Billing ‘error’ shows fees from charity

In its statement, WE explained that all payments to the Trudeaus were meant to be made by ME to WE Social Enterprise, and not WE Charity. But due to a billing “error,” part of Margaret Trudeau’s fees were actually paid by WE Charity rather than the for-profit division.

In response to a question asking why Trudeau had never revealed the fees paid to his relatives or corrected WE’S statement claiming they had never received payment, the Prime Minister’s Office said that he wasn’t involved in his family’s business.

“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,” wrote PMO spokesperson Ann-clara Vaillancourt.

But that explanation did not satisfy Transparency International Canada executive director James Cohen.

“No, you don’t get to put up ‘won’t someone please think of the children’ as a defence from ethics scrutiny,” Cohen tweeted Thursday.

“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?”

In a statement, Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett said all of Trudeau’s cabinet ministers must now admit if they knew Trudeau’s family had been paid by WE Charity before signing off on the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) deal.

“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,” Barrett wrote. “Canadians deserve answers and the Prime Minister and his government must be held accountable.”

The prime minister and WE Charity have been embroiled in controversy ever since Trudeau announced two weeks ago that the government was outsourcing the $900-million Canada Student Service Grant to the Toronto-based organization.

At the time, he said the public service had decided WE Charity was the “best and only” organization able to run the program. To this day, bureaucrats have refused to disclose how many or which other groups were considered.

Beyond his mother and brother’s paid appearances at WE events, Justin Trudeau has regularly hosted “WE Day,” the organization’s stadium-sized youth rallies. His wife is currently a “WE ambassador and ally,” hosts a WE podcast and attended a “WE Day” event in London back in March.

One week after the announcement and multiple controversies later, WE Charity pulled out of the deal to run the CSSG.

Two parliamentary committees are also set to study how WE Charity received the contract for the CSSG.