(OTTAWA) Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brother, Alexandre Trudeau, to appear before a House of Commons committee.
The Leader of the Official Opposition opened Monday’s question period with this request. He justified the relevance of his request by pointing out that Alexandre Trudeau signed, on behalf of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, the contract formalizing a Chinese donation of $ 200,000, in 2016.
As the Prime Minister was not present at the meeting, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Mark Holland, gave the reply to Pierre Poilievre. He did not directly answer the question, arguing that Justin Trudeau was no longer involved with the Foundation.
He took the opportunity to accuse the Conservative leader of having a “fixation” on the Trudeau family.
The discussions surrounding the “Chinese donation” to the Trudeau Foundation date back to 2014. At that time, the two businessmen Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng expressed the desire to donate $800,000 to the Faculty of Law of the Trudeau Foundation. University of Montreal and $200,000 to the Trudeau Foundation.
The process will not finally succeed until 2016. The donation was to be made in three installments, two of $70,000 and the last of $60,000. The last check was never paid. The contract formalizing the donation is signed by Zhang Bin, Niu Gensheng, the rector of the University of Montreal, Guy Breton, and Alexandre Trudeau.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The rector of the Université de Montréal, Guy Breton, Zhang Bin, Alexandre Trudeau and Niu Gensheng, in June 2016
At the time, Justin Trudeau’s younger brother was a member of the Foundation’s board of directors, and he was authorized to enter into this type of agreement, argued the then President of the Foundation, Morris Rosenberg.
After struggling to repay the $140,000 donation, the Foundation finally managed to return it last Friday.
Reluctance to create a register
The Bloc, for their part, continued to push for the recusal of special rapporteur David Johnston, fueling doubts about the independence of the former governor general, who was a member of the Trudeau Foundation.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
David Johnson
The government will rely on its recommendations, which are expected by April 23. It also launched consultations on the relevance of setting up a register of foreign agents of influence.
The tool is frowned upon by lawmakers, on the pretext that it could fuel racism. A Liberal MP from the Ottawa region, Chandra Arya, has also agreed to sponsor a petition asking the government to “reconsider” the project.
Because a registry would not “effectively counter the intimidation suffered by Canadians”, and it would constitute a “misleading way of identifying sources of foreign influence”, we read in the wording of the petition, signed by nearly 600 people.
The elected Liberal refused interview requests, preferring to provide a written statement.
“Some Canadians fear the proposed Foreign Influence Transparency Registry. I agree with the concerns expressed by the petitioners, and their reasonable suggestions,” he said.
Consultations are due to end on May 9.
Senior officials have been touting to Justin Trudeau for nearly a year the merits of a registry of foreign influence agents to counter foreign interference, as Australia did in 2018.
The Prime Minister of Canada had a conversation about this with the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, on June 30, 2022, show documents obtained by The Press under the Access to Information Act.
In a memo to Justin Trudeau, Clerk of the Privy Council Janice Charette says the registry has proven itself in countries that have adopted it. This tool makes it possible, without a shadow of a doubt, to highlight the activities carried out by individuals or entities on behalf of authoritarian countries, she argues.
“Registries of foreign influence agents are considered internationally as one of the best tools to counter foreign interference. The United States adopted the Foreign Agents Registration Act to this end in 1938,” she wrote in a document dated August 18, 2022.
With Katia Gagnon and Hugo Joncas, The Press