Conservatives seek WE vote in House

MOVE PART OF ATTEMPT TO FORCE ISSUE INTO HOUSE OF COMMONS AFTER LIBERALS STIFLE DEBATE

The Conservatives are looking to force a vote over a proposal to probe deeper into the WE Charity scandal, part of an effort by the opposition to reignite the controversy that rocked the Trudeau government this summer.

Conservative members announced plans Thursday to move a motion next week that would establish an “anti-corruption committee" of 15 MPs to delve into the WE scandal and other possible conflicts of interest. The motion will be debated during opposition day in Parliament, scheduled for Tuesday.

The move is part of an attempt to force the WE issue into the House of Commons after Liberal MPs this week stifled debate on the topic in two separate committees.

Debate in the House finance committee stretched for nearly 12 hours on Thursday, as Liberal MPs used tactical manoeuvres to delay a vote that called for the release of a trove of documents detailing Ottawa’s correspondences with WE Charity, the Toronto-based organization chosen to oversee the Canada Student Service Grant.

Those same documents were made public in August but were highly redacted. The House of Commons law clerk, Philippe Dufresne, later said in a confidential letter that he had not received the documents until after bureaucrats had made the redactions, leaving him unable to assess whether they had been improperly blacked out. The story was first reported by iPolitics.

The Trudeau government then prorogued Parliament just as the law clerk had raised the issue, ending an investigation into the WE scandal that was only partly completed.

Critics called the prorogation a bald attempt by the Liberals to shift focus away from the WE scandal, which had hurt them in public opinion polls.

The WE controversy began af t er t he Liberal government gave a solesourced $912-million contract for the student grant program to WE Charity, from which some members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's family had been paid to deliver speeches. The organization, which had been under financial pressure due to the pandemic before winning the government contract, shut down the charity in Canada after the controversy.

Trudeau is facing an ethics investigation for not recusing himself from a cabinet vote to award the contract to WE.

The Liberals and the opposition parties have been in a standoff for more than a week over WE Charity disclosure. Two parliamentary committees have been paralyzed as the Liberals have filibustered the debate through lengthy speeches and endless points-of-order.

In the finance committee, the opposition members are trying to pass a motion that would protest the redactions applied to the documents. The motion objects to “what appears to be a breach of its privileges by the government's refusal to provide documents in the manner ordered by the committee,” and says Parliament's right to compel records is “absolute and unfettered.”

In the ethics committee, meanwhile, the opposition is trying to pass a motion that would order the Speakers' Spotlight bureau to turn over details of speaking fees paid to Trudeau and his wife, mother and brother over the past decade.

The documents would be reviewed by the committee “in-camera,” meaning they wouldn't be made public.

The Liberals have filibustered the past three meetings of the ethics committee to prevent a vote on this, including for nearly nine hours on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Liberal House Leader Pablo Rodriguez called the Conservative motion “extremely partisan and irresponsible.” The Liberal government has instead proposed establishing a broader committee that tracks all spending related to COVID-19, rather than anti-corruption efforts tied specifically to the WE scandal.

Rodriguez declined to answer whether the issue could be made into a confidence vote. Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre also declined to comment on whether it could become a matter of confidence, but said such a move would speak volumes.

“If Trudeau is prepared to call an election to thwart an investigation in the WE s c andal, t here must be some deep, ugly dark secrets he's trying.