(OTTAWA) Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brother, Alexandre Trudeau, to appear before a House of Commons committee.
The Leader of the Official Opposition opened Monday’s Question Period with this request. He justified the relevance of his request by pointing out that Alexandre Trudeau signed, on behalf of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, the contract formalizing a Chinese donation of $ 200,000, in 2016.
The Prime Minister not being present at the meeting, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons Chamber, Mark Holland, gave the reply to Pierre Poilievre. He did not directly answer the question, arguing that Justin Trudeau was no longer involved with the Foundation.
He took the opportunity to accuse the Conservative leader of having a “fixation” on the Trudeau family.
The discussions surrounding the “Chinese donation” to the Trudeau Foundation date back to 2014. At that time, the two businessmen Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng expressed the desire to donate $800,000 to the Faculty of Law of the Trudeau Foundation. University of Montreal and $200,000 to the Trudeau Foundation.
The process will not finally succeed until 2016. The donation was to be made in three installments, two of $70,000 and the last of $60,000. The last check was never paid. The contract formalizing the donation is signed by Zhang Bin, Niu Gensheng, the rector of the University of Montreal, Guy Breton, and Alexandre Trudeau.
At the time, Justin Trudeau’s younger brother was a member of the Foundation’s board of directors, and he was authorized to enter into this type of agreement, argued the then President of the Foundation, Morris Rosenberg.
After struggling to repay the $140,000 donation, the Foundation finally managed to return it last Friday.
