It was because I felt that the reputation, and most importantly the work, of the scholars.... This foundation is really not about its governance structure, the politics around it or the interpretations that we make. There are a lot of very fine people doing very serious work. They were asking questions.
I had hoped that the Auditor General, perhaps, would look at us with the impartiality and all of the rest, as the chair of our board had requested. I felt that this was a forum in which the truth could be addressed and made clear and doubt cleared up. I thought it was important. I knew I would get the attention that was perhaps necessary to make important corrections to the record.
There was a lot of misinformation from the start, I would argue even in The Global and Mail article. I find journalism on the basis of one single anonymous source to be poor journalism. The facts of that report were problematic since never, at any point, was it questioned that those donors gave a million dollars to the Trudeau foundation.
Why is someone claiming that they were going to be reimbursed? These men, with in their standing in China.... Niu Gensheng, for instance, is well admired for his philanthropy. There are not a lot of huge philanthropists at the level of Niu Gensheng. They're admired in China.
There were a lot of things that I felt needed to be corrected for the good work of the foundation to continue and for all the doubts that are being thrown around about it to stop.