A parliamentary committee of the House of Commons finally invites Alexandre Trudeau, the Prime Minister’s brother, to come and explain his role in obtaining a donation of $200,000 linked to Chinese interests, following the request of the latter in the pages of Duty.
“Following statements to the media by Mr. Alexandre Trudeau requesting to appear before Members of Parliament to discuss his direct knowledge of Beijing-funded donations to the Trudeau Foundation, as Chairman of the Standing Committee on Access to information, the protection of personal information and ethics, I invited him to appear, ”said Conservative MP John Brassard on Friday.
Alexandre Trudeau, also known by his nickname Sacha, is expected before this committee next Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brother had agreed to comment on the turmoil in which the family foundation finds itself in the pages of the Duty, THURSDAY. He said he was ready to reveal everything he knows.
Although the Conservative Party of Canada regularly asked to hear this member of the Trudeau family during question period in the House, the parliamentary ethics committee had not asked him to testify.
The name of Alexandre Trudeau was mentioned Friday during the testimony of the resigning CEO of the Trudeau Foundation, Pascale Fournier. It was difficult for her to understand why her signature was visible on the contracts associated with the 2016 donation, and not that of the president at the time. Mr. Trudeau was then a member of the board of directors of the family foundation, in which he has been actively involved since its creation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau distanced himself from the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation about ten years ago. Invited to comment on the situation from New York on Friday, he again said that this case does not concern him, unlike his brother.
“He’s my brother, I love him a lot, but he does his things and I do mine,” he told Radio-Canada.
The other parliamentary committee responsible for investigating foreign interference, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, voted on a motion on Monday to specifically exclude members of the Trudeau family from testifying, over fears the appearance could drift into “political theater.” “.
The duty reported that the University of Montreal was the first recipient of a million dollar donation from two wealthy Chinese businessmen wishing to fund scholarships in honor of the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau. These donors were mentioned by a source in the intelligence quoted by the Globe and Mailstating their intention in 2014 to influence Justin Trudeau, then leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, before he became prime minister. The duty did not have access to this information.
The Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation came into the picture when it reached an agreement for the use of the former prime minister’s name, collecting a share of the $200,000 donation, which was not ultimately received in entire.