Federal Ethics Commissioner investigates Trudeau's ties to WE Charity over $912-million student volunteer grant
OTTAWA – The federal Ethics Commissioner will investigate the links between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and WE Charity, the organization with close ties to the Trudeau family to which the government outsourced an over $900-million student volunteer grant program last week.
According to letters received by both the Conservatives and the NDP on Friday afternoon, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion says he has advised Justin Trudeau that he will be opening an investigation into many facets of the WE Charity deal.
“In your letter, you allege that, given the existence of Mr. Trudeau’s close family ties with WE Charity and the outsourcing of this project to the charity over the federal public service or another volunteer organization, Mr. Trudeau afforded preferential treatment to WE Charity in contravention … of the Conflict of Interest Act,” Dion wrote in a July 3 letter to NDP MP Charlie Angus.
“I have considered your request and am of the view that it satisfies the requirements set out in … the Act. I am therefore commencing an examination.”
· WE Charity co-founder said PMO 'called' to award $900M student-grant program, contradicting Trudeau
· WE Charity pulls out of $912-million contract with Trudeau government
Last week, Trudeau announced that the government was outsourcing the $912-million Canada Student Service Grant to WE Charity, an organization who has close ties to the prime minister and his family.
Trudeau had regularly attended or hosted “WE Day”, the organization’s annual stadium-sized rally for Canadian youth, up until 2017. His wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, is currently a “WE ambassador and ally”, hosts a podcast with the organization and attended a WE Day event with her daughter and the prime minister’s mother, Margaret Trudeau, in London in March.
After a week of controversy, Trudeau announced Friday that WE Charity had pulled out of the deal.
For example, the National Post reported on Monday that WE Charity — which has close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family — had received only sole-source contracts from the federal government in the last three years.
Tuesday, video obtained by the National Post showed WE Charity co-founder saying that the prime minister’s office had called his organization directly asking it to “help implement” the Canada Student Service Grant.
This is the sixth time the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner has investigated Trudeau’s behaviour since he was elected prime minister in 2015. Two of those times, the Commissioner concluded that Trudeau had violated federal ethics laws.
More to come.