Saturday, February 18, 2023

Ethics? O Canada My Home And Native Land!

 

"Over the last five years and on several occasions, I have observed senior officials being unaware of their obligations and mistakenly making assumptions."
"Offers to provide training and educational sessions on a variety of topics have been offered to all federal parties and to regulatees, yet we continue to see a succession of mistakes that are largely attributable to the inability to recognize the need to seek consultation [with the Ethics Commission]."
"As a parliamentary secretary since 2015 and having served for several years on both the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics and the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, Mr. Fergus [veteran MP and parliamentary secretary] should be well versed on the functioning of both regimes and the importance of consulting the [Ethics] Office." 
"I am quite concerned that someone with the breadth of experience of Mr. Fergus would fail to recognize the possibility of a contravention."
"The Act has been there for 17 years, for God's sake, so maybe the time has come to do something different so that we don't keep repeating the same errors. After 17 years, maybe we should realize that something is not working."
"I don't think the crafters of the Act envisaged the situation where a prime minister would be found in breach himself. So it has created a very special situation. It's a funny situation to be in and it was not envisioned by the crafters, obviously."
Federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, Ottawa
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, who has announced he will be leaving his post, says he has seen little evidence during his tenure that the federal government takes ethics seriously.
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, who has announced he will be leaving his post, says he has seen little evidence during his tenure that the federal government takes ethics seriously. Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/File
"If the [Liberal] party disagrees with Trudeau, finds that he shouldn't be a serial violator, then they would remove him."
"If Trudeau is not going to hold himself accountable, and the party is not going to hold him accountable, well he kind of has to not hold them accountable in return."
"It's kind of a quid pro quo with his own party members. Trudeau's caucus failed the [ethics standard] system."
Ian Stedman, ethics law expert, associate professor, York University school of public policy and administration
After studying a concerning "succession of mistakes" from senior government officials who have a propensity to break ethics laws, the federal Commissioner of Ethics, Mario Dion, called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to order all his ministers and parliamentary secretaries to seek out additional ethics training. All of whom have been exposed in the past to such training. Before they even take their seats in Parliament, newly-elected Members of Parliament routinely receive a round of ethics training to ensure they are fit to sit in government as lawmakers.

Mr. Dion tabled a report finding that Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Greg Fergus broke ethics laws by contacting the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to influence the board to allow a small television company mandatory carriage in Quebec. Fergus is chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus and sought to further the aspirations of a Black-owned company attempting to gain a significant windfall of revenue.

As MP Fergus well knows there is a clear prohibition under ethics laws for senior officials wishing to exert any form influence or pressure on a tribunal; that very issue is one repeated frequently in reports and public guidelines on the website of the Ethics Commission. The report the Ethics Commissioner released on this matter is the second in a three-month period where a Liberal MP was found by Mr. Dion in breach of ethics laws. International Trade Minister Mary Ng was reprimanded for her personal involvement in two contracts issued by her department to a company owned by her "close friend", a former Liberal staffer. 

Mr. Dion's predecessor prior to 2018 when he took the office, published a report that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke conflict of interest laws by accepting two flights from the Aga Khan (who petitions government) and vacationing with his family on the Aga Khan's sumptuous private island. Since then, Mr. Dion completed two dozen additional investigations into Liberal ministers (including the prime minister in two more occasions), MPs and top public servants and government agency administrators subject to the Conflict of Interest Act.

No fewer than five senior Liberals were found in violation of ethics laws, including Trudeau and the-hen Liberal Finance Minister. Over the period of his mandate as commissioner Dion's office gave 140 presentations on ethics and conflict of interest obligations to thousands of attendees, one third of those lectures Mr. Dion presented himself. "Giving a contract to a friend, I don't think you require much training to understand this isn't appropriate", commented Mr. Dion. "Something has to be done" to show they "are taking this seriously". 

The Conflict of Interest Act, points out Mr. Dion, states specifically that respecting that law represents a "condition of employment" for public office holders it applies to. In theory, anyone who breaches the act could lose their job if the individual at the top takes the Act seriously. "I don't think the crafters of the act envisaged the situation where a prime minister would be found in breach himself. So it has created a very special situation", added Mr. Dion.
"Twice already, Canada's conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, has found the prime minister violated ethics rules. The first occasion was in 2017, when former commissioner Mary Dawson ruled on Trudeau and his family accepting a vacation on the Aga Khan's private island in the Bahamas."
"The second occasion was just last year, when the current commissioner, Mario Dion, found that Trudeau had tried to influence then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to overrule a decision not to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin."
"Dion already had announced he would be looking into the decision to grant the WE Charity a sole-sourced contract to administer the Canada Student Service Grant when the charity revealed it and its affiliates had paid the prime minister's mother and brother about $300,000 for speaking engagements over the last four years."
"When photos were published in the midst of the last campaign showing that Trudeau had worn blackface on multiple occasions before entering politics, there was enormous potential for a career-ending blow to the prime minister."
Éric Grenier · CBC News · Posted: Jul 12, 2020 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under fire for his government's decision to award a contract to WE Charity, an organization with ties to himself and his family. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)


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posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 18, 2023

Monday, August 03, 2020

Sincerely Ingenuous

Sincerely Ingenuous

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)
"I knew there would be perception issues around this [family ties to a charity his government chose to distribute a $912-million student disbursement for volunteerism to]."
"At the same time, delivering a grant program to students who volunteer across the country has absolutely nothing to do with any work my brother or mother did with WE [WE Charity], and that's why there was no conflict of interest."
"We [Cabinet] pulled the item from the agenda so that we could be doing the right thing, the way."
"I wanted to push back and really make sure that everyone could say without a shadow of a doubt that this was…the way to deliver the program recommended by our outstanding and professional public servants."
"As Mr. Morneau [Finance Minister] himself highlighted, he apologized and he should not have accepted the elements of that, that were gifts."
"The idea that someone on their personal vacation would choose to support a good cause or get involved in helping make the world a better place is not something that we should reject or turn away from."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
"Multiple ministers and senior officials have testified at the finance committee."
"Not one of them said that the prime minister pulled the WE proposal from the May 8 cabinet meeting and sent it back for further scrutiny."
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer
The Parliamentary finance committee in conducting their investigation into the highly unusual situation whereby a sole-sourced contract for a proposed Canada Student Service Grant was granted to a charity that happened to be supported and hugely favoured by the prime minister, his family, the minister of finance and his family, had invited quite a few individuals to appear before them in friendly question-and-answer settings (through remote video connection). Among others, a number of senior civil servants. From whom came the information that the connection between the Trudeau family and the WE Charity was widely known among them.

That, in fact, this specific charity and none other, catering to youth, inspiring youth to reach out and give aid to other youth in the international community much less fortunate, as well as speaking out against child labour and investing in educational opportunities for children living in abject poverty in developing countries, would be hugely favoured as a result, to be named the beneficiary of a lucrative contract. This was important because the prime minister insisted repeatedly that it was not he who arranged for the contract to be sole-sourced to WE Charity, but the civil service, and he was completely ignorant of their choice.

Until he no longer was, when he was finally apprised of his most favoured charity for which he had himself attended well publicized, popular and crowd-thick inspirational meetings, speaking to the adoring throngs of youth, taken with the message of dedicated volunteerism. Dedicated volunteerism is what the public witnessed when they listened to an enthusiastic Margaret Trudeau speak on numerous occasions to spellbound WE Charity supporters. As did her son, Alexandre, Justin Trudeau's younger brother.

However, they did so to the tune of remuneration totalling a third of a million dollars, where Margaret Trudeau herself banked $250,000 for her 28 inspiring speeches. The prime minister's wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, was another enthused volunteer and spokesperson for the charity. The finance minister's two daughters were also heavily involved with WE Charity, one a contract employee, the other a speaker. This is a charity that has, besides its charitable purpose, a for-profit arm, a real estate arm, a tourism arm, and an associated contract-signing arm separate from the charity itself, but signing for it.

WE Charity excels in extending invitations to wealthy donors for all-expense-paid trips to some of its overseas ventures. Mr. Morneau and his family accepted two such trips in 2017, one to Ecuador, the other to Kenya. By all accounts quite wonderful trips to see the good work of the charity in action, and to stay at luxury accommodation in a truly unique environment for a feel-good purpose. Mr. Morneau is a multi-millionaire. The trips his family took  were estimated to the value of $93,000. Mr. Morneau suddenly recalled, on the eve he was to appear before the finance committee, that he 'owed' WE Charity $41,000 in connection with those trips, and he speedily wrote a cheque, albeit 3 years after the events.

When he responded to questions at the finance committee investigation, Mr. Trudeau gave what he considered to be perfectly valid, explicable responses; among the most salient that his 'talented' family generously gave of their time, and that the connection between their being paid by this charity and the charity being chosen for a prestigious, high-profile vote-getting program was completely above-board. Nothing to see here, folks move on, because the prime minister insists there was nothing unethical; the cause unassailable, everyone involved well-meaning.

There are other Parliamentary enquiries into this situation in the offing. The Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner has committed to investigating Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau, both for the third time, for ethics violations. On the two previous occasions, both men were found to have gone afoul of Parliamentary ethics. The entire situation is nothing more, nothing less, than business-as-usual for this Liberal government. A finance minister handling Canada's finances and handing out tens of billions of treasury for Liberal government COVID-19-related support to business and the unemployed and students, who cannot keep abreast of his own personal finances.

A prime minister who feels entitled to believe that anything he decides would be in the best interests of the country should go unquestioned, and to that end manipulated a situation whereby a second-tier opposition party agreed to support a motion to suspend Parliament for the duration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic roiling the world, until such time as a vaccine is discovered and widely available. Setting the stage for this prime minister to govern like a true autocrat whose decisions cannot be questioned. Had Parliament been fully restored, opposition parties would have been able to intervene in this situation.

The fact that the charity was in deep financial trouble would have been noted and questioned. Its real estate holdings, unusual in size and breadth for a charity would have been noted and questioned. Its default on its banking obligations would have been noted and questioned. Its firing of 400 employees would have been noted and questioned; after all, how could such an ambitious program such as the student grants be administered short-handed? Most telling of all, the resignation of the chair of the WE Charity board of directors would have been noted and questioned.

Michelle Douglas, former chair of the board of directors for WE Charity, appears as a witness via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee hearing in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Former WE Charity Board Chair, Michelle Douglas 'testifying'
That most other members of the board chose to leave along with the chair should certainly have been a flapping red flag. Michelle Douglas too appeared before the finance committee to respond to questions put to her. She described feeling uneasy and puzzled that upon request and even after pressing, she and the board were unable to obtain copies of WE Charity finances. She was troubled by the precipitate firing of 400 employees which she felt to be completely inappropriate and unnecessary. When, in a telephone conversation with the Kielburgers she insisted on seeing financial records, the line went dead.

Subsequently she was requested to hand in her resignation. “It was our view that you don’t fire hundreds of people without very strong demonstrable evidence, and even then should explore mitigation measures to save jobs", she explained to the committee. "Instead, the executive team were dismissing employees with great speed and in large numbers."  As for payment to speakers, she and the board had been led to believe that all speakers did so voluntarily. "The WE Charity board always understood that speakers were not paid by the charity or the related organizations to speak at WE Day. The board made direct inquiries on this issue."

Co-founders of WE Craig (left) and Marc Kielburger (right) are seen on stage during WE Day California in Inglewood, California, U.S. April 25, 2019. The brothers spent four hours in front of a committee of MPs today answering questions about their role in the federal government's student grant program. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Marc and Craig Keilburger, co-founders of WE Charity and all its stunningly complicated arms initiated work on administering the controversial Student Volunteer Grant program well before it had been approved to proceed by Cabinet. They had, they explained, been advised by departmental officials that they could feel free to incur expenses related to the disbursement program prior to to being informed the agreement had been formally awarded to WE Charity. Their haste, they explained, had nothing whatever to do with anticipating the $43-million profit that would come their way; they were assiduous in starting for the simple reason that delay would harm the program.

The idea was to get as many university students unable to find summer jobs during the COVID pandemic involved as soon possible, to enable them to have the financial wherewithal to pay for their forthcoming tuition when the university year commenced. And so, they overlooked the possibility that the agreement would not come through and they stood a chance of forfeiting any expenditures on their part, for the greater good of the country, because this is what they're all about; making the world a better place.

"That was a decision that they took because they knew how important it was to get this program going and they assumed certain risks in going forward and starting to spend on a program that hadn't yet been approved by cabinet and would not be approved for another few weeks", explained Mr. Trudeau, in their defence and his own. Ungenerously, the leader of the opposition, Mr. Scheer, responded "Why was WE so sure that they were going to be approved? Why were they told they could start charging expenses before the program was even approved?"

As for Justin Trudeau's forgiving attitude over Bill Morneau's ill-advised acceptance of an all-expense-paid trip hosted by a charity he and his family have generously supported, it's hardly surprising. Given that Justin Trudeau and his family were pleased to accept just such a trip whose invitation was extended by the Aga Khan for them to enjoy Christmas at his private island in the Bahamas. Justin Trudeau innocently described the trip as a gift from a family friend, and couldn't see what the fuss was all about. That was the first time that the Ethics Commissioner issued a rebuke for trangressing Parliamentary ethics when he was found to have violated sections 5, 11, 12 and 21 of the Conflict of Interest Act.

Justin Trudeau, Bill Morneau
Minister of Finance Bill Morneau rises in the House of Commons to deliver a fiscal snapshot as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on, Wednesday, July 8, 2020 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld


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posted by Pieface @ Monday, August 03, 2020

Saturday, July 11, 2020

Pushing the Limits of Conflicts of Interest -- A Muddle is: Playing Both Ends Against the Middle

"The nature of the allegations, the importance of the sums in play, the blatant appearance of conflict of interest, the possibility ... that there are criminal investigations on this file in the future, make it impossible for the Prime Minister to continue in his functions."
"When one holds a function as important as that of prime minister, you have an obligation to be above all suspicions. And this would not be the first time that Trudeau woefully fails a probity test."
Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives on stage at We Day on Parliament Hill. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
"Justin Trudeau has never been paid by WE Charity or ME to WE Social Enterprise for any speeches or other matters", declared the umbrella organization representing the purported choice of the civil service in outsourcing the administration of a recently announced Liberal government initiative to pay Canadian students for volunteer work up to a maximum of $5,000 over the summer months. A charitable group whose organization Justin Trudeau lauded as superior, the 'only one' with the capacity to administer the special $900-million fund properly.
And then an independent news source called CANADALAND uncovered some embarrassing details overlooked by WE Charity and the Prime Minister's Office alike. That the volunteer work undertaken by the prime minister's Mother, Margaret Trudeau, and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and his brother Alexandre Trudeau, was handsomely paid for by the charity. For Margaret Trudeau, 28 speaking engagements netted her $312,000. Her son was paid $40,000 for eight appearances on behalf of the group.
And Mrs. Sophie Trudeau, a good-will ambassador for the charity, and speaker at their major events earned an insignificant financial honorarium. All this, and the unhealthy odour emanating from sole-sourcing a contract to the value of close to a billion dollars to a Trudeau-family-favoured charity, a breach of ethical conduct of breathtaking audacity and entitlement. When the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner faulted Justin Trudeau for a family vacation on a private Bermuda island owned by the Aga Khan, Trudeau protested he was an old family friend.
When the Ethics Commissioner reported on the second conflict of interest violation when Justin Trudeau attempted to manipulate then-Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould to waive a criminal case pending against Quebec-based SNC-Lavalin, it was after he had booted the Minister of Justice, Ms.Wilson Raybould, out of Cabinet for resisting a Liberal campaign to intimidate her into obeying Trudeau's recommendation that SNC Lavalin's case of corruption not be criminalized.
The illegal, unethical handover to a hand-picked Trudeau family-favoured charity of close to a billion dollars to administer a special fund to reward volunteerism, will be the third occasion that the Ethics Commissioner has undertaken an examination of Justin Trudeau's questionable actions. He was previously condemned for contravening the Conflict of Interest Act on two occasions, and now a third will be added. And nor is the Ethics Commissioner's the only enquiry to go forward as a result of this tawdry affair; two separate parliamentary committees are also prepared to investigate.
Margaret Trudeau at a WE day event . (Alastair Grant/The Associated Press)
"The Prime Minister's relatives engage with a variety of organizations and support many personal causes on their own accord."
"What is important to remember here is that this is about a charity supporting students. The Canada Student Service Grant program is about giving young people opportunities to contribute to their communities, not about benefits to anyone else."
Ann-Clara Vaillancourt, Prime Minister's Office spokesperson
"No you don't get to put up 'won't someone please think of the children' as a defence from ethics scrutiny."
"How on Earth is there no one in the PMO who thought to advise the Prime Minister to recuse himself from discussions on this? How did the PMO, after Aga Khan and SNC-Lavalin, not think to recuse himself?"
James Cohen, executive director, Transparency International Canada 
"Today's news is scandalous. We now know that Justin Trudeau handed almost a billion-dollar contract to a charity that not only had close ties to the Liberal Party, but which paid his family almost $300,000. Parliament must immediately be recalled so that we can get to the bottom of this."
"Canadians deserve answers and the Prime Minister and his government must be held accountable."
Michael Barrett, Conservative ethics critic
Kielburger
Co-founders Craig (left) and Marc Kielburger introduce Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau as they appear at the WE Day celebrations in Ottawa, Tuesday November 10, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

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posted by Pieface @ Saturday, July 11, 2020

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