It's actually Mr. Brock.
Evidence of meeting #69 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was foundation.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #69 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was foundation.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
All right, Mr. Brock. You have the floor for just under five minutes now.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Thank you, Chair.
It's unfortunate, Mr. Johnson, that it appears your former CEO, Pascale Fournier, is the only one who has a strong level of honesty and ethics. When I listened to and reviewed the evidence of Mr. Rosenberg, he saw the same red flags that Pascale Fournier did and did absolutely nothing about it.
What I want to ask you, sir, though, is that I've looked at some correspondence from Pascale Fournier dated March 25, 2023, to a number of board members—you're listed as the top line in that particular email—and she outlines all of her discoveries line by line, paragraph by paragraph, event after event, literally almost but without using the word “fraud” in terms of her concerns about how you publicly stated this donation was a Canadian donation when it clearly was not. It was foreign from Beijing, China. I think what is concerning me and I want to ask you questions about, sir, is that she asked your legal counsel, the foundation's legal counsel, a number of questions. Who was your legal counsel on March 25, 2023?
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
It was the firm of Borden Ladner Gervais.
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
The Montreal office was our counsel. They're a national firm.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
Yes, let's see, we had Michael Grodinsky in the Montreal office who was involved with the file.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
She was going to send three specific questions to legal counsel. The first question was in relation to various tax receipts, the various names on the tax receipts, and the question put to legal counsel was this: “Is this consistent with the law, both Canadian law and our own Policy on acceptance of gifts? Is there anything we should be aware in terms of CRA and ISED compliance?”
Then the second question was this: “One of the tax receipts includes an address in China without the names of the donors, at the explicit request of the China Cultural Industry Association, while mentioning the Quebec-based real estate company. Is this consistent with the law, both Canadian law and our own Policy on acceptance of gifts? Is there anything we should be aware in terms of CRA and ISED compliance?”
Did legal counsel receive the request to answer those questions? What was their response?
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
I believe they did. The whole idea here was that these are issues that should be examined in detail.
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
By legal counsel in detail.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
No answer and no opinion has been received because, a few days later, President Fournier fired that firm from the file and replaced them.
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
With a different law firm.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
I believe they did, but—
4:45 p.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
It was Miller Thomson.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative