then perhaps she was not right for the job.
Can you envision a scenario when someone needs to ask whether they're being directed to do something, if they're not being pressured?
Trudeau's exact words, according to the waldo's screen-shot:
"Obviously as a government we take very seriously our responsibility of standing up for jobs, of protecting jobs, of growing the economy, of making sure there are good jobs right across the country, as there are with SNC-Lavalin. But as we do that we always need to make sure we're standing up for the rule of law and protecting the independence of our justice system."
(I don't know why he posts images rather than text, but that's beside the point. Those are Trudeau's words, according to the waldo's source.)
He wants people to know that he stands up for jobs, but he also stands up for the rule of law. But why was he having this conversation with JWR at all? He wanted her to ask Kathleen Roussel to consider protecting jobs while she ruled on whether SNC-Lavalin was eligible for a DPA?
As this article explains, that's not allowed:
Under a so-called “deferred prosecution agreement” (DPA), the prosecutor stays proceedings against the organization, which in turn pays a fine, offers some form of remediation, and agrees to stronger reporting requirements. If the company meets all the terms of a DPA, charges are dropped.
Much has been said about how a reasonable attorney general might opt for the DPA considering all the harm a criminal conviction of the engineering giant might do to the economies of Quebec and Canada.
But if you read the actual language creating the DPA option, it will become clear why Wilson-Raybould and her director of public prosecutions Kathleen Roussel were not only correct in their decision, but required to make it.
When firms are charged under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, as was SNC-Lavalin…
“The prosecutor,” states the legislation, “must not consider the national economic interest, the potential effect on relations with a state other than Canada, or the identity of the organization or individual involved.”
So, in talking about trying to balance the rule of law with "standing up for jobs", Trudeau is expressing a view that they wanted JWR to do something that the law didn't permit. Asking her to think of the jobs involved is expressly forbidden in the very law they passed to create DPAs in the first place.
Again, why would Trudeau and JWR have been having this conversation in the first place?
-k