OTTAWA – Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for the Canada Revenue Agency to investigate the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, while the foundation says it would welcome an investigation by the auditor general.
Poilievre sent a letter Friday to CRA Commissioner Bob Hamilton, the agency’s top public servant, asking him to investigate how the foundation handled a controversial donation.
Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin pledged $200,000 to the foundation in 2016, but media reports this year reveal that CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, believed the funds were arranged by the Chinese government to use in an attempt to influence Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The foundation provides doctoral scholarships to researchers mostly in the social sciences.
Responding to these reports, the foundation announced in March that it would return the donation. The foundation said it would refund $140,000, the only part of the promised funds to have actually arrived.
Reports in Montreal newspaper La Presse this week indicate that the foundation has struggled to complete that refund because the cheques came from a business, not Zhang himself, and attempts to return the funds were unsuccessful as no one was at the address of the business.
Polievre said these reports suggest there was an attempt to hide the true source of the donation.
“These facts raise serious questions around foreign influence peddling, attempts to hide the true source of the funds and, potentially, fraud,” he said.
The foundation is funded mostly from interest generated by a $125-million endowment the government granted it in 2002, but it is also a registered charity and it issued a tax receipt for the controversial donation. Poilievre said the reports indicate the foundation is acting inappropriately.
These facts raise serious questions around foreign influence peddling, attempts to hide the true source of the funds and, potentially, fraud.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre
“The reports suggest that the Trudeau Foundation is not meeting its legal and fiduciary responsibilities as required under the Income Tax Act and reported to the Canada Revenue Agency,” he said in the letter.
Poilievre also asked Hamilton to preserve any evidence the CRA uncovers and pass it along to intelligence agencies, as well as any possible future public inquiry.
Last week, the board of the foundation resigned, along with the CEO and other executives, citing what the board called “politicization” over the donation controversy. Some directors later refuted that to La Presse, saying there had been internal divisions over “ethical” behaviour regarding the donation and over the desire for an independent investigation.
Three board members remain in place until a new board can be selected. The foundation also hired an outside law firm and accounting firm to do an investigation into the questionable donation.
In a letter released on Friday addressed to Canada’s Auditor General Karen Hogan, they invited Hogan in to have a look at the donation.
“The foundation would welcome an investigation by the Auditor General of Canada of all aspects concerning the receipt and handling of these donations,” said interim chair Edward Johnson in a letter. “We would eagerly cooperate fully with such an investigation.”
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