Photo courtesy Canadian Press
WE Charity

Prince George MP, political science lecturer weigh in on WE charity controversy

Jul 31, 2020 | 1:53 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — The WE Charity controversy continues to dog Justin Trudeau but a political science and history instructor at the College of New Caledonia says the jury is still out on how damaging it may be to the Liberal government.

The We Charity was chosen by the Liberal government to oversee an over $900 million youth volunteer program earlier this year. Not long afterwards Canadians learned that members of Trudeau’s family were paid over $280,000 to speak at WE events. As a result, the prime minister is now facing his third ethics investigation. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is also facing an ethics investigation because two of his daughter’s have connections to WE. Morneau and his family also had overseas trips sponsored by the WE organization. Earlier this month Morneau revealed that he repaid over $41,000 in expenses for trips his family took to Kenya and Ecuador three years ago.

Chris Beach says Trudeau seems to have a knack for exhibiting questionable judgement.

“How deep will this go? A lot of questions have been raised and we don’t have the answers to those questions yet so it really remains how much information is going to come out. There hasn’t been a smoking gun so far, but that remains to be seen with what the opposition parties are going to be able to reveal with this scandal and just how much damage is going to hit this Liberal government.”

He says someone in Trudeau’s government will likely have to lose their job before the issue finally goes away.

“This issue is starting to affect their popularity. They’re starting to drop in the polls since this scandal came out. It looks as though someone is probably going to have to lose their job whether it be the finance minister or the prime minister’s chief of staff.”

So, why should Canadians care about the WE Charity controversy?

“It’s taxpayers dollars, number one,” says Cariboo-Prince George Conservative MP Todd Doherty. “And on the outset, it looks like the prime minister at the highest level of government has awarded almost a $1 billion contract to an organization that was in financial ruin for the most part, lots of financial difficulties. Their board and chair, the chair had resigned, the board could not get any financial documents regarding this. The due diligence wasn’t done and the close family ties to both the finance minister and as well as the prime minster are problematic.”