(Ottawa) The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation was not the target of attempted foreign interference from China when it received a controversial $140,000 donation from a businessman influential close to the Chinese communist regime in 2016 and 2017, according to an investigative report.
The controversy surrounding this donation has more to do with a series of human errors, according to this investigative report.
“We have not identified any evidence to suggest that the donations in question were part of an interference scheme,” concludes the report of around ten pages written by two lawyers from the firm Norton Rose Fullbright Canada and delivered Friday.
The Trudeau Foundation has also not violated the Canadian Not-for-Profit Corporations Act by accepting these donations and has also not violated the funding agreement relating to the Fund for the Advancement of the Humanities and Social Sciences concluded between the Foundation and the Government of Canada.
At most, the management of the Trudeau Foundation did not do its homework to adequately verify the identity of the donor, as required by the unwritten principle “Know your donor”.
“We found that the Foundation had carried out very little due diligence on potential donors who were parties to the pledge, and that it had instead relied on the University of Montreal,” we read in the report.
“The Know You Donor (or KYD) verification process is primarily a risk management tool to determine whether there are external risks to a charity associated with a donation from a given party. Failure to perform or properly document these types of checks does not constitute a violation of the law, but nevertheless represents a departure from best practices. »
The Trudeau Foundation found itself at the heart of a political storm that led to the wholesale resignation of board members after the daily The Globe and Mail reported last winter, relying on secret CSIS documents, that China maneuvered to influence Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by ensuring that a $1 million donation was made to the foundation that was created in memory of his father.
Originally, the donation from businessman Zhang Bin was to be made through the University of Montreal. Ultimately, the donation to the Trudeau Foundation amounted to $140,000 and was made in two installments in 2016 and 2017.
The controversy grew when it was revealed that the identity of the real donor raised many questions. Charity receipts showed irregularities. They had been modified at the request of an organization close to the Chinese government. The Chinese businessman’s name did not appear anywhere. The charitable receipts were given in the name of the Millennium Golden Eagle company, which is owned by billionaire Zhang Bin.
Caught in the turmoil, the Trudeau Foundation, after experiencing some difficulties, was finally able to reimburse the donation in full to the company in question two months later.
The investigation report was commissioned by the interim board of directors of the Trudeau Foundation last year to clarify this whole matter.
Last April, the president and CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Pascale Fournier, and eight other members of the board of directors resigned en masse, citing the irregularities surrounding the Chinese donation as the reason for their departure.
The matter was examined by a parliamentary committee. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brother, Alexandre Trudeau, who is a member of the Trudeau Foundation, was invited to appear.
In his testimony, in May 2023, he insisted that China has never attempted to interfere in the Canadian democratic process through the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. He affirmed that the controversy had nothing to do with a matter of interference, but rather “a management crisis fueled by serious mistakes committed by our ex-president [Pascale Fournier] “, he then argued.
With Katia Gagnon, The Press