Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
First, I should say that I didn't ask to appear before the committee. I received a summons to appear.
I am a lawyer, so my initial response, as I'm sure you can appreciate, was to ask the House of Commons to ensure that my duty of confidentiality and loyalty to my former employer, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, would not be breached, or that I be protected by parliamentary privilege should I be required to disclose confidential information that I had access to during my employment with the foundation. I received confirmation of that in writing, of course.
That parliamentary privilege is provided for by the Constitution. Accordingly, I will co-operate with the committee in answering its questions. Bear in mind that I had access to a considerable amount of confidential information, which is to be expected since I was the foundation's president and chief executive officer from July 9, 2018 to April 11, 2023.
Second, I want to point out that I, myself, am a former recipient of a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation scholarship. I was among the very first cohort of scholars in 2003, so 20 years ago. I was a law student at Harvard University at the time. I was working on my Ph.D., and the foundation made a tremendous difference in my life as a researcher. My specialty is human rights, I teach the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and I have worked on the ground in many countries, including Iran and Egypt. Thanks to the foundation, I have travelled all over the world and been in close contact with various populations, marginalized women in particular, in an effort to understand the issues they face and engage meaningfully with our democratic institutions to advance those issues.
Ethics is something I am deeply committed to. This year, in fact, I worked with the National Judicial Institute to develop the very first mandatory podcast on ethics for federally appointed judges in Canada. Ethics is really in my wheelhouse.
When I was approached to become the foundation's president and chief executive officer, I was very moved, having been one of its scholars. The foundation changed my life for the better. When I joined the foundation, I was given a mandate to reform the scholarship programming for fellows and mentors, and I put forward an innovative strategic plan. Prior to 2018, the foundation's mandate did not include a strategic plan.
I toured the country, visiting every province and territory and inviting people from all sectors to participate, from private and public sector stakeholders to members of non-governmental organizations and the academic community. We held 23 events known as Future Forums, and then we implemented an innovative strategic plan. It included leadership curriculum for doctoral scholars to help them foster innovation and have a meaningful impact on society and systems. I carried out my mandate with great passion and conviction.
You will have understood that I am interested in ethics, and a key component of the strategic plan revolved around good governance. The foundation adopted a large number of policies to ensure good governance and predictability. As you know, the foundation has a government endowment of $125 million. That is taxpayer money, and that matters deeply to me. It's not a private foundation. It's funded by taxpayer money. Accordingly, the foundation must show accountability and adhere to good governance policies. Under my leadership, the foundation adopted a large number of policies to ensure good governance and make a meaningful impact on scholars' lives.
That concludes my opening remarks. I am available to answer questions. As I said, I started with the foundation on July 9, 2018. It's important to keep that in mind because the issues involving the Chinese donation and the three expected payments were before my time at the head of the foundation. I had to respond to a crisis stemming from a situation that did not occur under my leadership.
As you can appreciate, it can be very difficult to try to piece together something that happened in the past, when I was not there, when certain individuals were on the board and others were not. I had to piece together what happened from internal documents, in an attempt to figure out how I, as president and chief executive officer, could get to the bottom of the situation and fulfill my duty—giving the board members all the information available to me, so that they could perform their fiduciary role properly.
I would say that we, at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, spent February, March and April managing a major internal crisis.
Mr. Chair, I am available to answer the committee's questions.