Canada’s federal ethics commission has cleared PM Justin Trudeau of wrongdoing in the WE Charity scandal. The organisation was picked by the government to manage a multi-million-dollar summer youth volunteer program last year, but later withdrew its name when it was revealed that Trudeau and his former finance minister Bill Morneau had personal ties to the charity.
In his investigation reports, which looked into the conduct of both leaders, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion concluded that while there was an appearance of a conflict of interest, Trudeau had not violated any rules and did not have a close relationship with WE co-founders Craig and Marc Kielburger. “There was no opportunity to further Mr. Trudeau’s own interests or those of his relatives from WE’s role as administrator of the CSSG or from its Social Entrepreneurship proposal,” Dion wrote, adding, “I am satisfied that Mr. Trudeau did not give preferential treatment to WE.”
When reporting on Morneau’s actions, however, Dion stated that the former minister had broken conflict of interest rules. He noted that Morneau’s relationship with Craig Kielburger met the definition of a “friend” under the rules and that this resulted in an “unusually high degree of involvement between their representatives and afforded WE unfettered access to the Office of the Minister of Finance, which amounted to preferential treatment.” Dion further said that Morneau “should have recused himself from discussions on these matters,” but did not do so.
Following the report’s release, Trudeau thanked Dion for his work, and said that the commissioner had confirmed what he had “been saying from the beginning.” He added: “Now, we’ve got more work to do, as the third wave is hitting some provinces particularly hard. We will keep supporting them and delivering millions of more vaccines to keep people safe.” On the other hand, Morneau once again apologised for failing to recuse himself from government discussions about the charity.
Despite Dion’s findings, Conservatives were swift to denounce the report, with Leader Erin O’Toole lamenting that Canadian accountability laws were broken. “Our accountability laws are broken, and we can’t have more of the same corruption and cronyism from Justin Trudeau. It’s time to clean up the mess in Ottawa with a new anti-corruption law that will ensure Liberals like Justin Trudeau can’t reward their insider friends,” he said.
This was Trudeau’s third ethics probe in the last five years. The first was when he accepted a ride on the Aga Khan’s personal helicopter and stayed on his private island over the holidays in 2016. Then, in 2019, the Trudeau administration was found to have used its power to spare SNC Lavalin, one of Canada’s largest engineering companies, from prosecution for bribing Libyan officials in return for lucrative government contracts between 2001 and 2011.
Canadian Ethics Watchdog Clears PM Trudeau of Wrongdoing in WE Charity Scandal
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion concluded that while there was an appearance of a conflict of interest, Trudeau had not violated any rules.
May 14, 2021
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG