Poilievre Raises Questions on Trudeau Foundation Holding Meeting in PM’s Building

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period in Ottawa on Feb. 7, 2023. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pressed the Liberal government on links between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation after it was reported the latter held a meeting in the building that houses the Prime Minister’s Office in 2016.

“[Trudeau] expects us to believe that he has no direct or indirect involvement with the Trudeau Foundation, even though its donors pay for his vacations, he chose two of its former directors to head up investigations into foreign interference, the Trudeau Foundation received Beijing-based donations, which his brother processed,” Poilievre said during question period in the House of Commons on April 24.

“Now we learn that the Trudeau Foundation is holding meetings in his office. Did he not know about that either?”

La Presse reported earlier that day that the foundation held a meeting on April 11, 2016, on the fourth floor of Langevin Block.

The building, which sits directly across from Parliament Hill in Ottawa, was renamed Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council in 2017. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) occupies the first two floors, whereas the Deputy Prime Minister has the third floor and the Privy Council Office (PCO) is on the fourth, reported La Presse.

The meeting was called “Roundtable Dialogue with Deputy Ministers and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation” and was on the topic of “pluralism,” according to the agenda obtained by La Presse through an access to information request.

Five federal deputy ministers participated, along with senior staff from the PCO, the prime minister’s department.

The PMO denied to La Presse that Trudeau was aware of the meeting or that he or his staff attended. The Epoch Times reached out to the PMO but didn’t hear back.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council in Ottawa in a file photo. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

“The meeting that took place was between public servants in a government building, it wasn’t with the Prime Minister,” said Government House Leader Mark Holland in response to Poilievre’s question.

“But I can understand that the leader of the opposition, as usual, is looking to swing a wide stick and doesn’t seem to care what he hits.”

Then-president of the Trudeau Foundation Morris Rosenberg, who attended the April 2016 meeting, is one of the individuals Poilievre was alluding to when he mentioned individuals from the foundation who were appointed to investigate foreign interference.

Rosenberg authored a report released in February in which he examined how the protocol to alert the public on election interference had worked in 2021, and found it had worked well in general.

Trudeau defended the appointment of Rosenberg to conduct the review and said he had been appointed by the public service.

Rosenberg, a former senior public servant, was at the helm of the Trudeau Foundation when it received a donation from businessmen tied to the Chinese regime.

Justin Trudeau’s brother, Alexandre Trudeau, was a foundation director at the time and had been involved in 2014 in the negotiations to get the Chinese money.

The other individual Poilievre alluded to is former governor general David Johnston, who resigned his membership of the Trudeau Foundation after he was appointed by the prime minister as special rapporteur on foreign interference.

Trudeau has said he stopped his own involvement with the foundation after he became the Liberal Party leader in 2013, but an archive of the foundation’s website shows him as being active as of April 2014.

The Chinese donation was orchestrated as early as June 2014, according to a web posting from the China Cultural Industry Association (CCIA).

CCIA president Zhang Bin and consultant Niu Gensheng were the businessmen involved in the donations to the Trudeau Foundation, the Université de Montréal (UdeM), and the University of Toronto (U of T).

The Trudeau Foundation was initially promised $200,000 and the UdeM $800,000, but only a portion was provided. The U of T received $800,000 in 2013 from Zhang and Niu.

The news of the donation to the Trudeau Foundation sparked controversy in 2016, after it was reported that Zhang Bin had attended a cash-for-access fundraiser with Trudeau a few weeks after the donation was finalized.

The issue resurfaced in late February when the Globe and Mail reported that, according to a national security leak, the Chinese regime was directly behind the donation.

The Trudeau Foundation says it has returned the donation and launched an independent review. It also asked the auditor general (AG) to review the matter but the AG declined citing the scope of its mandate.