Nor is there any indication that Justin Trudeau or his government did something wrong.Īs the two hours dragged on, MPs seemed to run out of questions. And no one at the committee table on Wednesday produced evidence that Alexandre Trudeau knowingly participated in a scheme to influence the government. And there were numerous questions on Wednesday about the apparent disagreements between current and former managers of the foundation about how to handle questions about the donation.īut questions about corporate governance are a long way from the central concern about foreign interference. It is also possible to look back and conclude that the Trudeau Foundation should have been more careful about who it accepted donations from. Though Trudeau cast doubt on the Globe's reporting, it's possible that a full airing of the facts and evidence would support the allegation that the donation had political motivations. He also said that he does not discuss government policy with his brother - something he also said to CBC Radio in an interview in September 2016.Īnalysis For the Liberals' sake (and democracy) Trudeau needs clearer answers on foreign interference He repeated that his brother has not been involved with the foundation for nearly a decade. Trudeau testified that he received no warning from CSIS about the donation, that the donors did not raise any "red flags" for him and that he did not discuss the donation with his brother. And that led to some of the promised money going to the foundation. That led them to contact Trudeau, representing both the family and the foundation. The university had received a proposal to fund a scholarship in the late prime minister's name. It was Alexandre Trudeau's testimony that the University of Montreal first approached him about the donation in December 2013. Alexandre Trudeau's account of what happened But now it was a piece of a larger furor over allegations of foreign interference in Canadian politics. That a Chinese businessman had donated to the foundation was already well known. The sudden uptick in interest coincides with a February report in the Globe and Mail alleging that CSIS had evidence in 2014 - when the former Conservative government was in office - that a donation to the foundation was part of an effort by Chinese officials to curry favour with Justin Trudeau. But over the last few months it has been referenced more than 200 times in the House of Commons. And for most of the foundation's existence, it seems to have attracted little controversy. Everyone seemed more or less okay with the idea at the time. The Trudeau Foundation was created in 2002, shortly after the death of its namesake, when the federal government agreed to endow an independent organization that would mentor and assist young scholars. But if Conservative MPs were hoping to bait him into saying something embarrassing - at one point, they just started asking him about his views on China - they basically failed.Īlexandre Trudeau, brother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, prepares to appear before the Parliamentary standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Befitting his surname, he was a little combative with his inquisitors. And apparently he talks a little like him too. "It is precisely as a bastion of reason and tolerance - perhaps the last refuge even for a universal humanism - that Canada has become the target of foreign interference."Įven more than his older brother, Alexandre Trudeau bears a strong resemblance to his father (whereas Justin got his mother's hair, Alexandre got his father's hairline). "Since its creation the foundation has granted several hundred scholarships to our most brilliant researchers and has given them the tools and training to make their important work more accessible to Canadians at large," Trudeau told the committee. Indeed, the two hours that Trudeau spent answering questions from MPs on Wednesday only seemed to make the case that, for all the oxygen it it has consumed, the tale of the donation to the Trudeau Foundation is but a curious and distracting subplot within a much larger and more serious story about alleged foreign interference in Canada by the Chinese state. His brother's government surely would have rather he hadn't, if only to avoid giving the story any more attention.īut except for the mere spectacle of a famous son and brother appearing before a parliamentary committee, it's not obvious that the opposition Conservatives gained much from Trudeau's appearance either. Alexandre Trudeau, second son of the 15th prime minister and brother of the 23rd, insisted on appearing before the standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics to defend the honour of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
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