The Trudeau Foundation has claimed its share of the million dollars that two Chinese businessmen initially reserved in full for a scholarship project administered by the University of Montreal, says the architect of the transaction.
The institution’s Vice-Rector for International Affairs and La Francophonie from 2014 to 2020, Guy Lefebvre negotiated the contribution of Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, which sparked controversy due to allegations that the People’s Republic of China offered to reimburse donors.
In an interview given to Duty, Mr. Lefebvre says that Mr. Zhang, with whom he began discussions around 2014, never mentioned the wish to contribute to the Trudeau Foundation. “There was no request from him, that’s clear, clean and precise,” he said Friday.
The involvement of the organization, founded in memory of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, would have even upset the Chinese businessman, according to Mr. Lefebvre. “Zhang Bin was not in a very good mood, not very happy that there was an additional actor,” he recalled.
Now retired, the former vice-rector says the Foundation itself claimed a portion of the donation to organize conferences, seminars and workshops bearing the donors’ names. “The exact proportion, I think it was the Trudeau Foundation that said, ‘we, $200,000 is fine with us,'” he explained.
I have always tried to do this for the benefit of the students on each side. If indeed we have, through stratagems, tried to influence people or others, including me, I feel quite betrayed.
This request was made when Mr. Lefebvre requested the organization’s authorization to use the name of the former prime minister, whom the two Chinese businessmen wanted to honor by financing scholarships at the ‘Montreal university.
“The foundation said: ‘We are going to participate. We are going to have a one-day conference, there are costs. We are going to do a joint venture with the University of Montreal.” Did they want to have their cut over a million dollars? I can’t say,” says the former vice-rector.
A sum of 50,000 additional dollars was also negotiated on this occasion to erect a statue of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, which, according to Mr. Lefebvre, also displeased Mr. Zhang.
“That’s my impression,” he said. He is an important man. He didn’t like being told that the project couldn’t work without the addition of the foundation. He found it complicated. And he found it complicated to add a statue. »
Forced to pedal
The Foundation’s involvement in the donation project forced Mr. Lefebvre to demonstrate conviction with the Chinese businessman. “When I told him there was a third party, I had to pedal to try to put things back together,” he said. Because above all, the money was intended for the students. »
In 2016, the funding agreement was formalized by a written agreement signed by the two donors as well as Alexandre Trudeau, son of the former prime minister, who then represented the foundation, and Mr. Lefebvre. The agreement provided for a payment of $800,000 for the university, including $50,000 for the statue, and $200,000 for the foundation.
Two years earlier, in November 2014, the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal had already announced this contribution for the first time. “Two Chinese businessmen donate a million to the Faculty of Law,” headlined a press release, without mentioning the Trudeau Foundation.
During this period, at a time that he could not specify, Mr. Lefebvre first contacted the Trudeau family to present the project to them. “I was surprised, but we were told that the family had no rights on whether or not to use the name, that it was the Trudeau Foundation,” he said.
He is an important man. He [Zhang Bin] didn’t like being told that the project couldn’t work without adding the foundation. He found it complicated.
During a meeting with representatives of the foundation, to whom he then spoke, Mr. Lefebvre was accompanied by two colleagues from the university, including Jean-François Gaudreault-Desbiens, now vice-rector for planning and strategic communication within the institution.
Questioned on the subject, Mr. Gaudreault-Desbiens directed The duty to the University’s communications department. A spokesman, Jeff Heinrich, did not respond directly to a question about when the foundation was associated with the project. “There was only one donation agreement,” he said. It was signed in 2016. It provides for separate payments for the University and for the Foundation. »
Reached on Friday, the Trudeau Foundation was unable to comment immediately.
Shocked
In February, the Globe and Mail reported allegations of interference by the government of the People’s Republic of China in the transaction, with the aim of influencing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
According to the daily, a source linked to national security, who has not been identified because he would be liable to prosecution under the Protection of Information Act, revealed that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS ) had, in 2014, intercepted a conversation between Mr. Zhang and a Chinese diplomat in Canada. This Chinese commercial attaché would then have assured the businessman that the donation of one million would be reimbursed by Beijing.
That information fueled allegations of Chinese foreign interference in the federal arena, where Mr. Trudeau was elected prime minister in 2015.
Mr. Lefebvre reacted strongly when he learned of the information attributed to CSIS. “It’s a shock for me,” he said. I have always tried to do this for the benefit of the students on each side. If indeed we have, through stratagems, tried to influence people or others, including me, I feel quite betrayed. »
Without ruling out the hypothesis raised by the information attributed to the SCRS, Mr. Lefebvre notes however that the initial project did not provide for a donation to the foundation, and even less for the participation of the Chinese State. “I may have been naive,” he blurts out.
Mr. Lefebvre had contacted Mr. Zhang after seeing that together with Mr. Niu, they had offered a donation to the University of Toronto. He met him for the first time in Montreal, around 2014, then in Beijing, on two occasions. He claims to have seen him only four or five times.
In total, the University of Montreal received $550,000 from donors who also donated $140,000 to the Trudeau Foundation, less than expected.
On Friday, the Foundation managed to donate the sum it received to the company of Mr. Zhang, Golden Eagle of the International Millennium. She also called for an investigation by the Auditor General into the process that led to the donation.