Evidence of meeting #69 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics 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.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Do you think that the Trudeau family was becoming a choice target for a regime seeking to influence a country and spread its tentacles.
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
No. That may have been the case for my brother, though I can't speak for him, but neither I nor the foundation ever saw the slightest evidence of attempted interference.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
With all your knowledge and everything you've written about, did you never think that Canada might become a target?
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
I would imagine that it was theoretically possible, but I was there for all of the foundation's activities, at the time at least, and I didn't—
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
I refuse to believe that these people intended to interfere. If they had, why didn't they keep in touch with me?
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
The only donation you were ever involved with was the one from a company in China. The only contract you signed was a contract with a Chinese company.
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
It's the only donation that involved another party.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Was that the only signing ceremony you ever attended for a donation?
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
As I was saying before, it's the only donation that involved other parties. There were three or four of them. If there had been other donations in which the Trudeau family had to lend its name to another organization, I would have signed those as well.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
You didn't understand that these people wanted a representative of the Trudeau family at the signing.
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
No.
As I said before, the lack of interest in the Trudeau family was pretty noticeable at the first meeting.
There was recognition for the father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, but they did not, it would appear, want the involvement of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, because it didn't align with their model.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
A letter from Mr. Guy Lefebvre addressed to Mr. Rosenberg on September 20, 2014, states the following:
Among other things, Alexandre suggested that Mr. Bin Zhang could help us create a larger-scale project that would enable a number of Canadian universities to receive donations from China in memory of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
So you had expectations.
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
At the time, I was not hiding the fact that I felt it was important for Canadian universities to get involved in academic diplomacy.
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
We all wanted China to evolve towards a state based on the rule of law. That would have been the best outcome. However, it's always very difficult to deal directly with the Chinese government.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
It's there in your book; you personally even defended the communist Chinese regime.
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
No. I did not defend it. It's nevertheless necessary to acknowledge some of the regime's accomplishments. Frankly, China has to be compared to China, and not to France or Canada.
In China, for example, during the period that followed Mao Zedong, the early years of the revolution were terrible from the humanitarian standpoint. However, after Deng Xiaoping took over, there was the period that ended with the arrival of Xi Jinping.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
The new China is a China that is attempting to have influence, to interfere and spread its tentacles around the world.
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
As other countries do, including India and the United States.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
I'm not talking about other countries. I'm talking about China, because you are a specialist in China, Mr. Trudeau.
5:20 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
Yes. You're absolutely right. I would have been the first to see any attempts at interference, and there were none.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
So you feel that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is completely wrong.
5:25 p.m.
Member, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
I don't know about that, but I think that the Globe and Mail's story is false.