Alexandre Trudeau blames the turmoil at the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation on “bad journalism” which linked him to a Chinese interference operation, and maintains that the ex-CEO amplified the affair by peddling lies to the management of the organization.
“We wouldn’t have been here if the president hadn’t insisted on circulating misinformation to the council [d’administration de la fondation] “, accused Mr. Trudeau, the brother of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.
Her long-awaited testimony repeatedly contradicted that of Pascale Fournier, former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation, who found suspicious a donation of $ 140,000 made by two Chinese businessmen in 2016. She reported the last week of various irregularities relating to this donation, such as instructions received for the shipment of documentation to China.
“That’s why I would have liked the Auditor General [produise un audit]. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this whole thing! “he dropped, in reference to the recent refusal of the independent auditor to look into the case.
Also known by his nickname Sacha, Alexandre Trudeau has been involved with the foundation that bears his father’s name since his father’s death more than 20 years ago. He left his board of directors in September 2020, but is still a member and family representative of the organization, which is dedicated in particular to disbursing doctoral scholarships and providing mentorship.
Last February, the daily The Globe and Mail reported that this famous 2016 donation was part of a foreign influence operation orchestrated by Beijing, according to unnamed intelligence sources to whom The duty did not have access. Mr. Trudeau called the report “false”, “inaccurate” and “bad journalism”.
” That man [le donateur principal, Zhang Bin] never attempted anything resembling interference. As far as I’m concerned, he’s an honorable man,” he said.
Rare fact in such circumstances: Alexandre Trudeau himself hadasked, in an interview with Dutydand testify before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. This, even though the Liberal members of the committee had negotiated his exclusion from the list of witnesses.
A management crisis
He repeated on Wednesday that a “management crisis” would have caused the resignation of most board members on the last Easter Monday.
He now specifies that it is Pascale Fournier, personally, who is at the origin of this crisis. In short, Alexandre Trudeau accuses the former CEO of having deceived the board of directors in the “irritation” following the publication of the article of the Globe and Mail. He also says that the other volunteer administrators preferred to leave rather than endure a tense climate.
In her own testimony last week, the lawyer explained that she walked out of the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation because she was not allowed to conduct a external investigation on its terms. According to Mr. Trudeau’s vision of things, Ms.me Fournier would have on the contrary refused an investigation, and would have falsely claimed to have legal advice to dismiss directors whom she considered to be in conflict of interest.
“Mme Fournier wanted to lead this investigation herself. It is against good governance practices,” he argued.
For his part, his brother, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, distanced himself from the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation about 10 years ago, on the sidelines of his accession to the head of the Liberal Party of Canada. The two brothers have not spoken at all about the affairs of the family foundation since. Justin Trudeau also clarified on Wednesday that he had not spoken to his brother “for several weeks”.
A connoisseur of China
Alexandre Trudeau explained to elected officials that he knew China well, having visited it in order to come into contact with the population. He wrote a book about it, A Barbarian in New China. Conservative MP Luc Berthold arrived at the parliamentary committee meeting with the book under his arm.
An article from Montreal Journal described the book as “admiring China”, which the main interested party refuted, while attacking the seriousness of the publication.
“Canada can make the Chinese, the Chinese researchers, the Chinese people understand what Canada is. [Les Chinois] used to say, I think they don’t say anymore, that Canadians are Westerners you can trust,” he said of his perspective on the country.
Alexandre Trudeau repeated, in broad outline, the information already disclosed by the CEO of the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation at the time of the events. Morris Rosenberg said Tuesday that the company that made the donation was legitimate. Named Millennium Golden Eagle International and based in Dorval, it had funds at the Bank of Montreal, which made Mr. Trudeau say that it respected the laws of Canada.
He also insisted on the fact that the University of Montreal had first approached him in connection with this donation, since it is mandatory that any project that wishes to bear the name of the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau obtains the permission of the foundation. family.
The duty previously reported that the two Chinese donors, Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, initially intended to donate one million dollars to the University of Montreal to create scholarships, before the election of the Liberal government in 2015.
This is not the first time that a federal parliamentary committee has heard criticism of the media’s interpretation of intelligence reports. Government officials have routinely refused to confirm or contradict their content, and one once called such reports of the interference sometimes “based on rumours.”