On Friday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asked the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to conduct an audit of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation with a “particular focus” on a $140,000 donation from the Chinese government.
“Charges propose that the gift was coordinated by a state-moved bunch in Beijing with the expressed objective of extending the socialist system’s impact all over the planet,” Poilievre said in the letter kept in touch with CRA Chief Sway Hamilton.
“These realities bring up difficult issues around unfamiliar impact hawking, endeavors to conceal the genuine wellspring of the assets, and possibly, misrepresentation.”
Poilievre’s solicitation comes after the Trudeau Establishment’s worker directorate and Chief suddenly surrendered on Tuesday, refering to the “political environment” encompassing a $140,000 gift from two financial specialists associated with the Chinese Socialist Faction.
The Globe and Mail reported last month that Chinese businessmen Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng pledged in 2016 to give the Trudeau Foundation $200,000 each. Later, the foundation stated that it only received $140,000 in the form of two $70,000 payments made under Millennium Gold Eagle International, a Canadian holding company.
Not long after the reports on the two men’s connection with China, Trudeau Establishment President and Chief Pascale Fournier said the foundation had repaid everything of the gift. However, according to a report published by La Presse, the foundation was unable to return the donation due to the absence of the actual donor’s name from the accounting records. According to the foundation, this would have made a reimbursement of this kind illegal.
Friday, a source familiar with the situation for Radio-Canada confirmed that one of the two businessmen’s bank account had received $140,000.
“Circumstances created by the politicization of the foundation have made it impossible to continue with the status quo,” the foundation stated in a statement when its leadership resigned.
However, sources cited by La Presse claim that the leadership quit because they wanted the foundation to do more to verify the donation’s details.
The Trudeau Foundation announced on Wednesday that it would begin conducting its own independent review of the donation. In addition, the foundation requested that the Auditor General of Canada, Karen Hogan, conduct an investigation into “all aspects concerning the receipt and handling of these donations by the foundation” and promised to “eagerly cooperate fully with such an investigation” in a letter that was sent to her on Friday.
The foundation stated that the review would be carried out by an accounting firm supervised by a law firm, and the firms would not have any prior affiliation with the organization.
According to Poilievre, the news reports suggested that the Trudeau Foundation was not performing its legal and fiduciary responsibilities in accordance with the Income Tax Act, as required, and that it had reported the situation to the Canada Revenue Agency.
He stated, “They suggest that the foundation was actively complicit in concealing the true source of the donation and possibly producing fraudulent records.”
Additionally, the leader of the Conservative Party stated that the foundation had failed to keep accurate records, which may be essential for a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian democracy.
He added, “Additionally, the information uncovered and leaked from the foundation suggests that those at the highest ranks of the organization—both past and present—were directly involved in arranging, approving, and managing the donation and related controversies.” This is in addition to the fact that the information was leaked from the foundation.
Poilievre also requested that any evidence discovered during the audit that could be related to foreign governments’ attempts to interfere be sent to Canada’s security and intelligence agencies.
He wrote, “Finally, I would also request that such evidence be preserved in a manner so that a future public inquiry with the legal mandate to do so would be able to access it as part of an investigation.” “Finally, I would also request that such evidence be preserved.”
In 2001, the Trudeau Foundation was established to remember Justin Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. In March of 2002, the federal government provided it with an endowment of $125 million. Scholarships and mentoring are provided by the foundation to nurture “future engaged leaders.”
Trudeau has stated numerous times that he is not involved with the foundation. During a press conference on Wednesday, he stated, “I have had no involvement at all with the foundation that bears my father’s name for ten years.”
“I think it’s important that the foundation itself responds to these questions and considers ways in which it can continue doing the important work that it does,” the author states.
The day before, the prime minister said that Conservative politicians were trying to get “short-term political gain by increasing polarization and partisanship in this country by launching completely unfounded and ungrounded attacks against charities or foundations.” This was an accusation made by the prime minister of the Conservative politicians.
Source: Theepochtimes
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