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The parents of Cyndy Vanier — an Ontario woman jailed in Mexico amid allegations she tried to smuggle in members of Libya’s Gadafi family — want the RCMP to probe the actions of SNC-Lavalin, the company she was working for at the time of her arrest.

Vanier, who is from Mount Forest, Ont,, was working for the Quebec-based construction giant when she was arrested in Mexico in November and accused of trying to smuggle members of the Gadafi family to a life in hiding near Puerto Vallarta. She faces human trafficking charges.

On Thursday night, SNC-Lavalin announced the departures of two executives connected with the case:

• Executive vice-president Riadh Ben Aïssa, who was responsible for construction operations across the globe and who has close ties with Libya and the Gadhafi family.
• Executive vice-president Stéphane Roy, who hired Vanier last summer for a fact-finding trip to Libya and was in Mexico City in November when she and her associates were arrested by Mexican authorities.

Roy was not arrested, nor accused of any wrongdoing, and neither executive nor SNC-Lavalin would discuss the reasons for their departures.

John and Betty MacDonald say the RCMP should probe SNC-Lavalin because their daughter Cyndy Vanier’s only connection with Libya came through her employment with the Quebec-based construction giant. Vanier is currently under arrest in Mexico on human-trafficking allegations. ((John Nicol/CBC News))

But, Aïssa announced through his lawyer on Friday that he would take “the appropriate legal recourse against SNC-Lavalin in order set the record straight and re-establish his reputation,” which he said had been hurt by a news release from the company that suggested he had had been fired for not complying with the company’s code of ethics and business conduct.

“The truth is that earlier that day, SNC-Lavalin accepted Mr. Ben Aïssa’s resignation,” the news release said.

Vanier’s mother, Betty MacDonald, said Friday the RCMP needs to investigate why the two men are no longer with the company.

“Well, how else is the truth going to come out?” she questioned.

She said Roy “should be investigated and travel restrictions place on him. He could flee the country and we never get the truth out.”

Vanier’s father, John MacDonald, said it’s time the Mounties look closely at SNC-Lavalin since his daughter’s only ties to Libya came through her connection with the company.

“And so if she was caught in the middle of something, I don’t know why these people were fired,” he said. “They haven’t said why they were fired, but if it was because they had some kind of involvement with the Gadhafis and their own company didn’t realize this, then how the hell is my daughter — a person from Mount Forest that’s hired to do work for them — supposed to uncover an issue like this.”

A CBC News investigation has revealed the Mounties have already been asking questions.

RCMP investigators talked with Vanier in September before she went to Mexico and they have grilled her security guard from her Libya trip, Gary Peters, who also worked for Saadi Gadhafi, one of Moammar Gadhafi’s sons.

The RCMP has not approached any of its employees to date, an SNC-Lavalin spokesman said Friday.