As Rex Murphy summed it up in Fridays National Post 

Justin Trudeau’s initial public response while in Ireland. "The settlement was primarily a matter of national honour."

Back on Canadian soil, Trudeau, again: “If we had continued to fight this, not only would we have inevitably lost, but estimates range from $30-40 million that it would have ended up costing the government.”

So first it was national honour at stake. The next week, it’s expediency

This week, the decision is presented as an inevitability. “Had we continued to fight” we would have “inevitably lost.” 
No court case has an inevitable outcome. If that was the case why have trials?

Trudeau’s response (s) to date suggests a politician auditioning replies , trying to find the one to match the country’s mood, rather more than a person convinced of his own choice