For the third time since 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau found himself Friday in the midst of a storm mixing ethics and politics, this time for having awarded a major government contract to an association that paid members of his family. The Conservative opposition has called for a police investigation to find out whether there was fraud in the award by the government of Justin Trudeau of a public contract for the management of nearly $ 1 billion to a charity, WE Charity (UNIS in French), contract which has since been withdrawn. Because this NGO admitted Thursday to have paid nearly 300,000 dollars (191,000 euros) to the mother, brother and wife of the head of government, contrary to what she had previously said. And Justin Trudeau acknowledged that he had participated in the discussions for the award of this contract, despite his family ties to We Charity.
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"There are enough grounds for the police to investigate this matter," said Michael Barrett, spokesperson for the Conservative Ethics Party. "We have a nearly $ 1 billion contract that was awarded without a tender by the Prime Minister," said Michael Barrett. "And we know there are significant financial benefits that have been touched by the Prime Minister's family." Prime Minister's mother Margaret Trudeau received $ 250,000 for speeches at 28 events hosted by the WE Charity association between 2016 and 2020, as the CBC channel revealed on Thursday. Justin Trudeau's brother Alexandre received about $ 32,000 for his participation in eight events. CTV also revealed that the Prime Minister's wife Sophie received $ 1,500 for an event in 2012 before Justin Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party.
"More serious than a conflict of interest"
"Relatives of the Prime Minister are involved with various organizations and support several personal causes of their own accord," justified Thursday in a statement the office of Justin Trudeau. The Prime Minister's Office told the Globe and Mail the day before that the Trudeau couple had never received any money for their presence at NGO events.
The Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, an independent officer of Parliament, launched an investigation last week into the Prime Minister in connection with the contract to manage a $ 900 million student bursary program Canadian (587 million euros). However, the Conservative Party considers this investigation insufficient, given new revelations about the sums paid to the Trudeau family before the contract was awarded. "It's much more serious" than a "conflict of interest," said Pierre Poilievre, Conservative finance critic, asking the federal police to determine if there had been "fraud against the government ” .
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The Bloc Québécois (separatists) asked the Liberal Prime Minister to step down and be replaced during the investigation by the Deputy Prime Minister. "The nature of the allegations, the size of the sums, the gross appearance of a conflict of interest, the possibility that there may be criminal investigations into this matter make it impossible for the Prime Minister to continue to exercise his function, " said his head Yves-François Blanchet. "The context does not allow a resignation request: we are in the middle of a pandemic," he said in a press release.
WE Charity announced last Friday its withdrawal from the scholarship program, citing the "controversy" surrounding the contract. Several media also said on Friday afternoon that WE also paid a daughter of Finance Minister Bill Morneau. The Ethics Commissioner has twice concluded that the Prime Minister broke the conflict of interest law: in 2017 for accepting a vacation on the private island of Aga Khan, and last year for attempting to influence legal proceedings in the SNC-Lavalin case.