Shomporko Desk:-OTTAWA – Justin Trudeau will be in a tough situation today for an uncommon prime ministerial appearance at a House of Commons committee, confronting inquiries concerning his role in the simmering controversy involving the WE organization.
MPs on the finance committee will flame broil Trudeau about the events that prompted his Liberal cabinet requesting that the WE Charity regulate a $912-million program that gives awards to understudies and graduates for volunteering.
Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford was likewise planned to testify today.
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre cautioned that if the PM doesn’t completely address inquiries from restriction MPs about his own and his family’s connections to the WE organization, they will get back to him once more.
“We want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday.
WE had previously confirmed that Trudeau’s mother, Margaret Trudeau, was paid about $250,000 for 28 speaking appearances at WE-related events between 2016 and 2020 and his brother Alexandre has been paid $32,000 for eight events.
WE co-founders Craig and Marc Kielburger testified Tuesday that Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau has participated in seven WE Days and received an average of $3,618 for each event, to cover her expenses. That works out to $25,326 in total.
The Conservatives are now calling on federal ethics czar Mario Dion to widen his probe of Trudeau to include travel expenses WE covered in addition to speaking fees for his mother, wife and brother.
“What else is he hiding in this affair?” Poilievre said Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Dion sent letters to Conservative and NDP MPs saying he is widening his investigations into trips Finance Minister Bill Morneau and his family participated in that were sponsored by the WE organization.
Morneau told the Commons finance committee last week he had freshly repaid WE Charity more than $41,000 in expenses for trips he and his family took in 2017 to see and take part in some of the organization’s humanitarian work.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he believes details that have emerged since the program was announced suggest the deal awarding WE the Canada Student Services Grant program was never about students, but about helping close friends of the Liberals and of Trudeau.
Photo credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
News source: The Canadian Press
