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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 184

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 25, 2023 10:00AM
  • Apr/25/23 2:25:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I have repeated many times in and out of this House, I have had no engagement, direct or indirect, with the Trudeau Foundation for about 10 years now.
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  • Apr/25/23 2:26:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we all know that nobody focuses more on the Prime Minister than he focuses on himself. Meanwhile, he expects us to believe that that this foundation, named after his family, has donors who paid for his vacations, $80,000 in free vacation benefits; that it takes donations from Beijing, facilitated by his brother, that intelligence officers say were designed to influence him; and now, that he hosts the same foundation with his top officials in his own office. How dumb does he think Canadians are to believe that?
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  • Apr/25/23 2:30:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said and as I will keep saying, for 10 years I have had no direct or indirect interaction with the foundation that bears by father's name. On this side of the House, we are focusing on the cost of living, creating a greener economy, allocating money to help get results with respect to health care and dental care services. Those are our priorities. While the opposition parties are focusing on me, we will continue to focus on Canadians and Quebeckers.
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  • Apr/25/23 2:41:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to paraphrase what Isabelle Hachey said in La Presse this morning, the Trudeau Foundation is a catalogue of friends of the Liberal Party of Canada. This catalogue is not subject to the legislation governing political party financing. What a great way for a foreign power to contribute to this catalogue of friends of the Liberal Party, when the Liberal Party is in power. That is exactly what China did. Why does this government refuse to recognize that the only reason the Chinese authorities would donate to the Trudeau Foundation is to curry favour with the Prime Minister?
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  • Apr/25/23 2:42:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I served as executive director at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. That is a foundation. For any type of foundation, the rules in Canada are incredibly strict so as to ensure that all foundations are independent and free from any influence. That is the case here. The foundation that the member opposite attacked is a foundation that provides scholarships to students. It is an independent foundation.
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  • Apr/25/23 2:43:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are not about to be lectured on independence. The connection between the Liberals and the Trudeau Foundation is so obvious that even its alumni are now embarrassed to be associated with it. It is obvious, given that we know that the foundation was invited to a meeting at the Prime Minister's building. It is obvious, given that we know that the PMO asks about the donations the foundation receives. It was through this foundation that the Prime Minister found his rapporteur on Chinese interference. Everyone knows that it will be impossible to get to the bottom of this interference when someone from the foundation that itself benefited from said interference is in charge of the investigation. Everyone knows that but the Liberals. What do they not understand?
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  • Apr/25/23 2:44:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, according to La Presse, 30 people have fled the Trudeau Foundation over the past two weeks. The newspaper quotes one such individual who said, “I feel like someone pulled a fast one on me, because, ultimately, it is not true that it is non-partisan”. The Trudeau Foundation is a nest of Liberals, and that is exactly why China has been trying to get closer to them since the election of this Liberal government. It is clear, then, that anyone from the Trudeau Foundation is disqualified from investigating Chinese interference. When will there be a public and independent commission of inquiry?
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  • Apr/25/23 2:45:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada has the strictest and strongest rules to protect the independence of charities of any kind. It is unacceptable to attack an independent foundation which has no ties with the Prime Minister. This foundation is responsible for student grants to ensure that future generations have the funds they need to become the future leaders of our country. It is not acceptable to attack an independent charity like that.
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  • Apr/25/23 2:55:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Beijing Communists laundered money into the Trudeau Foundation to gain influence with the Prime Minister. Foundation members who received Beijing's foreign-influence cash were then hand-picked by the Prime Minister to investigate the foreign interference their foundation facilitated. The PM, unbelievably, claims he has no ties to the Trudeau Foundation, yet his office hosted a meeting between foundation leadership and top government bureaucrats. When will the Liberal-NDP alliance end the cover-up and call for an independent investigation into foreign influence that is without the taint of the Trudeau Foundation?
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  • Apr/25/23 2:55:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course the member would be aware that it was not in the Prime Minister's office, but in the building, and that many things happen in his building and in everybody's buildings. I do not know if the member is aware of everything that happens in his office building. These were meetings with public servants, which had nothing to do with the Prime Minister. The thing that I find disturbing is that they keep attacking a foundation when we have rules in this country, which are the strongest in the world, to protect the independence of our charities. The job of the foundation, which is the charity the Conservatives are attacking, is to give scholarships to students so they can be our future leaders. The Conservatives do not care whom or what they attack. Their partisan games continue.
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  • Apr/25/23 2:57:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it has been made clear, first of all, that the Prime Minister is not an active member at all of the Trudeau Foundation. He has been independent from that for more than 10 years. I do not know how much time the member spends on subreddits and 4chan, but instead he should spend some time looking at facts. The facts are that we have some of the strictest rules for charities anywhere in the world. With respect to attacking charities on baseless information and misrepresenting them, the member knows full well that the building that the Prime Minister is in has, yes, the PMO. It also has PCO and, just as they do in the member's building, lots of things happen in different buildings.
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  • Apr/25/23 2:57:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, no one believes the Prime Minister's claims that he built a wall between himself and the Trudeau Foundation. He is the only one who can see that wall, and the Beijing regime sees a wide open window. Canada's spy agency has made it clear that the Communist regime sees the Trudeau Foundation as a gateway to influencing the Prime Minister. His own brother, Alexandre, arranged and received a $200,000 cheque from the Beijing regime on behalf of the foundation. Is it not time to let a family member speak out about the use of the Trudeau Foundation to influence the Prime Minister?
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  • Apr/25/23 2:59:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if I have to choose between the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Liberal government House leader, I will take the word of the security intelligence agency. Its officials found that there had been a donation whose main purpose was to influence the current Prime Minister. An article in La Presse this morning said it well: “The Prime Minister can swear that a Chinese wall separates him from the foundation, but that is not what the donors — and not just Beijing — who have been pouring dollars into the foundation since he took office seem to believe.” When will he finally admit that he is being influenced as Prime Minister because of his proximity to the Trudeau Foundation?
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  • Apr/25/23 3:00:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is not up to me to respond. It is up to Canada's laws to protect the independence of any type of foundation in Canada. The law is there to ensure their independence, and it is totally irresponsible to attack a foundation that is responsible for awarding scholarships and ensuring that there is money for the future leaders of our country.
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