Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Prior to becoming president of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in September 2014, I was a public servant working under both Conservative and Liberal governments. I was a deputy minister of three departments—justice, health and foreign affairs—for over 15 years, and I was appointed to the foreign affairs position by Prime Minister Harper.
I want to disclose that I have been a member of the Conseil de l'Université de Montréal since August 18, 2016. I was not a member of the conseil at the time of the donation in question. I've not participated in any discussions of the conseil or its committees on what to do with the donation received by the university.
I first want to address some of the points raised by Madame Fournier at this committee last Friday.
First, the donation at issue occurred while I was president of the foundation, yet not once over the past weeks did foundation management reach out to me to answer any questions about the donation. Finally, on Friday afternoon, the foundation sent me a package of materials, including 160 pages released under access to information, as well as a copy of a policy on donations enforced in 2016. I'd be happy to share that with you.
I believe the donation should be assessed from the perspective of Canada's relations with China in 2016 when it was made, not from the much more negative context that exists today. At that time, universities, corporations and governments were all attempting to strengthen ties with China, including Mr. Harper's government, which signed a foreign investment promotion and protection agreement in 2014. From that perspective, this was seen as a normal and desirable donation consistent with the foundation's priorities.
The tax receipt was made out to Millennium Golden Eagle International (Canada) Inc. because that is the entity that made the donation. A corporate search shows that this is a Canadian corporation headquartered in Dorval, Quebec. Therefore, this is not a foreign donation.
All interactions with the Canada Revenue Agency were handled with care because the consequences for the foundation of not doing so could result in a loss of its charitable status. It made no sense not to be scrupulous.
In addition to being chair of Millennium Golden Eagle International, it's well known that Mr. Zhang was president of the China Cultural Industry Association. This is mentioned in articles in the Université de Montréal publications about the donations. He also represented himself that way at the time of an earlier donation to the University of Toronto.
There was nothing nefarious about staff in his organization contacting the foundation for administrative purposes, like providing a mailing address to send a tax receipt. Moreover, if CSIS had any concerns about the donors, at no time did anyone from the service speak to me about this, or, I don't think, anybody else in the foundation either.
Madame Fournier said that the donor list in the annual reports of the foundation identified the two individuals as donors rather than the company to which the tax receipts were issued. I don't recollect the reason, but it makes sense that the foundation wanted to acknowledge and honour the two men whose names were associated with the conferences.
Madame Fournier questioned whether Alexandre Trudeau could legitimately sign a donor agreement on behalf of the foundation. As per the policy, I approved the donation—or it wouldn't have gone forward—but the policy doesn't actually require that I put my own signature on a donation agreement. It was felt that, given the donation was to honour Pierre Trudeau, who opened up diplomatic relations with China, it would be more appropriate for his son to represent the foundation at the ceremony and sign the agreement. This was consistent with the policy on donations in 2016.
Second, I'd like to point out that Mr. Zhang's intent from the start appears to have been to donate $1 million to the Université de Montréal law school. This is confirmed in interviews in Le Devoir with both Mr. Guy Lefebvre, the former vice-rector of international affairs at the university, and Guy Saint-Jacques, the former Canadian ambassador to China. I can provide you with copies of those articles.
Mr. Lefebvre, who was aware of the 2013 donation to the University of Toronto medical school by these same donors, wanted to meet Mr. Zhang. It was Ambassador Saint-Jacques, our ambassador in China, who introduced Mr. Lefebvre to Mr. Zhang in 2014. As Mr. Saint-Jacques told Le Devoir, it was a much better era; we didn't really distrust China.
In early September 2014, Monsieur Lefebvre invited the foundation to meet the donors, who were in Montreal for a few days. At a meeting on September 24, Mr. Zhang stated that the $1-million donation would establish scholarships for students at the Université de Montréal law school and perhaps eventually at other law schools in Canada.
It was agreed that the foundation, the university and Mr. Zhang would form a committee to flesh out the donation. However, on November 17, 2014, the university published an article announcing that it had already received a $1-million gift for the law school from these same donors, and there was no mention of the Trudeau Foundation. It was only in September 2015, after several discussions, that the donors decided to earmark $200,000 of the original $1 million for the foundation to hold conferences.
Third, at no time did the donors ask the foundation to connect them with government or political officials. Professor Wesley Wark of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, who has written extensively on foreign interference, said the following in his online newsletter of March 21, 2023:
How exactly such a donation could be considered an influence operation in terms of how the funding was utilised was also not addressed in the reporting.
Knowing something of the operations of the Trudeau Foundation in supporting scholarly work I have to scratch my head at the idea that this was a calculated interference operation.
Moreover, the foundation is independent from the Government of Canada and simply did not coordinate decisions with the government.
The Trudeau Foundation has supported some brilliant scholars over the past two decades. Without its help, they wouldn't be where they are today.
This is an important moment for the foundation. I strongly believe that an independent investigation is needed to separate fact from innuendo.
I just have one last tiny point. I want to clarify something—correct the public record on one thing. In an interview early in March with the Canadian Press, I was asked if I had met the donors. I said that I thought I had met them once at the signing ceremony. Having now had access to these 160 pages of documents, I note that I was at a meeting with them on September 24, 2014. I just wanted to put that on the record.
