After claiming its share of a donation totaling one million dollars offered by two Chinese businessmen, the Trudeau Foundation proposed to the University of Montreal to recover the sum of 200,000 dollars that they had promised, indicates a document from the educational institution.
In December 2019, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, France Houle, wrote to the Trudeau Foundation, indicating a letter obtained under the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies.
Mme Houle was speaking to Alexandre Trudeau, administrator of the organization created to honor the memory of his father, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
The dean was referring to a discussion that her predecessor, Jean-François Gaudreault-Desbiens, had “last winter” with Mr. Trudeau about the donation offered in 2016 by the two businessmen, Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng .
“You mentioned to him that your foundation wanted to give the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal the $200,000 donation from Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng,” she wrote.
Mme Houle proposed to use these funds for the renovation of a room in a research center attached to the Faculty of Law, which could have been baptized “Salon Pierre Elliott Trudeau”.
“This designation would be very appropriate since your father participated in the creation of the research center in public law in 1962”, underlined Mr.me Swell.
Project not followed
The dean proposed to enter into a new agreement to formalize the transfer of the sum into the coffers of the Université de Montréal, which itself was promised, at the same time as the foundation, a donation of $800,000 from the two Chinese businessmen.
A spokesman for the University of Montreal, Jeff Heinrich, however, indicated to the Duty that the draft agreement did not materialize.
“There were no follow-ups to this project,” he replied. The transfer was not made. »
Monday, The duty reported the words of a former vice-rector of the University, Guy Lefebvre, according to whom the Trudeau Foundation had claimed its share of the million given by the two Chinese businessmen, all of which was, at the start, reserved for law School.
On Friday, in the face of a controversy that has been going on since 2016, the Foundation refunded the portion of the donation it actually received, $140,000, to Millennium Golden Eagle International, a company chaired by Mr. Zhang.
Despite repeated requests, the Trudeau Foundation did not respond to questions from the Duty.
Scholarships suspended
The University of Montreal, for its part, interrupted the scholarship program offered thanks to the donation of the two businessmen.
“We have suspended all activity of this fund while we assess the situation as a whole,” said Mr. Heinrich.
For now, unlike the Trudeau Foundation, the establishment does not plan to reimburse the amount to donors.
“It seems that the refund is difficult to achieve from a practical and legal point of view, indicated Mr. Heinrich. One of the avenues we are exploring is to reallocate the amounts to other functions related to our teaching and research mission. »
Of the $800,000 pledged, $550,000 has been received since 2016. This sum has made it possible to create the Bin Zhang-Nui Gensheng Fund, which aims to commemorate the recognition of the People’s Republic of China by Canada in 1970, when Mr. Trudeau was Prime Minister.
Since its creation, 4 scholarships of 10,000 dollars have been offered in 2018.
Possible reassignment
The agreement formalizing the donation specifies that a reallocation of funds is possible, “in the event of significant changes or developments” that prevent the achievement of the goals targeted with the financing.
“Then, the executive committee of UdeM, in agreement with the donors or their representatives, will allocate the Fund to the realization of UdeM projects in accordance with the primary objectives of the Fund”, indicates the document.
Last week, nearly the entire board of the Trudeau Foundation as well as its president and CEO resigned amid allegations of foreign interference, fueled by a news report that the Chinese government offered the two donors to reimburse them.
According to Globe and Mailwhich attributes this information to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Chinese government’s offer was part of an operation to influence Mr. Trudeau.
In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had already had to defend himself for having offered privileged access to PLC donors at a party where Mr. Zhang had been invited.
Tensions between Canada and China escalated beginning in December 2018, when two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, were arbitrarily arrested and detained by Chinese authorities until September 2021.