Justin Trudeau: the new scandal involving the Prime Minister of Canada and his family

Trudeau faces his third conflict of interest investigation in five years in power over his firm’s decision to award a $ 43 million contract to WE Charity of Canada.

The program of 680 million US dollars It was designed to connect high school graduates with paid volunteer work options to make up for the loss of summer jobs expected due to the pandemic.

It later emerged that Trudeau’s mother and brother had received money in the past for speaking at various WE events.

Margaret Trudeau received little more than US $ 185,000 for speaking at 28 WE events in four years, and Prime Minister Alexander’s brother received approximately $ 23,000 for speaking at eight events between 2017 and 2018.

Trudeau also made frequent appearances, including his first WE event in 2007, according to the news site. iPolitics. His wife, Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, hosted a wellness podcast for the organization.

The Prime Minister did not withdraw from discussions related to the decision to award the contract to WE and two weeks ago he apologized.

The federal ethics oversight body has confirmed it is investigating the matter.

“This country is led by a small circle of elites and there is a cult of those who belong to the circle which strengthens this system, which quite regularly produces this kind of scandals, ”explains Canadian political theorist David Moscrop.

“It’s the structural problem, that Canada ends up being a small country ruled by a small group of people.”

The scholarship program already had more 35,000 applications and 83 partners non-profit.

Like the Trudeaus, the family of Finance Minister Bill Morneau had ties to WE. Two of his daughters are linked to the organization, one of them as an employee.

Morneau testified a few days ago before a House of Commons finance committee investigating that his family made two humanitarian trips, to Kenya and Ecuador, to see WE working overseas.

The Minister acknowledged that recently realized that he had not paid around $ 30,000 in travel expenses for these visits and wrote a check to compensate.

The organization said in a statement that although the trips were by invitation, the minister paid the amount that would have been charged if he had paid at that time.

US said he regularly organizes visits to “Well-known philanthropists”Like Morneau and his wife, they came from wealthy Canadian families.

Opposition parties are calling for him to resign or be fired for travel because they believe they violate ethical rules.

Academician Moscrop suggests that while the delay in paying for the trip may have been “negligence rather than malice”, this course of action may lead to “cynicism, anger and frustration. All this during a pandemic is doubly problematic. “

The finance minister is currently under investigation for possible ethical abuses for not recusing himself from discussions related to the WE contract, for which he has also apologized.

The WE organization was founded 25 years ago by brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger in their parents’ home in Ontario, Canada, when Craig was 12 years old.

Formerly known as Free The Children, the organization focused on end the exploitation of children and quickly gained international recognition.

Its co-founders went on to become local celebrities and appeared on television shows such as the Oprah Winfrey Show and 60 Minutes in America.

His motivational talks, called WE Day, have become a before and after for many young Canadians, who are drawn to his message that they can change the world and his roster of famous speakers and artists.

It is currently a large-scale organization which operates in UK, Canada and USA.

In the face of the controversy, WE withdrew from the scholarship program this month for being “embroiled in the controversy from the moment of the announcement,” according to the organization.

But the contract review is spread to the organization itself, raising questions about its expanding structure, the links between the social enterprise branch, its charitable entities and its internal culture.

Friday, the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported that some partners and sponsors, including the Queen of England Foundation and Virgin Atlantic Airline, they review their relationship against us.

In mid-July, the organization said it had decided to make governance and structural changes and refocus on its original international development mandate, and that it would hire external consultants for a review.

Trudeau’s federal Liberals still have a slight edge over their Tory opponents, but opinion polls suggest the controversy is taking its toll.

Support for the National Liberal Party has plummeted since the news broke, as has Trudeau’s approval rating, according to a July 20 Abacus Data poll.

Responses to the government’s handling of the problem they are negative all over the country, also among the 40% of people who voted Liberals in last year’s election, according to the poll.

This will likely continue to be relevant for some time.

Trudeau has a minority government, which means opposition parties have more control over the agenda and have the tools to “to lengthen it as long as possible“(the scandal), says the Moscrop analyst.

At the request of the opposition conservatives, the Prime Minister will appear before the House of Commons commission of inquiry in the coming days. And the Kielburgers too.

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