Alexandre Trudeau, second son of the 15th prime minister and brother of the 23rd, insisted on appearing before the standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics to defend the honour of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. His brother’s government surely would have rather he hadn’t, if only to avoid giving the story any more attention.
But except for the mere spectacle of a famous son and brother appearing before a parliamentary committee, it’s not obvious that the opposition Conservatives gained much from Trudeau’s appearance either.
Indeed, the two hours that Trudeau spent answering questions from MPs on Wednesday only seemed to make the case that, for all the oxygen it it has consumed, the tale of the donation to the Trudeau Foundation is but a curious and distracting subplot within a much larger and more serious story about alleged foreign interference in Canada by the Chinese state.
“Since its creation the foundation has granted several hundred scholarships to our most brilliant researchers and has given them the tools and training to make their important work more accessible to Canadians at large,” Trudeau told the committee. “It is precisely as a bastion of reason and tolerance — perhaps the last refuge even for a universal humanism — that Canada has become the target of foreign interference.”
Even more than his older brother, Alexandre Trudeau bears a strong resemblance to his father (whereas Justin got his mother’s hair, Alexandre got his father’s hairline). And apparently he talks a little like him too. Befitting his surname, he was a little combative with his inquisitors. But if Conservative MPs were hoping to bait him into saying something embarrassing — at one point, they just started asking him about his views on China — they basically failed.
Alexandre Trudeau, brother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, prepares to appear before the Parliamentary standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
The Trudeau Foundation was created in 2002, shortly after the death of its namesake, when the federal government agreed to endow an independent organization that would mentor and assist young scholars. Everyone seemed more or less okay with the idea at the time. And for most of the foundation’s existence, it seems to have attracted little controversy. But over the last few months it has been referenced more than 200 times in the House of Commons.
The sudden uptick in interest coincides with a February report in the Globe and Mail alleging that CSIS had evidence in 2014 — when the former Conservative government was in office — that a donation to the foundation was part of an effort by Chinese officials to curry favour with Justin Trudeau. That a Chinese businessman had donated to the foundation was already well known. But now it was a piece of a larger furor over allegations of foreign interference in Canadian politics.
Alexandre Trudeau’s account of what happened
It was Alexandre Trudeau’s testimony that the University of Montreal first approached him about the donation in December 2013. The university had received a proposal to fund a scholarship in the late prime minister’s name. That led them to contact Trudeau, representing both the family and the foundation. And that led to some of the promised money going to the foundation.
Trudeau testified that he received no warning from CSIS about the donation, that the donors did not raise any “red flags” for him and that he did not discuss the donation with his brother. He repeated that his brother has not been involved with the foundation for nearly a decade. He also said that he does not discuss government policy with his brother — something he also said to CBC Radio in an interview in September 2016.
Though Trudeau cast doubt on the Globe’s reporting, it’s possible that a full airing of the facts and evidence would support the allegation that the donation had political motivations. It is also possible to look back and conclude that the Trudeau Foundation should have been more careful about who it accepted donations from. And there were numerous questions on Wednesday about the apparent disagreements between current and former managers of the foundation about how to handle questions about the donation.
But questions about corporate governance are a long way from the central concern about foreign interference. And no one at the committee table on Wednesday produced evidence that Alexandre Trudeau knowingly participated in a scheme to influence the government. Nor is there any indication that Justin Trudeau or his government did something wrong.
As the two hours dragged on, MPs seemed to run out of questions. For no particular reason, Trudeau was asked whether he thought a Chinese diplomat should be expelled over the alleged threats made against the family of Conservative MP Michael Chong. The prime minister’s younger brother politely declined to comment.
Conservative MP questions Alexandre Trudeau about Beijing-linked donor
Alexandre Trudeau tells MPs Zhang Bin was likely at a fundraiser event for Justin Trudeau because ‘he wanted to get a photo with the prime minister to show his friends.’
The new reality of foreign interference
When Morris Rosenberg, the Trudeau Foundation’s former president, testified before the same committee on Tuesday, he suggested that the donation needed to be understood in the context of the time period. Usually such pleas are more excuse than explanation, but it’s also not wrong to say that times have changed.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, hold a panda at the Chongqing Zoo in Chongqing, China, in 2012. Two giant pandas would call Canada home until 2020. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Harper posed with one of the cuddly Chinese animals during a trip to China in 2012 when he announced a deal to lease a pair of giant pandas for up to ten years (at a cost of $1 million per year). A year later, when Er Shun and Da Mao arrived in Toronto, Harper showed up at the airport to greet them.
“We have a prime minister who is not too busy to go and see two pandas that are not even allowed out of quarantine, but he is too busy to see 12 premiers,” Bob Rae, the former Liberal MP, teased Harper at the time.
In fairness, most Canadians would rather hang out with two pandas than a dozen premiers (pandas are easier to please and less prone to biting).
But in hindsight, do those pandas seem a little less cuddly? At the very least, there would certainly be calls to send them back if they were still here now (Er Shun and Da Mao were returned in November 2020 due to a bamboo shortage).
The context is very different now. The authoritarian threat to democracy is very apparent. Sensational allegations of Chinese interference are swirling. What the government knew, what there was to know and what was being done about whatever was going on is frustratingly unclear. The opposition Conservatives are telling Canadians to assume the worst and the Liberal government says national security prevents it from explaining itself.
At issue are the fundamental elements of Canadian democracy and the Canadian public’s ability to have faith in its institutions. These are big and serious things worthy of serious attention. And as much as the Trudeau Foundation is an inviting target for speculation and intrigue and spectacle, it’s not obvious that it’s anything more than a distraction from more important matters.
FREDERICTON – A look at Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.
Born: March 1, 1954.
Early years: The son of a customs officer, he grew up in Forest City, N.B., near the Canada-U.S. border.
Education: Graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977.
Family: Married his high-school sweetheart, Marcia, and settled in Saint John, N.B., where they had four daughters: Lindsey, Laura, Sarah and Rachel.
Before politics: Hired by Irving Oil a week after he graduated from university and was eventually promoted to director of distribution. Worked for 33 years at the company.
Politics: Elected to the legislature in 2010 and later served as finance minister under former Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward. Elected Tory leader in 2016 and has been premier since 2018.
Quote: “I’ve always felt parents should play the main role in raising children. No one is denying gender diversity is real. But we need to figure out how to manage it.” — Blaine Higgs in a year-end interview in 2023, explaining changes to school policies about gender identity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
GATINEAU, Que. – Treasury Board President Anita Anand will take on the additional role of transport minister this afternoon, after Pablo Rodriguez resigned from cabinet to run for the Quebec Liberal leadership.
A government source who was not authorized to speak publicly says Anand will be sworn in at a small ceremony at Rideau Hall.
Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will become the government’s new Quebec lieutenant, but he is not expected to be at the ceremony because that is not an official role in cabinet.
Rodriguez announced this morning that he’s leaving cabinet and the federal Liberal caucus and will sit as an Independent member of Parliament until January.
That’s when the Quebec Liberal leadership race is set to officially begin.
Rodriguez says sitting as an Independent will allow him to focus on his own vision, but he plans to vote with the Liberals on a non-confidence motion next week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called an election for Oct. 21, signalling the beginning of a 33-day campaign expected to focus on pocketbook issues and the government’s provocative approach to gender identity policies.
The 70-year-old Progressive Conservative leader, who is seeking a third term in office, has attracted national attention by requiring teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred names and pronouns of young students.
More recently, however, the former Irving Oil executive has tried to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three and there was one Independent and four vacancies.
J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick, said the top three issues facing New Brunswickers are affordability, health care and education.
“Across many jurisdictions, affordability is the top concern — cost of living, housing prices, things like that,” he said.
Richard Saillant, an economist and former vice-president of Université de Moncton, said the Tories’ pledge to lower the HST represents a costly promise.
“I don’t think there’s that much room for that,” he said. “I’m not entirely clear that they can do so without producing a greater deficit.” Saillant also pointed to mounting pressures to invest more in health care, education and housing, all of which are facing increasing demands from a growing population.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon. Both are focusing on economic and social issues.
Holt has promised to impose a rent cap and roll out a subsidized school food program. The Liberals also want to open at least 30 community health clinics over the next four years.
Coon has said a Green government would create an “electricity support program,” which would give families earning less than $70,000 annually about $25 per month to offset “unprecedented” rate increases.
Higgs first came to power in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — the first province to go to the polls after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a majority.
Since then, several well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members have stepped down after clashing with Higgs, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on policies that represent a hard shift to the right side of the political spectrum.
Lewis said the Progressive Conservatives are in the “midst of reinvention.”
“It appears he’s shaping the party now, really in the mould of his world views,” Lewis said. “Even though (Progressive Conservatives) have been down in the polls, I still think that they’re very competitive.”
Meanwhile, the legislature remained divided along linguistic lines. The Tories dominate in English-speaking ridings in central and southern parts of the province, while the Liberals held most French-speaking ridings in the north.
The drama within the party began in October 2022 when the province’s outspoken education minister, Dominic Cardy, resigned from cabinet, saying he could no longer tolerate the premier’s leadership style. In his resignation letter, Cardy cited controversial plans to reform French-language education. The government eventually stepped back those plans.
A series of resignations followed last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713, which now requires students under 16 who are exploring their gender identity to get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns — a reversal of the previous practice.
When several Tory lawmakers voted with the opposition to call for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from his cabinet. And a bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
