Morneau family tied to WE Charity
Daughter works for charitable foundation
OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not the only cabinet member whose family is closely tied to WE Charity. One of Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s daughters works for WE and another has spoken at “WE day” events.
despite his family’s ties to the Toronto-based organization, Morneau’s office says he did not recuse himself from the Trudeau cabinet’s decision to outsource a $900-million Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) to WE Charity.
The prime minister has also admitted he did not recuse himself from that decision despite close ties to the WE Charity and the fact that his wife, mother and brother have been paid by the WE organization for speaking engagements.
The ongoing controversy led the Conservatives on Friday to call for an RCMP investigation.
On Friday, Morneau’s office confirmed information first published by online media outlet CANADALAND that Grace Acan, who joined Morneau’s family in 2010 when they sponsored her moving to Canada from Northern uganda, is currently working for WE as a contractual employee in an administrative role.
“She got this position on her own merits. There is absolutely no link between her employment and any work that WE does with the Government of Canada,” Morneau’s spokesperson Maéva Proteau said in an email.
“The recommendation to have WE administer the program came from the public service. Ms. Acan’s term contract has absolutely no link with any work the charity has done with the Government of Canada. Mr. Morneau did not recuse himself from the discussions,” Proteau wrote.
Morneau’s office also confirmed that another of the minister’s daughters, Clare Morneau, spoke at multiple WE events after publishing a book on young refugee girls.
Proteau said that she had never been paid for her involvement.
Clare Morneau was also featured in WE’S “Future 50” portrait series “honouring 50 remarkable Canadians and the contributions they are making to the future of our nation.”
The controversial CSSG program will pay eligible students between $1,000 and $5,000 for volunteering hours done until October 31, 2020. WE Charity was originally slated to receive at least $19.5 million from the government to cover administrative fees before it pulled out of the deal on July 3.
Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett has written to the RCMP demanding they open a criminal investigation into Trudeau’s handling of the $900 million WE Charity contract.
“For the last several weeks, ethical questions have piled up about the federal government’s decision to award a sole-sourced contract to administer the Canada Student Service Grant to WE Charity, a group with deep and extensive links to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family,” he wrote.
“I encourage the royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate the possibility of criminal offences arising from these disturbing facts. you and the very able members of the national police force possess the necessary skills, expertise and tools to get to the bottom of this.”
One of the “disturbing facts” Barrett is referring to is that prime minister’s wife, mother and brother had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in total speaking fees from the WE organization in recent years.
In an interview, Barrett also said that he wanted police to look at a series of sole-source contracts given to WE Charity by the federal government since 2017, as first reported by National Post.
Last week, federal Ethics Commissioner Mario dion opened an investigation into Justin Trudeau and his government’s handling of the CSSG contract.
Friday, NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus wrote to dion’s office asking him to extend the investigation to Morneau as well.
“One of Minister Morneau’s daughters is a current employee of WE Charity. It would seem apparent that Minister Morneau would recognize that the fact that his family member was an employee of this organization necessitated him to recuse himself regarding this extraordinary decision to outsource nearly billion-dollar commitment of public funds in a single source contract,” Angus wrote in his letter.
To illustrate his point, the NDP MP said that in his previous career as a school board trustee, he was not allowed to participate in any discussions related to union salaries because his father worked as a teacher.
“The rules governing recusal and conflicts of interest were clear and stringent in the context of a smalltown school board. I, and doubtless the vast majority of Canadians, would expect billion-dollar federal contracts to face the same scrutiny,” Angus wrote.
Friday, the commissioner’s office told National Post he was “aware of reports concerning Minister Morneau and his family”, but did not say if he would investigate the matter.
THE RULES GOVERNING RECUSAL AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST WERE CLEAR.