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Donations given to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation that were tied to two wealthy Chinese businessmen may have been part of an “influence scheme” targeting the Trudeau government, a special committee investigating the donations has found.
The probe concluded that the foundation’s handling of tax receipts related to the Chinese donations was not in compliance with the Income Tax Act, and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brother, Alexandre, had not been authorized by the foundation’s board to sign the $200,000 donation pledge for the organization.
In its findings, the special committee said it did not believe the motivation for the 2016 donation was intended to influence the foundation’s activities, but said it could have been targeting the Trudeau government.
Alexandre Trudeau, brother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, prepares to appear before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, studying foreign interference, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
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MPs suspend ArriveCan hearings after reading ‘scary’ secret report
Liberal, Bloc Québécois and NDP MPs endorsed a sudden suspension of parliamentary hearings into ArriveCan and contracting misconduct allegations yesterday after reading what one Liberal described as a “scary” secret preliminary report by a federal investigator.
The three parties say any further hearings could put at risk investigations by the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP. Liberal MP and committee vice-chair Majid Jowhari said it would be “a disservice to justice” if the parliamentary proceedings were allowed to go on.
Conservative MPs criticized the move, accusing the Liberals of wanting to cover up the issue just days before Auditor-General Karen Hogan releases her report into the ArriveCan app contract misconduct allegations.
Former RCMP director sentenced to 14 years for breaching secrets law
Former RCMP director Cameron Ortis was sentenced yesterday to 14 years in prison for violating Canada’s secrets act, with an Ontario Superior Court judge saying that Ortis undermined Canada’s reputation among its Five Eyes intelligence partners and potentially put lives at risk.
Justice Robert Maranger added that the sentence is “fit and just” given both the gravity of the offences and Ortis’s moral responsibility.
In November, a jury found Ortis guilty of four counts of violating the secrets act. He was also found guilty of breach of trust and unauthorized use of a computer.
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Also on our radar
Poilievre backs Alberta in policy on trans youth: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre offered more support for Alberta’s controversial policy on transgendered youth yesterday, endorsing the province’s move to stop treating young people with puberty blockers.
Palestinians face red tape coming to Canada, families say: Ottawa is encountering growing criticism over an immigration program that’s meant to reunite Palestinian Canadians with relatives who are trapped in Gaza. Lawyers representing people trying to bring their loved ones to Canada say the program is restrictive, confusing and intrusive.
BCE cutting jobs: The Bell Canada parent company will reduce its work force this year by 9 per cent, or 4,800 positions, its largest personnel restructuring initiative in nearly 30 years.
Police charge five in extortion case: Police in Toronto’s Peel Region have charged five people and are investigating 29 incidents of alleged extortion, part of a “disturbing trend” that officials say has terrorized the South Asian community in several Canadian municipalities.
Ottawa gives more money to battle auto thefts: The federal government has pledged an extra $28-million to boost the ability of the Canada Border Services Agency to search shipping containers for stolen cars, ahead of the federal government’s national summit on auto theft. The government is facing growing pressure to address the sharply rising number of vehicles stolen from garages and driveways across the country each year.
Why the last part of the inflation fight is perilous: Inflation seems stuck at 3 per cent to 4 per cent and the forces now driving it are domestic, persistent and not easily fixed. Economists say this is what is keeping central banks on a war footing even as financial markets call for rate cuts. They add that eliminating the last bits of excess price growth from the system may require more pain than consumers, businesses and investors are prepared for.
Morning markets
Global markets gain: World stocks advanced on Thursday as China’s recent slew of support measures, and reassurances that Japan’s interest rates will not shoot up, kept the bulls in charge following record peaks on Wall Street. Just before 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.30 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were up 0.18 per cent and 0.61 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei jumped 2.06 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 1.27 per cent. New York futures were little changed. The Canadian dollar was largely steady at 74.26 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Konrad Yakabuski: “Conservative MPs this week voted against legislation to update a free-trade agreement with Ukraine – officially because it contained a reference to carbon pricing, but unofficially, according to Mr. Trudeau, to ‘appease Putin apologists like Tucker Carlson and those who enable him.’ Mr. Harper could not have said it better himself.”
Kelly Cryderman: “The recall petition coming for Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek has a snowball’s chance in a chinook. More than 500,000 signatures from Calgary voters will be required to cut her term short. It’s doubtful the petitioner, businessman Landon Johnston, will meet the threshold by the April 4 deadline. But the rare recall petition is proof of Ms. Gondek’s precarious situation.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Editorial cartoon by David Parkins, Feb 8, 2024.Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
The best date-night restaurants across the country
Whether it’s for a first date after swiping right or a special milestone with a significant other, it can be tricky to find a restaurant with the right atmosphere and food. From unassuming affordable gems, to casual hot spots to sexy splurges, these 26 restaurants are always worth a visit.
Moment in time: Feb. 8, 1879
Sandford Fleming outlines his plan for universal Standard Time to members of the Canadian Institute in Toronto, Feb. 8, 1879.Supplied
Sandford Fleming lectures on the implementation of standard time
When the young dominion of Canada embarked on a transcontinental railway in the early 1870s, Scottish-born surveyor Sandford Fleming was named engineer-in-chief and given the task of finding the best possible route to the Pacific. Fleming, like many other Victorian Canadians of his generation, looked to railroad technology to make sea-to-sea nationhood a reality. Even though railways shrank distance by reducing travel time, train scheduling was difficult because local time wasn’t consistent between communities or across regions. In fact, Fleming had missed catching a train for that very reason. On this day in 1879, at a Canadian Institute meeting in Toronto, Fleming proposed that the globe be divided into time zones (running north-south) and that there be a universal day of 24 hours. This call for “standard time” found support in Europe and the United States. Five years later in Washington, with Fleming part of the British delegation, an international meeting convened by the U.S. Congress fixed the Prime Meridian for world time at the existing Greenwich meridian (Greenwich, London, England). Greenwich Mean Time would be the starting point for a system of global time zones based on Fleming’s universal 24-hour clock. Bill Waiser
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