By Canadian Press

New Privy Council clerk to take over from Wernick on April 19

Mar 29, 2019 | 9:12 AM

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office says Ian Shugart will replace Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick as the federal government’s top bureaucrat on April 19.

Wernick announced earlier this month that he was leaving his position because he had lost the trust of opposition parties.

The Conservatives and New Democrats both started calling for Wernick’s resignation after he appeared before a Commons’ committee investigating the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Wernick vehemently rejected allegations that he and others in government improperly pressured former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to halt a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

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Opposition parties denounced his combative testimony to the House of Commons justice committee as partisan and unacceptable for a senior bureaucrat who is supposed to be impartial.

Shugart is a long serving member of federal public service, serving over the last decade as the deputy minister of the environment, employment and social development, and since 2016, foreign affairs.

The Canadian Press