Former Trudeau Foundation head says past leadership misled Canadians on Chinese donation

The former president of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Pascale Fournier, told MPs Friday she believes the non-profit organization’s earlier leadership misled the country by characterizing a donation from wealthy Chinese benefactors as a Canadian donation.

Ms. Fournier, who resigned her post in March, testified before the Commons ethics committee Friday on the crisis at the publicly financed foundation that arose after The Globe and Mail reported that the Chinese government had orchestrated $1-million in donations to the foundation and the University of Montreal law school in hopes of influencing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The foundation publicly identified Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin and fellow Chinese businessman Niu Gensheng as the donors. They were also credited in the organization’s annual report for their pledge of $200,000 – of which $140,000 was eventually donated.

Senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase and Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife report here.

On another note Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in New York City, was skeptical about a debate now on whether Canada should maintain its ties to the monarchy.

“There are a number of people who feel that a different system would serve us better. Those people can make those arguments, but what those people can’t do is agree on what alternative would be better,” Mr. Trudeau said.

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