Canada's first Indigenous justice minister has resigned from Justin Trudeau's cabinet

Jody Wilson-Raybould is a descendant of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples, which are part of the Kwakwaka'wakw and also known as the Kwak'wala speaking peoples. She is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation.

Wilson-Raybould was 'called to the Bar' in 2000 and began working as a provincial crown prosecutor in Vancouver, BC. She had served as an advisor to the BC Treaty Commission, she was elected Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in 2009 and she was re-elected as Regional Chief in 2012 and held this position until she stepped down in June 2015.

On November 4, 2015, Jody Wilson-Raybould was sworn in as Canada's first Indigenous justice minister. Her appointment was welcomed by Indigenous leaders across the Canada. The Minister of Justice is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for the Department of Justice, chief federal legal adviser and is also Attorney General of Canada. This cabinet position is usually reserved for someone holding a legal qualification.

During her tenure as justice minister the assisted dying bill received royal assent, she made sweeping changes to the judicial appointments process as she filled a backlog of empty judge positions across the country and was instrumental in Bill C-16; that updated the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to include the terms "gender identity" and "gender expression" which passed in the Senate on June 2017. The legislation also makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity or expression and make it a hate crime to target someone for being transgender.

On October 17, 2018, Bill C-45, Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott's cannabis legalization legislation, became the law of the land. The legislation made it legal to consume recreational cannabis across Canada. The legislation was a key plank of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's 2015 election platform. And on December 13, 2018, Wilson-Raybould's changes to sexual assault legislation, Bill C-51, received royal assent. The legislation updated sexual assault laws so that an unconscious person cannot legally consent to sex.

Wilson-Raybould is moved out of her position as minister of justice and given the lesser cabinet position of minister of veterans affairs on January 14, 2019.

Then, on February 12, 2019, Jody Wilson-Raybould resigns from cabinet.

In a letter that thanked her constituents, staff and officials, Raybould said she was stepping down from cabinet and was looking forward to serving her constituents as a member of Parliament for Vancouver-Granville, B.C.

The controversy surrounding Wilson-Raybould's resignation involves the engineering, SNC – Lavalin, which is headquarters in Quebec. SNC – Lavalin has had a legal cloud hanging over their head since 2015, according to media - stemming from allegations that some of its former employees paid bribes to officials in Libya to influence government decisions and win contracts prior to 2012. The RCMP alleges that between 2001 and 2012, the company paid almost $48 million in bribes and defrauded various other entities of almost $130 million.

SNC-Lavalin wanted to settle out of court but the federal government had decided against this.

The Globe and Mail published a report that the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office attempted to put pressure on Wilson-Raybould to intervene in SNC Lavalin case.

In a prepared statement she wrote, "It has always been my view that the Attorney General of Canada must be non-partisan, more transparent in the principles that are the basis of decisions, and, in this respect, always willing to speak truth to power. This is how I served throughout my tenure in that role".

Jody Wilson-Raybould was not the first cabinet minister Prime Minister Trudeau has had to replace, but she is clearly the most important because of who she is, where she's from and what she represents to a government that has tried to sell itself as transparent, committed to gender equality. During her tenure, she often addressed Canada's failure at addressing the historic grievances of Indigenous people and true reconciliation.