OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Canadian MPs from the House of Commons Public Accounts committee voted unanimously on Monday to start an investigation into how the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is funded after a report last month showed the foundation received a large donation alleged to be connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In a 10-0 vote, MPs also said that the Canada Revenue Agency should probe the foundation’s funding, with one MP noting, according to Blacklock’s Reporter, the foundation is “supported by public funds.”
NDP MP Blake Desjarlais sponsored the motion that read: “The committee call on the Canada Revenue Agency to investigate the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and that the committee believes it is in the public interest to prioritize this investigation.”
According to Desjarlais, an investigation into the Trudeau Foundation’s finances and donations “is in the public interest” to see “in particular any possible misdealing the organization may have.”
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis stated that the foundation is not a “regular charity,” adding that it is in effect a “public institution in statute that has received massive injections of taxpayers’ money.”
Genuis said that as soon as Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre Elliot, took office as Prime Minister in 2015, “the foundation that bears his name started receiving substantial amounts of new money in foreign donations.”
The Conservative MP continued, noting that Trudeau has repeatedly claimed to the House of Commons that he had “had no connection, no involvement with the foundation in the last 10 years despite the fact he is listed as a member of the foundation in their latest Annual Report.”
“This poppycock about a firm wall between the Prime Minister’s Office and the Trudeau Foundation is needless to say hard to take,” Genuis added.
Earlier this month, the entire board of directors, including the president and CEO, of the Trudeau Foundation resigned after a report surfaced detailing how the non-profit group received a $200,000 donation alleged to be connected to the CCP.
The foundation also appears to have ignored warnings from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) regarding accepting certain cash donations.
Last month, after the CCP-linked donation scandal broke, the foundation said it would return the money.
Genuis had sponsored a separate motion on Monday, also adopted with unanimous consent, that said the committee should have hearings “into the situation at the Trudeau Foundation and report its findings to the House.”
Of note is that the Liberal MPs on the committee all voted in favor of Genuis’ motion, albeit on the condition that Trudeau and his family members be excused from testifying.
To date, Trudeau has denied that he was involved with the foundation’s work.
However, last month, he appointed former governor general David Johnston as an “independent special rapporteur” to investigate the allegations.
Of note is that Johnston is a family friend of Trudeau and at the time of being appointed “special rapporteur” was listed prominently on the embattled foundation’s website as a member.
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation labels itself as “an independent and non-partisan charity established in 2001 as a living memorial to the former prime minister.”
The foundation’s scandal is one of many aspects of a larger scandal brewing around Trudeau and the CCP.
Opposition parties, notably the CPC, have been for weeks demanding that Trudeau launch a full independent public inquiry into the Chinese election meddling scandal.
Late last month, one of Trudeau’s own MPs, Han Dong, resigned from the Liberal Party just hours after a news report broke alleging that he had asked a Chinese diplomat in February 2021 to delay the release of two Canadians held captive by the Communist Chinese regime.