Public Accounts committee  The motion before us asks that the Canada Revenue Agency investigate the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, in the public interest. I’d like to know whether the documents and e-mails in question pertain to tax issues or tax considerations in connection with donations. I believe our committee clerk could find out if the other committee already has access to those documents.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  A public inquiry is an understandable and a transparent way for Canadians to have some resolution to that, one that's outside of the hands of the PMO and the Trudeau Foundation affiliates, and that is truly independent. The outcomes we will get from a public inquiry, and the report out of that, are not always ones the government is comfortable with, but Canadians have confidence in that process.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is troubling to see how much of a difference there is between these two interviews. We have also learned that Mr. Johnston was a member of the Trudeau Foundation, a foundation that was targeted by the communist regime in Beijing as a vehicle that could be used to influence the current Prime Minister. That has been quite clearly established.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As though by chance, his driver of choice, the special rapporteur, as he called him, was his ski and cottage buddy, not to mention a member of the Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation. The special rapporteur came to the same conclusion as the Prime Minister. Now there are two people who don't think a national independent inquiry into Beijing's interference is needed.

Public Accounts committee  The first was: That the committee calls on the Canada Revenue Agency to investigate the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and that the committee believes it is in the public interest to prioritize this investigation. and That, given the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation received a $125-million taxpayer funded payment in 2002, the committee hold two hearings into the situation at the Trudeau Foundation and report it's findings to the House, and that the witnesses will not include elected members of parliament or Trudeau Family members.

Public Accounts committee  All Charitable Information Returns filed by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation for the past 10 years, with all schedules and related documents, provided to the committee within 5 weeks. All documents related to any audit or investigation of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, provided to the committee within 2 weeks, and then any additional documents generated up until August 31st, 2023, provided to the committee by September 15th, 2023.

Public Accounts committee  I think the point is simply to ask the agency to do its job. We can also discuss why it can't say it's doing an audit on the Trudeau Foundation. It doesn't want to show all its cards, which I think is a good reason. It is part of the means at its disposal, and it will be able to use it during the fraud investigations, among others.

Public Accounts committee  At the same time, we see the head of the CRA, who is also in charge of the charitable part, commenting on the Trudeau foundation that if they violate it knowingly, the CRA may just let them off with a training recommendation or perhaps a strongly worded memo. I think Canadians are owed a proper explanation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They only gave in and allowed these hearings when the NDP, their coalition partner, finally forced them to. Since then, we've heard disturbing allegations in connection with the Trudeau Foundation. Dr. Pascale Fournier, the former president and CEO of the Trudeau Foundation, raised the alarm over a donation that the Trudeau Foundation received from Beijing around the time that Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister, before Xi became president.

Public Accounts committee  Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted on April 24, the committee agreed to report to the House and to request that the Canada Revenue Agency investigate the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. I would like to move an amendment to the motion, to include this at the beginning of the third paragraph: And, pursuant to the Committee's request in Report 27 that the Canada Revenue Agency investigate the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Then we can continue with “All documents related to any audit [...]”.

Public Accounts committee  I'm starting to perceive what is perhaps the diabolical genius behind this Frankenstein structure of an organization. To be clear, the reason that this committee is interested in the Trudeau foundation is not in terms of some private charitable organization that may have some problems. The public is interested in the Trudeau foundation because it is a public institution. It's subject to ATIP.

Privilege  It is like Rodin’s The Thinker: everyone is waiting. While we are waiting, other things are happening. All of these people are from the Trudeau Foundation. The Prime Minister goes to spend Christmas with a friend who is involved in the Trudeau Foundation. His office also hosted the Trudeau Foundation. Do they take me for a fool? The Prime Minister says that he has not had anything to do with the foundation for 10 years.

Privilege  The Prime Minister voted against that motion, choosing instead to appoint a former member of the Trudeau Foundation to conduct an investigation. Can we really trust the Trudeau Foundation, which has already received $140,000 from Beijing? All Trudeau Foundation board members resigned because of problems with that donation.

Public Accounts committee  He and his business partner wanted to make a million-dollar donation in honour of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, $200,000 of which was slotted to go to the Trudeau foundation, which I think is a little bit unusual, to be polite. Eventually that money was given to the Trudeau foundation, but it was $140,000 and not $200,000. In the public filing in the annual report of the Trudeau foundation, it was initially put in the two businessmen's names and not in the corporation's name, which the receipt was evidently put into.

Privilege  That does not include all the other troubles we have with foreign interference in this country. The Trudeau Foundation is embroiled in a whole host of scandals now around taking Chinese money. When the government was kind of embarrassed about its coziness with the Beijing government and Chinese influence in Canada, it appointed a special rapporteur.