Some Liberal MPs are showing support and even praising ex-justice and veterans affairs minister Jody Wilson-Raybould after she announced her resignation from cabinet on Tuesday.
The Vancouver-Granville MP announced on Tuesday morning that she was tendering her resignation as veterans affairs minister, a post she was moved to from the justice portfolio in a cabinet shuffle last month.
WATCH BELOW: Father of Jody Wilson-Raybould speaks out about her resignation from Trudeau cabinet
Treasury Board President Jane Philpott tweeted praise for Wilson-Raybould on Tuesday night, saying that she “taught me so much — particularly about Indigenous history, rights and justice.”
Philpott said she was “proud of the laws that we worked on together.”
Those laws included a bill that amended the Criminal Code to, among other things, exempt from culpable homicide people who aid suicide in order to allow medical staff to assist in the process.
Philpott also noted their work on Bill C-45, legislation to legalize marijuana, as well as Bill C-37, which made it easier to open supervised injection sites.
John McCallum, a former Liberal cabinet minister whom Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired as ambassador to China in January, sent along his own praise for both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott.
Whitby MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, meanwhile, has shown clear support for Wilson-Raybould.
She supported her when The Globe and Mail reported that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) asked Wilson-Raybould to cut a deal and help Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin avoid a trial on corruption and fraud charges.
WATCH: What’s next for Jody Wilson-Raybould after her resignation?
Trudeau said the allegations in that story were false.
A story subsequently emerged in which anonymous sources suggested Wilson-Raybould had become a thorn in the side of the cabinet, that she was difficult to get along with and that she had been known to berate fellow ministers.
Responding to that story, Caesar-Chavannes tweeted that Wilson-Raybould is “fierce, smart and unapologetic.”
“When women speak up and out, they are always going to be labelled,” she wrote.
Caesar-Chavannes tweeted this message with the hashtag, #IAmWithHer.
On Tuesday, she tweeted a closed fist to show her support for Wilson-Raybould.
Wilson-Raybould herself was active on Twitter on the day she resigned from cabinet.
She retweeted Philpott’s tweet, and those of numerous others that expressed support for her.
Wilson-Raybould also retweeted an interview with her father, First Nations leader Bill Wilson, in which he said she was “kicked in the teeth” when she was shuffled to Veterans Affairs.
Wilson made similar remarks in an interview with Global News, saying it was a “bloody insult” to her and to Indigenous people across Canada when her cabinet portfolio changed.
“Thank you to my pappa for your unwavering support,” Wilson-Raybould tweeted.
- With files from John Hua and Jon Azpiri
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