(Ottawa) Stating that China has never attempted to interfere in the Canadian democratic process through the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Alexandre Trudeau attacked in eight points, and above all unceremoniously, the former leader and president of the organization’s director, Pascale Fournier.
The testimony of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s younger brother before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on Wednesday sounded like a settling of accounts.
He set the table by stating that “no state or individual has attempted to influence the government through the Foundation”, lamenting that Canada, because it is “still a proud bastion of reason” , ensure that “several foreign powers are motivated to influence the Canadian state in perfidious ways”.
But what played out at the Trudeau Foundation was not “a matter of interference”, but rather “a management crisis fueled by serious misconduct by our former president [Pascale Fournier]”, he said. he argued before setting out eight allegations against her.
“Let’s break them down together,” he suggested to MPs. Attempt to influence the government of Justin Trudeau through a donation to the Foundation, mystery surrounding the identity of the donors or their affiliations, doubts about the legitimacy of his signature of the contract formalizing the donation, etc.
All of this is “resolutely” untrue, said Alexandre Trudeau in his opening statement.
Conservative MP Michael Barrett quickly rebounded on the issue of the signature affixed by the witness, on behalf of the Foundation, to the contract formalizing the promised donation of $200,000, of which only $140,000 was paid.
Before the same committee, last Friday, Pascale Fournier had expressed her incomprehension with regard to this aspect. His successor, Morris Rosenberg, meanwhile argued Tuesday that if Alexandre Trudeau had initialed the contract, it was for symbolic reasons.
The main interested party did not see any particular issue. “I signed paychecks, I live close to the Foundation, so I sometimes signed,” explained the Montreal resident. He also denied there was any reason to question the legitimacy of the International Millennium Golden Eagle donation.
“There was the same bank account, from BMO, for the first two donations. Canadian banks are governed by fairly strict money laundering laws. So that meant the company was operating within Canadian standards,” he argued.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s youngest son had himself requested an invitation to appear before the committee. “I’m ready to say everything I know about the Foundation. It’s urgent! “, he insisted in an interview with the daily Le Devoir last week.
As his brother’s testimony approached on Wednesday morning, Justin Trudeau said he would “explain very well what happened and his perspective”, while mentioning that the two had “not spoken to each other since several weeks “.
