Ethics? O Canada My Home And Native Land!

"Over the last five years and on several occasions, I have observed senior officials being unaware of their obligations and mistakenly making assumptions."

"Offers to provide training and educational sessions on a variety of topics have been offered to all federal parties and to regulatees, yet we continue to see a succession of mistakes that are largely attributable to the inability to recognize the need to seek consultation [with the Ethics Commission]."

"As a parliamentary secretary since 2015 and having served for several years on both the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics and the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, Mr. Fergus [veteran MP and parliamentary secretary] should be well versed on the functioning of both regimes and the importance of consulting the [Ethics] Office." 

"I am quite concerned that someone with the breadth of experience of Mr. Fergus would fail to recognize the possibility of a contravention."

"The Act has been there for 17 years, for God's sake, so maybe the time has come to do something different so that we don't keep repeating the same errors. After 17 years, maybe we should realize that something is not working."

"I don't think the crafters of the Act envisaged the situation where a prime minister would be found in breach himself. So it has created a very special situation. It's a funny situation to be in and it was not envisioned by the crafters, obviously."

Federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, Ottawa

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, who has announced he will be leaving his post, says he has seen little evidence during his tenure that the federal government takes ethics seriously. Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/File

"If the [Liberal] party disagrees with Trudeau, finds that he shouldn't be a serial violator, then they would remove him."

"If Trudeau is not going to hold himself accountable, and the party is not going to hold him accountable, well he kind of has to not hold them accountable in return."

"It's kind of a quid pro quo with his own party members. Trudeau's caucus failed the [ethics standard] system."

Ian Stedman, ethics law expert, associate professor, York University school of public policy and administration

After studying a concerning "succession of mistakes" from senior government officials who have a propensity to break ethics laws, the federal Commissioner of Ethics, Mario Dion, called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to order all his ministers and parliamentary secretaries to seek out additional ethics training. All of whom have been exposed in the past to such training. Before they even take their seats in Parliament, newly-elected Members of Parliament routinely receive a round of ethics training to ensure they are fit to sit in government as lawmakers.

Mr. Dion tabled a report finding that Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Greg Fergus broke ethics laws by contacting the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to influence the board to allow a small television company mandatory carriage in Quebec. Fergus is chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus and sought to further the aspirations of a Black-owned company attempting to gain a significant windfall of revenue.

As MP Fergus well knows there is a clear prohibition under ethics laws for senior officials wishing to exert any form influence or pressure on a tribunal; that very issue is one repeated frequently in reports and public guidelines on the website of the Ethics Commission. The report the Ethics Commissioner released on this matter is the second in a three-month period where a Liberal MP was found by Mr. Dion in breach of ethics laws. International Trade Minister Mary Ng was reprimanded for her personal involvement in two contracts issued by her department to a company owned by her "close friend", a former Liberal staffer. 

Mr. Dion's predecessor prior to 2018 when he took the office, published a report that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke conflict of interest laws by accepting two flights from the Aga Khan (who petitions government) and vacationing with his family on the Aga Khan's sumptuous private island. Since then, Mr. Dion completed two dozen additional investigations into Liberal ministers (including the prime minister in two more occasions), MPs and top public servants and government agency administrators subject to the Conflict of Interest Act.

No fewer than five senior Liberals were found in violation of ethics laws, including Trudeau and the-hen Liberal Finance Minister. Over the period of his mandate as commissioner Dion's office gave 140 presentations on ethics and conflict of interest obligations to thousands of attendees, one third of those lectures Mr. Dion presented himself. "Giving a contract to a friend, I don't think you require much training to understand this isn't appropriate", commented Mr. Dion. "Something has to be done" to show they "are taking this seriously". 

The Conflict of Interest Act, points out Mr. Dion, states specifically that respecting that law represents a "condition of employment" for public office holders it applies to. In theory, anyone who breaches the act could lose their job if the individual at the top takes the Act seriously. "I don't think the crafters of the act envisaged the situation where a prime minister would be found in breach himself. So it has created a very special situation", added Mr. Dion.

"Twice already, Canada's conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, has found the prime minister violated ethics rules. The first occasion was in 2017, when former commissioner Mary Dawson ruled on Trudeau and his family accepting a vacation on the Aga Khan's private island in the Bahamas."

"The second occasion was just last year, when the current commissioner, Mario Dion, found that Trudeau had tried to influence then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to overrule a decision not to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin."

"Dion already had announced he would be looking into the decision to grant the WE Charity a sole-sourced contract to administer the Canada Student Service Grant when the charity revealed it and its affiliates had paid the prime minister's mother and brother about $300,000 for speaking engagements over the last four years."

"When photos were published in the midst of the last campaign showing that Trudeau had worn blackface on multiple occasions before entering politics, there was enormous potential for a career-ending blow to the prime minister."

Éric Grenier · CBC News · Posted: Jul 12, 2020 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under fire for his government's decision to award a contract to WE Charity, an organization with ties to himself and his family. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

 

Canada's Earned Place on the Global Corruption Index

"The problem of money-laundering in Canada and other corruption scandals have been headline news in recent years, ragging down the perception of Canada as a clean country. this year's disappointing results show the need to take concrete action to restore Canada's reputation."

"There's no there-there issue that made us drop, this is more about the ripple effect of what's happened over the last couple of years and not seeing a counterbalance in enforcement, new rules or the results of those new rules."

"Canada-wide, we need to see action on anti-money laundering. It's a national issue. And we need to see the federal government taking foreign bribery seriously too." 

James Cohen, executive director, Transparency International (TI) Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he "made a mistake" by joining in talks for giving a government contract to a charity that paid his family. Reuters

Canada scored 74, putting it in 13th place on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 2021. A drop of two points in comparison to the year before, placing Canada in a tie with Iceland, Ireland, Estonia and Austria. Other countries above Canada on the listing include Denmark, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong. France scores at 71 and the United States 67; Canada's 74 score emphasizes a downward trend -- having dropped 10 points since 2012.

Transparency International points out that Canada's ranking represents the most significant drop in score of all 180 countries in the past five years. "I think Canadians are frustrated, and rightfully so. What the public needs to do is keep up the pressure to make sure that changes come through. We can't just rest on our image of Canada the good any more, we need to see action."

Remember the SNC-Lavalin scandal? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould (at right) clashed over appropriate government action

 

No one single incident or scandal stands out to have caused Canada's latest ranking fall. Mr. Cohen's theory is that the country is embroiled in the shock waves caused by fairly recent events that drew worldwide attention and those relate to the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, playing fast-and-loose with scruples and ethics to suit his own personal and political agenda.

Unlike any prime minister before him, Trudeau since becoming head of government in 2015, has three times been the subject of separate Ethics Commissioner investigations, two finding that he had broken ethics laws. There was the controversial Christmas vacation the Trudeau family enjoyed on billionaire philanthropist and leader of the Ismaili movement, Aga Khan's private island, in 2017.

The Prime Minister again broke ethics laws in 2019 when the Ethics Commissioner found he had improperly applied pressure on then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to broker a remediation agreement with Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. "We see in reports that the CPI is compiled from, that this is obviously still on the mind of international observers", remarked Mr. Cohen.

The WE Charity scandal rocked the Liberal government in 2020 and eventually led to Finance Minister Bill Morneau's resignation and a subsequent Ethics Commissioner ruling of his having breached the law. "It's not just the scandals, but it's also the lack of things that have been done. We've seen remediation agreements come into effect, but we have yet to see a remediation agreement sealed, or finished", observed Mr. Cohen.

"Trudeau managed to dodge Conflict of Interest Act findings against him in the WE Charity scandal, despite appearances; Trudeau was a regular at the Keilburgers’ mass pep rallies, and Trudeau’s wife, brother and mother were paid hundreds of thousands of WE Charity dollars in celebrity-endorsement fees."

"But then-finance minister Bill Morneau was not so lucky. Morneau was found to have contravened conflict-of-interest laws by accepting free trips for himself and his wife and daughter to exotic WE Charity locales in Kenya and Ecuador."

Terry Glavin, The Ottawa Citizen

Money laundering is a recurring issue in Canada, a situation which has garnered headlines across the country, in particular in British Columbia. Anywhere between $46 billion and $130 billion is estimated laundered through Canada annually, known as "snow-washing".  There is hope on the horizon with recent initiatives taken by the federal and provincial governments toward increased transparency and to fight corruption. Unfortunately results have not yet been recognized.

A significant initiative, if it is seen through to fruition, undertaken by the federal government and a few provinces is a pledge to install a new beneficial ownership registry, to reveal the identity of owners of shell corporations, often used in money laundering schemes within Canada. "For Canada to go back up, we need to start seeing the results of the good intentions", stated Mr. Cohen.

Sincerely Ingenuous

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

"I knew there would be perception issues around this [family ties to a charity his government chose to distribute a $912-million student disbursement for volunteerism to]."

"At the same time, delivering a grant program to students who volunteer across the country has absolutely nothing to do with any work my brother or mother did with WE [WE Charity], and that's why there was no conflict of interest."

"We [Cabinet] pulled the item from the agenda so that we could be doing the right thing, the way."

"I wanted to push back and really make sure that everyone could say without a shadow of a doubt that this was…the way to deliver the program recommended by our outstanding and professional public servants."

"As Mr. Morneau [Finance Minister] himself highlighted, he apologized and he should not have accepted the elements of that, that were gifts."

"The idea that someone on their personal vacation would choose to support a good cause or get involved in helping make the world a better place is not something that we should reject or turn away from."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"Multiple ministers and senior officials have testified at the finance committee."

"Not one of them said that the prime minister pulled the WE proposal from the May 8 cabinet meeting and sent it back for further scrutiny."

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer

The Parliamentary finance committee in conducting their investigation into the highly unusual situation whereby a sole-sourced contract for a proposed Canada Student Service Grant was granted to a charity that happened to be supported and hugely favoured by the prime minister, his family, the minister of finance and his family, had invited quite a few individuals to appear before them in friendly question-and-answer settings (through remote video connection). Among others, a number of senior civil servants. From whom came the information that the connection between the Trudeau family and the WE Charity was widely known among them.

That, in fact, this specific charity and none other, catering to youth, inspiring youth to reach out and give aid to other youth in the international community much less fortunate, as well as speaking out against child labour and investing in educational opportunities for children living in abject poverty in developing countries, would be hugely favoured as a result, to be named the beneficiary of a lucrative contract. This was important because the prime minister insisted repeatedly that it was not he who arranged for the contract to be sole-sourced to WE Charity, but the civil service, and he was completely ignorant of their choice.

Until he no longer was, when he was finally apprised of his most favoured charity for which he had himself attended well publicized, popular and crowd-thick inspirational meetings, speaking to the adoring throngs of youth, taken with the message of dedicated volunteerism. Dedicated volunteerism is what the public witnessed when they listened to an enthusiastic Margaret Trudeau speak on numerous occasions to spellbound WE Charity supporters. As did her son, Alexandre, Justin Trudeau's younger brother.

However, they did so to the tune of remuneration totalling a third of a million dollars, where Margaret Trudeau herself banked $250,000 for her 28 inspiring speeches. The prime minister's wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, was another enthused volunteer and spokesperson for the charity. The finance minister's two daughters were also heavily involved with WE Charity, one a contract employee, the other a speaker. This is a charity that has, besides its charitable purpose, a for-profit arm, a real estate arm, a tourism arm, and an associated contract-signing arm separate from the charity itself, but signing for it.

WE Charity excels in extending invitations to wealthy donors for all-expense-paid trips to some of its overseas ventures. Mr. Morneau and his family accepted two such trips in 2017, one to Ecuador, the other to Kenya. By all accounts quite wonderful trips to see the good work of the charity in action, and to stay at luxury accommodation in a truly unique environment for a feel-good purpose. Mr. Morneau is a multi-millionaire. The trips his family took  were estimated to the value of $93,000. Mr. Morneau suddenly recalled, on the eve he was to appear before the finance committee, that he 'owed' WE Charity $41,000 in connection with those trips, and he speedily wrote a cheque, albeit 3 years after the events.

When he responded to questions at the finance committee investigation, Mr. Trudeau gave what he considered to be perfectly valid, explicable responses; among the most salient that his 'talented' family generously gave of their time, and that the connection between their being paid by this charity and the charity being chosen for a prestigious, high-profile vote-getting program was completely above-board. Nothing to see here, folks move on, because the prime minister insists there was nothing unethical; the cause unassailable, everyone involved well-meaning.

There are other Parliamentary enquiries into this situation in the offing. The Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner has committed to investigating Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau, both for the third time, for ethics violations. On the two previous occasions, both men were found to have gone afoul of Parliamentary ethics. The entire situation is nothing more, nothing less, than business-as-usual for this Liberal government. A finance minister handling Canada's finances and handing out tens of billions of treasury for Liberal government COVID-19-related support to business and the unemployed and students, who cannot keep abreast of his own personal finances.

A prime minister who feels entitled to believe that anything he decides would be in the best interests of the country should go unquestioned, and to that end manipulated a situation whereby a second-tier opposition party agreed to support a motion to suspend Parliament for the duration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic roiling the world, until such time as a vaccine is discovered and widely available. Setting the stage for this prime minister to govern like a true autocrat whose decisions cannot be questioned. Had Parliament been fully restored, opposition parties would have been able to intervene in this situation.

The fact that the charity was in deep financial trouble would have been noted and questioned. Its real estate holdings, unusual in size and breadth for a charity would have been noted and questioned. Its default on its banking obligations would have been noted and questioned. Its firing of 400 employees would have been noted and questioned; after all, how could such an ambitious program such as the student grants be administered short-handed? Most telling of all, the resignation of the chair of the WE Charity board of directors would have been noted and questioned.

Former WE Charity Board Chair, Michelle Douglas 'testifying'

That most other members of the board chose to leave along with the chair should certainly have been a flapping red flag. Michelle Douglas too appeared before the finance committee to respond to questions put to her. She described feeling uneasy and puzzled that upon request and even after pressing, she and the board were unable to obtain copies of WE Charity finances. She was troubled by the precipitate firing of 400 employees which she felt to be completely inappropriate and unnecessary. When, in a telephone conversation with the Kielburgers she insisted on seeing financial records, the line went dead.

Subsequently she was requested to hand in her resignation. “It was our view that you don’t fire hundreds of people without very strong demonstrable evidence, and even then should explore mitigation measures to save jobs", she explained to the committee. "Instead, the executive team were dismissing employees with great speed and in large numbers."  As for payment to speakers, she and the board had been led to believe that all speakers did so voluntarily. "The WE Charity board always understood that speakers were not paid by the charity or the related organizations to speak at WE Day. The board made direct inquiries on this issue."

Co-founders of WE Craig (left) and Marc Kielburger (right) are seen on stage during WE Day California in Inglewood, California, U.S. April 25, 2019. The brothers spent four hours in front of a committee of MPs today answering questions about their role in the federal government's student grant program. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Marc and Craig Keilburger, co-founders of WE Charity and all its stunningly complicated arms initiated work on administering the controversial Student Volunteer Grant program well before it had been approved to proceed by Cabinet. They had, they explained, been advised by departmental officials that they could feel free to incur expenses related to the disbursement program prior to to being informed the agreement had been formally awarded to WE Charity. Their haste, they explained, had nothing whatever to do with anticipating the $43-million profit that would come their way; they were assiduous in starting for the simple reason that delay would harm the program.

The idea was to get as many university students unable to find summer jobs during the COVID pandemic involved as soon possible, to enable them to have the financial wherewithal to pay for their forthcoming tuition when the university year commenced. And so, they overlooked the possibility that the agreement would not come through and they stood a chance of forfeiting any expenditures on their part, for the greater good of the country, because this is what they're all about; making the world a better place.

"That was a decision that they took because they knew how important it was to get this program going and they assumed certain risks in going forward and starting to spend on a program that hadn't yet been approved by cabinet and would not be approved for another few weeks", explained Mr. Trudeau, in their defence and his own. Ungenerously, the leader of the opposition, Mr. Scheer, responded "Why was WE so sure that they were going to be approved? Why were they told they could start charging expenses before the program was even approved?"

As for Justin Trudeau's forgiving attitude over Bill Morneau's ill-advised acceptance of an all-expense-paid trip hosted by a charity he and his family have generously supported, it's hardly surprising. Given that Justin Trudeau and his family were pleased to accept just such a trip whose invitation was extended by the Aga Khan for them to enjoy Christmas at his private island in the Bahamas. Justin Trudeau innocently described the trip as a gift from a family friend, and couldn't see what the fuss was all about. That was the first time that the Ethics Commissioner issued a rebuke for trangressing Parliamentary ethics when he was found to have violated sections 5, 11, 12 and 21 of the Conflict of Interest Act.

Minister of Finance Bill Morneau rises in the House of Commons to deliver a fiscal snapshot as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on, Wednesday, July 8, 2020 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

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)

Pushing the Limits of Conflicts of Interest -- A Muddle is: Playing Both Ends Against the Middle

"The nature of the allegations, the importance of the sums in play, the blatant appearance of conflict of interest, the possibility ... that there are criminal investigations on this file in the future, make it impossible for the Prime Minister to continue in his functions."

"When one holds a function as important as that of prime minister, you have an obligation to be above all suspicions. And this would not be the first time that Trudeau woefully fails a probity test."

Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet

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

"Justin Trudeau has never been paid by WE Charity or ME to WE Social Enterprise for any speeches or other matters", declared the umbrella organization representing the purported choice of the civil service in outsourcing the administration of a recently announced Liberal government initiative to pay Canadian students for volunteer work up to a maximum of $5,000 over the summer months. A charitable group whose organization Justin Trudeau lauded as superior, the 'only one' with the capacity to administer the special $900-million fund properly.

And then an independent news source called CANADALAND uncovered some embarrassing details overlooked by WE Charity and the Prime Minister's Office alike. That the volunteer work undertaken by the prime minister's Mother, Margaret Trudeau, and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and his brother Alexandre Trudeau, was handsomely paid for by the charity. For Margaret Trudeau, 28 speaking engagements netted her $312,000. Her son was paid $40,000 for eight appearances on behalf of the group.

And Mrs. Sophie Trudeau, a good-will ambassador for the charity, and speaker at their major events earned an insignificant financial honorarium. All this, and the unhealthy odour emanating from sole-sourcing a contract to the value of close to a billion dollars to a Trudeau-family-favoured charity, a breach of ethical conduct of breathtaking audacity and entitlement. When the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner faulted Justin Trudeau for a family vacation on a private Bermuda island owned by the Aga Khan, Trudeau protested he was an old family friend.

When the Ethics Commissioner reported on the second conflict of interest violation when Justin Trudeau attempted to manipulate then-Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould to waive a criminal case pending against Quebec-based SNC-Lavalin, it was after he had booted the Minister of Justice, Ms.Wilson Raybould, out of Cabinet for resisting a Liberal campaign to intimidate her into obeying Trudeau's recommendation that SNC Lavalin's case of corruption not be criminalized.

The illegal, unethical handover to a hand-picked Trudeau family-favoured charity of close to a billion dollars to administer a special fund to reward volunteerism, will be the third occasion that the Ethics Commissioner has undertaken an examination of Justin Trudeau's questionable actions. He was previously condemned for contravening the Conflict of Interest Act on two occasions, and now a third will be added. And nor is the Ethics Commissioner's the only enquiry to go forward as a result of this tawdry affair; two separate parliamentary committees are also prepared to investigate.

Margaret Trudeau at a WE day event . (Alastair Grant/The Associated Press)

"The Prime Minister's relatives engage with a variety of organizations and support many personal causes on their own accord."

"What is important to remember here is that this is about a charity supporting students. The Canada Student Service Grant program is about giving young people opportunities to contribute to their communities, not about benefits to anyone else."

Ann-Clara Vaillancourt, Prime Minister's Office spokesperson

"No you don't get to put up 'won't someone please think of the children' as a defence from ethics scrutiny."

"How on Earth is there no one in the PMO who thought to advise the Prime Minister to recuse himself from discussions on this? How did the PMO, after Aga Khan and SNC-Lavalin, not think to recuse himself?"

James Cohen, executive director, Transparency International Canada 

"Today's news is scandalous. We now know that Justin Trudeau handed almost a billion-dollar contract to a charity that not only had close ties to the Liberal Party, but which paid his family almost $300,000. Parliament must immediately be recalled so that we can get to the bottom of this."

"Canadians deserve answers and the Prime Minister and his government must be held accountable."

Michael Barrett, Conservative ethics critic

Co-founders Craig (left) and Marc Kielburger introduce Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau as they appear at the WE Day celebrations in Ottawa, Tuesday November 10, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld