China News Service, Toronto, July 22 (Reporter Yu Ruidong) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suffered from the turmoil of the student service grant program continued to ferment. He has agreed to be questioned on the matter before the House Finance Committee.
Trudeau’s office confirmed to the media on the 22nd local time that Trudeau and his chief of staff will respond to the House Finance Committee on the cooperation between the government and the "Our Charity" student service grant program. But the specific time has yet to be determined.
The House Ethics Committee voted through that night, and also asked Trudeau to accept questions from the committee. The Prime Minister’s Office has not yet responded.
Data map: Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. China News Agency issued MSC/Kuhlmann photo
As one of the epidemic relief measures, Trudeau announced the Canadian government's student service grant program on June 25. The project, which totals more than 900 million Canadian dollars, is managed by an organization called "Our Charity". The media subsequently disclosed that the Trudeau family has a close relationship with the agency and that their family members have been paid for participating in the agency's activities. This caused public opinion to question the suspected "nepotism" in this matter. Later, the Canadian media revealed that a daughter of Finance Minister Monod was employed by the agency, and another daughter had also spoken at the agency's activities.
The Commissioner for Conflict of Interest and Ethics of the Canadian Parliament, Dion, said recently that he has launched an investigation into whether Trudeau and Monod violated the "Conflict of Interest Act" in this matter. Although Trudeau and Monod have separately apologized to the public through the media, the opposition party has continued to criticize the Trudeau government recently and even demanded that Trudeau and Monod step down.
Mono admitted on the 22nd when he was questioned by the Finance Committee of the Parliament that he had just reimbursed "We Charity" for more than $40,000 in travel expenses to him and his family. He and his family went to Kenya and Ecuador in 2017 to visit the "Our Charity" project and participate in related activities. He also revealed that he and his wife had donated to "Our Charity" twice, totaling about 100,000 Canadian dollars.
Canadian Federal Minister of Diversity, Integration and Youth, Bardish Chagger, recently admitted to the Parliamentary Finance Committee that "our charity" can obtain more than 43 million Canadian dollars through the management of the grant program.
Privy Council officials told the parliamentary finance committee on the 21st that the prime minister and the finance minister cannot avoid the bursary program in terms of procedures. At the same time, there is no evidence that Trudeau interacted with "Our Charity" on the project.
Under the pressure of public opinion, the Canadian government and "Our Charity" announced in early July that they would suspend the cooperation of the scholarship program.
Previously, Trudeau had been investigated by the Commissioner of Ethics and found to violate the "Conflict of Interest Law" after being investigated by the Ethics Commissioner for taking a private helicopter trip to a private island on a private island holiday in December 2017 and August 2019. ". (Finish)