Another Trudeau Hurricane of Warped Ethics

"For the last several weeks, ethical questions have piled up about the federal government's decision to award a sole-sourced contract to administer the Canada Student Service Grant to WE Charity, a group with deep and extensive links to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family."
"I encourage the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate the possibility of criminal offences arising from these disturbing facts."
"You and the very able members of the national police force possess the necessary skills, expertise and tools to get to the bottom of this [handling of a $900-million contract]."
Conservative ethics critic, Michael Barrett

"He [Prime Minister Justin Trudeau] needs to explain where exactly the idea came from. Did the WE organization call him and suggest it? Did it come through the staff in his office? Did it come out of his own head? Did members of his family who had been paid by the organization suggest it to him?"
"We need to hear directly from him on those questions."
Conservative finance critic Pierre Pollievre

"One of [Finance] Minister Morneau's daughters is a current employee of WE Charity. Ir would seem apparent that Minister Morneau would recognize that the fact that his family member was an employee of this organization necessitated him to recuse himself regarding this extraordinary decision to outsource nearly a billion-dollar commitment of public funds to a single source contract."
NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus

Marc Kielburger and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took part in WE Day Canada Sunday July 2, 2017 on Parliament Hill. ASHLEY FRASER/POSTMEDIA

Prime Minister Trudeau announced the Canadian Student Services Grant on June 25, indicating that tens of thousands of students have been unable to find summer jobs as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. That they could instead be induced to volunteer their time and the government through this program would provide up to $5,000 for 500 hours of volunteer work, which would help the students pay their post-secondary tuition fees. Quite a novel idea to equate volunteerism with paid employment.

The civil service, skilled at administering this type of program in the past, and at present administering another one for summer student jobs, lacked the reach and the expertise, the Prime Minister explained during one of his many morning news conferences when he generally launches new programs and announces new COVID-related expenditures while standing at the doorsteps of Rideau Cottage, rather than in the House of Commons where he has suspended Parliament and where the opposition has the opportunity to question the utility of such programs, much less the staggering cost involved.

This, to justify the fact that an illegal decision was made to sole-source the contract when regulations for contracts of this magnitude -- anything in fact over $40,000 in value -- must go to tender, as usual in a competition to qualify for the contract. Ultimately, the contract -- the decision-making that granted it sole-source to a group supported by the Trudeau family, and which as a charity, had paid out over a quarter-million in speaking fees to the Trudeau family -- caused such a public stir it was cancelled.

And the unanswered questions swirling around the debacle has led to two parliamentary investigation committees, and the Parliamentary ethics commissioner conducting an investigation. Now, given the severe breach of public trust and the waiving of government safeguards to ensure that just such corrupt arrangements not occur, the RCMP too has been brought into the picture for a potential criminal investigation.

WE Charity denied that it paid anyone from the Trudeau family to support it and speak at its engaged events, until it transpired that it had, after all, paid the prime minister's mother, his brother and his wife honorariums amounting in total to $300,000. Peculiarly, people in the Canadian entertainment field who had been asked by WE Charity to appear at their events as entertainers never at any time received emoluments, only the wealthy, entitled and influential Trudeau family, not struggling artists.

Margaret Trudeau at a WE day event in London Alastair Grant/Associated Press

And although the Prime Minister insisted that the decision to choose WE Charity for its expertise emanated from the public service in recommending the organization, one of the charity's co-founders related receiving an invitation to administer the program directly from the prime minister's office. Moreover, although the Prime Minister insisted that the public service authorized the contract to go to WE Charity, it was his government that voted for the contract to proceed; and neither he, nor the Finance Minister whose two daughters have been involved with the group, recused themselves from the vote.

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, who on two previous occasions, found Justin Trudeau guilty of conflict of interess, is set to investigate this third blatant 'indiscretion', and is prepared to include the Minister of Finance in this, the most current investigation of obvious misjudgement otherwise known as ethical corruption.

"Now there are two ways that this can be done. Either the Prime Minister can agree voluntarily to show up and attend and respect the invitation of a parliamentary committee. That is what he will do if he has nothing to hide."
"Or Parliament can compel him to appear. Something that would take longer, but could be done -- and should be done -- if the Prime Minister  hides from accountability."
"If the opposition parties are interested in getting to the truth, they will vote in favour of that motion."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives on stage at We Day on Parliament Hill. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)