Thank you, Chair.
I think the proposition from Mr. Desjarlais that we would look at potential foreign interference in terms of large foreign donations to other major entities is interesting. I can think of one candidate in 2020 where it would be interesting to know what kind of foreign donations were made there. I don't doubt that there are small-c conservative organizations that people might be interested in asking the question about as well.
There are particular issues with the Trudeau Foundation. There's a particular reason why we're looking at it, and that is because the Trudeau Foundation is a public institution. As we've discussed before, it has this very odd governance structure. It spends some time saying that it's a charity and to leave these poor charities alone, but the reality is that it's a so-called charity that has gotten a massive endowment from the government and therefore is subject to various statutes, to access to information requests, to the Privacy Act and to the Federal Accountability Act. This is defined in various statutes as a public institution, actually, so it does have a different status, even from charitable or advocacy organizations that have, for various other reasons, relationships with people in government.
It's not unimportant as well that it shares the Prime Minister's name and that he remains—though listed as inactive—listed as a member of the foundation, as part of a small number of members of the foundation with governance powers. He apparently chooses not to exercise those powers for the time being, but he has not resigned as a member of the foundation and remains a member of it.
The relationship between the Prime Minister and this foundation, the attempts of foreign interference that we know occurred, and the public nature of this foundation make it a very different kind of beast.
I think the questions the member raises are interesting and, in fact, worthy of study, but there are particular issues with the Trudeau Foundation, and we do have to define the scope of our work to some extent. I might just suggest this: Let's proceed with this work but let's continue the discussion about what other areas of study are merited as well, because, again, I think it's a very legitimate point to raise.