Caught in the Breach

"I am now explaining that to Canadians because one of he most important things about my approach in politics has been creating a level of accountability, of transparency, of openness, of honesty that means admitting when mistakes were made, taking responsibility for them and fixing them in an open manner that hopefully will continue to restore Canadians' trust in our political system."
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette     'Classic sense of entitlement': Liberal leader Justin Trudeau introduces provincial Liberal byelection candidate Sandra Yeung Racco, left, at her campaign office in Thornhill, Ont., on Thursday. Trudeau was attacked by political rivals after admitting he had wrongly claimed $840 in expenses. 

 

How's that for a breathlessly compelling run-on sentence that smacks of extreme protestations of innocence of evil intent?

The New Democratic Party had unanimous support, even from Justin Trudeau, for its recommendation that an examination of parliamentary resources used by Members of Parliament who engage in paid public speaking be undertaken. Clearly a very pointed move, since the one MP that comes instantly to mind who famously and profitably engaged in public speaking engagements was Justin Trudeau himself.

He had divulged in 2013 that he had earned the princely sum of $1.3-million on a public speaking circuit from 2006 to 2013. Of that sum $277,000 was derived from speaking to 17 groups since his election to Parliament in 2008. His platinum birthright as a Trudeau, his engaging personality and attractive personal appearance all conspired in his favour; he was obviously much in demand as a public speaker; not that public that he wouldn't extract a handsome fee for his presence and his dulcet tenor tones.

Among the groups who paid for the pleasure of hearing Justin Trudeau speak there were charities and non-profit groups, school boards, municipalities and universities. He touted himself as a man vitally interested in education and promoting the need for young people to acquire a sound education. He was, in a previous lifestyle, an educator himself, employed at a Vancouver school teaching English and theatre arts, and good on him, since the life of a thespian really, truly becomes him and expresses his metier.

The House of Commons undertook to review his expense claims. Needlessly, quite obviously, since Mr. Trudeau had claimed he "absolutely never used any House or parliamentary resources" while exploiting his public speaking career. A public speaking career that came to an abrupt end when he decided to place himself in contention for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.

There are those who questioned why he would choose to speak-for-profit taking time out from his full-time job on Parliament Hill, in a rather uncouth display of money-grubbing and double-dipping, let alone having the gall to take thousands of dollars from taxpayer-supported institutions when he was already being very well paid by the taxpayer to present himself full-time at his MP office, but that's another story.

Wrong. It's part of this story. The clerk of the House of Commons advised that she had discovered a $672 travel claim dating from 2012 unrelated to his parliamentary duties. "Due to human error", he explained; the invoice was included along with other, legitimate travel claims when it was submitted to the House of Commons administration for reimbursement. "I did not detect this error when signing the claim", Mr. Trudeau stated.

Other incidental expenses wee discovered for per diems for travel days related to his public speaking tours. Mr. Trudeau assures everyone he has reimbursed all those amounts. "As a member of Parliament, I take full, personal responsibility for the financial administration of my office, including these errors", he said, addressing the matter of the unfortunate errors in a statement.

There were some responses from the opposition wings: "I think it says a lot about his judgement and frankly about the Liberals' classic sense of entitlement", commented NDP leader Tom Mulcair, reiterating his opinion of a man who should never have accepted money for making speeches, as a Member of Parliament. MPs, after all, have an obligation to accept speaking arrangements as representatives of government, paid to do just that through their MPs' salary.

"Not only did Justin Trudeau take money from charities, he also took money from taxpayers - and denied doing so, right up until he was caught", observed Candice Bergen, minister of state for social development.

How unkind.