Committee Votes to Hold Hearings on Trudeau Foundation, but PM and Family Members Will Not Be Testifying

A Trudeau Foundation sign at its office in Montreal on April 19, 2023. Noé Chartier/The Epoch Times

MPs on a House of Commons committee have voted unanimously in favour of conducting hearings on the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation to examine recent reports of the organization accepting a Beijing-linked donation—although neither the prime minister nor his family members will not be testifying.

Members from all parties on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts voted on April 24 in favour of the motion sponsored by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, but Liberal members only supported it on the condition that neither Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nor any of his family members be ordered to appear before the committee to testify.

The prime minister’s younger brother, Alexandre Trudeau, was director of the foundation named after their father in 2014. In that year, he met with Chinese billionaires Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, who are responsible for a donation of $140,000 to the Trudeau Foundation in 2016.

According to a February Globe and Mail report, CSIS found in 2014 that Zhang had been instructed to make the donation by a Chinese consulate official, who told Zhang he would be reimbursed by Beijing for doing so.

In addition to the foreign donation, committee MPs noted that the Trudeau Foundation received a $125 million endowment from the federal government in March 2002 shortly after it was established.

“It’s a foundation that is supported by public funds,” NDP MP Blake Desjarlais said.

CRA Audit

In addition to Genuis’s motion, Desjarlais introduced a motion to have both the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) investigate the foundation’s acceptance of the Beijing-linked donation.

However, his motion was amended to omit calling on the OAG to probe the funds in light of the auditor general saying on the same day that such an investigation would be outside of her office’s purview.

Nonetheless, MPs still voted unanimously in favour of Desjarlais’ amended motion calling on the CRA to investigate the foundation.

“The committee believes it is in the public interest to prioritize this investigation,” reads the motion.

The committee’s adoption of both motions comes about a week after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on Trudeau in the House to support having his brother appear before a Parliamentary committee for questioning about the controversial donation.

“His own brother was the one that negotiated and signed the deal to receive the money,” Poilievre said on April 17 during question period. “Will the prime minister accept to call his brother to a parliamentary committee to answer questions about this?”

Trudeau wasn’t present in the House to respond to the question, but Government House Leader Mark Holland said the prime minister has “not been involved” with the foundation for “approximately a decade.”