LONDON (AP) — Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson left chaos in his wake Saturday after quitting Parliament with a blast at fellow lawmakers he accused of ousting him in a “witch hunt.”
Politics
Auditor general says she won’t probe donations made to Trudeau Foundation
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The federal auditor general says she will not investigate how the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation handled two donations with possible links to the Chinese government.
Last week, the foundation’s interim board chair wrote to the auditor general’s office saying it would welcome an investigation by auditor Karen Hogan of donations made in 2016 and 2017 totalling $140,000.
“I have determined that my office will not be conducting an audit,” Hogan wrote in a letter sent Monday.
“This decision is based on the scope of my authority under the Auditor General Act and our review of the endowment agreement between the government of Canada and the foundation.”
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s CEO and most members of its board of directors recently resigned due to what they described as the politicization of a donation from Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin and another Chinese businessman, Niu Gensheng. The foundation refers to itself an independent, non-partisan scholarship organization.
“In these circumstances, the foundation would welcome an investigation by the auditor general of Canada of all aspects concerning the receipt and handling of these donations by the foundation,” interim board chair Edward Johnson said in a letter dated last Friday.
“The foundation’s own independent review of the donations, to be handled by an independent law firm and accounting firm, will proceed in any case.”
According to the auditor general’s website, the office investigates the activities of federal government departments and agencies, Crown corporations and the country’s three territorial governments and their agencies.
Inquiries that fall explicitly outside the auditor’s mandate include requests to review policy decisions or to intervene in disagreements between private citizens and governments, banks or businesses, says the website.
Hogan wrote to Johnson that when it comes to private donations, her work would have been limited.
“It would be outside my authority to examine the source of private donations, the identity of other donors or their motivations,” she wrote.
When asked about the controversial donation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters last week he has not been involved in the foundation’s activities for nearly a decade.
However, the Opposition Conservatives have argued the foundation that bears Trudeau’s name has been used by individuals to court favour with the prime minister and those close to him.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has asked the commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency to launch an audit into the foundation. He cited a report from the Montreal-based newspaper La Presse that said that in trying to return the now-problematic donation, the organization discovered that the name on the cheque did not match the name of the donor.
Ahead of the release of her interim report on progress as Canada’s special interlocutor on unmarked graves at former residential schools, Kimberly Murray says lawmakers at all levels of government shouldn’t be waiting for her findings to act.
Citing examples of gaps she’s already identified, such as the drawn-out process to obtain records and the various approvals needed to access privately-owned land for ceremonies and searches, Murray said there’s a lot that governments could be doing now, as she continues her work.
“I speak a little bit about this in the interim report, about some of the things like waiving fees for records for communities to be able to access information,” Murray told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview. “We don’t need to wait to the end of my mandate to make some changes and put some things in place.”
A series of devastating discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential schools in Canada over the last two years reinvigorated calls to action. This prompted the federal government to appoint Murray to work with Indigenous people and make recommendations to strengthen federal laws and practices to protect and preserve unmarked burial sites.
Murray was also asked to help Indigenous communities weave through jurisdictional and legal hurdles at burial sites, and facilitate dialogue with relevant governments and institutions, including churches. Murray’s appointment also included plans to address issues around the identification and protection of unmarked graves, including the repatriation of remains.
Murray is set to table an interim report on her progress on June 16, marking a year since she assumed the role.
She told Kapelos that her coming report will highlight additional areas of concern identified by survivors and communities about the barriers they’re facing in trying to find their children, from costs associated with accessing documentation, to the need for legislative reform.
“It shouldn’t take 50 years to find out where your child is buried,” Murray said. “And we write about a couple of examples in our interim report that’s coming out.”
“It’s just terrible that families are having to go through this to determine what happened to their child,” she said.
Watch the full interview with Murray, in the video player above.
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As opponents jeered, the Conservative government absorbed the shock of yet another Johnson earthquake, while a band of loyal supporters insisted Britain’s divisive ex-leader could still make a comeback. Two Johnson allies joined him in quitting the House of Commons, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Less than a year after he was forced out as prime minister by his own Conservative Party, Johnson unexpectedly stepped down as a lawmaker late Friday — “at least for now,” he said in a self-justifying resignation statement.
Johnson quit after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament over “partygate,” a series of rule-breaking gatherings in the prime minister’s office during the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson was among scores of people fined by police over late-night soirees, boozy parties and “wine time Fridays” that broke restrictions the government had imposed on the country.
A standards committee investigating him appears to see things differently. Johnson quit after receiving the report of the Privileges Committee, which has not yet been made public. Johnson faced suspension from the House of Commons if the committee found he had lied deliberately.
Johnson, 58, called the committee “a kangaroo court” that was determined to “drive me out of Parliament.”
The committee, which has a majority Conservative membership, said Johnson had “impugned the integrity” of the House of Commons with his attack. It said it would meet Monday “to conclude the inquiry and to publish its report promptly.”
The resignation will trigger a special election to replace Johnson as a lawmaker for a suburban London seat in the House of Commons. Two allies of Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams, also quit, sparking three near-simultaneous by-elections — an unwanted headache for Sunak.
Johnson is a charismatic and erratic figure whose career has seen a series of scandals and comebacks. The rumpled, Latin-spouting populist with a mop of blond hair has held major offices but also spent periods on the political sidelines before Britain’s exit from the European Union propelled him to the top.
By quitting Parliament, he avoids a suspension that could have seen him ousted from his Commons seat by his constituents, leaving him free to run for Parliament again in future. His resignation statement suggested he was mulling that option. It was highly critical of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who served as Treasury chief in Johnson’s government before jumping ship with many other colleagues in July 2022 — resignations that forced Johnson out as prime minister.
“Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk,” Johnson said in a statement that sounded like a leadership pitch. “Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do.”
Johnson allies expressed hope that the former prime minister was not finished. Conservative lawmaker John Redwood said Johnson “has made it very clear that he doesn’t regard this as the end of his involvement in British politics.”
Others compared Johnson to Donald Trump, who has similarly claimed persecution by a host of enemies after being indicted on federal charges over his hoarding of classified documents after leaving office.
“It all feels very Trumpian,” said Will Walden, who worked for Johnson when he was mayor of London and U.K. foreign secretary.
“He has one song to play, and that is ‘I was robbed,”‘ Walden told Sky News.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Johnson often drew inspiration from his political hero, Winston Churchill, who led Britain to victory in World War II only to be ousted from power in 1945 — and then to return to office several years later.
“I believe that he thinks that he can spend some time in ⦠the wilderness before the Conservative Party and the country calls upon him once again in its hour of need,” Bale said.
“Frankly, I think that is unlikely. I think partygate has ensured that he is toxic as far as many voters are concerned. And I think the way he has behaved over the last two or three days — and some people will say over the last two or three years — probably means that most of his colleagues would rather he disappeared in a puff of smoke.”
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Ahead of the release of her interim report on progress as Canada’s special interlocutor on unmarked graves at former residential schools, Kimberly Murray says lawmakers at all levels of government shouldn’t be waiting for her findings to act.
Citing examples of gaps she’s already identified, such as the drawn-out process to obtain records and the various approvals needed to access privately-owned land for ceremonies and searches, Murray said there’s a lot that governments could be doing now, as she continues her work.
“I speak a little bit about this in the interim report, about some of the things like waiving fees for records for communities to be able to access information,” Murray told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview. “We don’t need to wait to the end of my mandate to make some changes and put some things in place.”
A series of devastating discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential schools in Canada over the last two years reinvigorated calls to action. This prompted the federal government to appoint Murray to work with Indigenous people and make recommendations to strengthen federal laws and practices to protect and preserve unmarked burial sites.
Murray was also asked to help Indigenous communities weave through jurisdictional and legal hurdles at burial sites, and facilitate dialogue with relevant governments and institutions, including churches. Murray’s appointment also included plans to address issues around the identification and protection of unmarked graves, including the repatriation of remains.
Murray is set to table an interim report on her progress on June 16, marking a year since she assumed the role.
She told Kapelos that her coming report will highlight additional areas of concern identified by survivors and communities about the barriers they’re facing in trying to find their children, from costs associated with accessing documentation, to the need for legislative reform.
“It shouldn’t take 50 years to find out where your child is buried,” Murray said. “And we write about a couple of examples in our interim report that’s coming out.”
“It’s just terrible that families are having to go through this to determine what happened to their child,” she said.
Watch the full interview with Murray, in the video player above.
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