Charity seeking refund has Tory ties
Trudeau still promises to repay speaker’s fee to seniors’ group
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau vows to give back some or all of his $ 20,000 fee, while links between the New Brunswick organization and the Tories emerge.
OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he will still give back some or all of the $ 20,000 he was paid by a New Brunswick- based charity last year even though at least one of its board members has ties to the federal Conservatives.
The promise was made as several other organizations that contracted Trudeau to speak for them indicated they were happy with the results, and would not be taking the Liberal leader up on his offer to “do right” by them.
Trudeau has faced Conservative criticism for more than a week for accepting speaker’s fees from charitable organizations even after being elected to Parliament in 2008.
Those attacks increased after the Prime Minister’s Office circulated a letter Friday in which the Grace Foundation seniors’ group in Saint John, N. B., asked for their money back.
Trudeau had spoken at an event organized by the foundation on June 27, 2012, which the letter described as “a huge disappointment and financial loss for our organization.”
A spokesman in the Prime Minister’s Office said the Conservative government was only recently apprised of the Grace Foundation’s concerns after the organization approached local Conservative MPs because Trudeau did not respond to their request for reimbursement.
Trudeau told reporters Monday the letter was initially sent to the company that negotiated his appearance, which denied the foundation’s request, and indicated he was not directly involved.
Fundy Royal Conservative Riding Association president Brian Keirstead confirmed Monday that Grace Foundation board member Judith Baxter’s husband, Glendon Baxter, is a director of the Fundy Bay Conservative Riding Association.
“He’s been on the board of directors for a number of years,” Keirstead said. “He’s an extremely caring, compassionate, conscientious individual. And he certainly will speak his mind. He wants his voice heard. He’s not one of these who will just sit back and rubber stamp anything.”
Elections Canada records also show Glendon Baxter has contributed at least $ 670 to the party since 2009. In addition, Judith Baxter was twice appointed to four- year terms on the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s board by the Harper government.
Pictures have also surfaced on the Internet purporting to show Judith Baxter posing in the Prime Minister’s Office earlier this year, though their authenticity could not be confirmed.
A spokeswoman for Heritage Minister James Moore defended Judith Baxter’s appointment to the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s board on Monday.
Keirstead said the Grace Foundation never came up at any Fundy Royal riding association meeting. “I have never ever heard one single word at any of our director’s meetings and the first I heard of it was at a function I attended on Saturday,” he said. “It was never brought up at any of our meetings.”
Repeated calls and emails to the Baxters and other members of the Saint John- based Grace Foundation’s board were not returned.
Trudeau said some will wonder about the link between the Conservatives and Grace Foundation, but maintained that he was “going to play it straight.”
“I’m glad to try and look at compensating them either by writing them a cheque or by offering to do a bigger, more successful fundraiser for free to help out the Grace Foundation,” he said.
Trudeau also reiterated his promise to pay back or otherwise help other organizations that had paid him to speak since he was elected a member of Parliament in 2008, saying he would be reaching out to them to ensure they were happy with how things had turned out.
One he doesn’t appear to have to worry about is a literacy conference he spoke at in Saskatoon in April 2012 for $ 20,000.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall had called on Trudeau on Friday to repay the money charged to the Literacy for Life conference, but a spokeswoman said the organization would not be asking for the money back.
“The conference met our objectives,” said Veronica Baker, a spokeswoman at Saskatoon Public Schools, which organized the event. “Mr. Trudeau was hired to speak as an education advocate, not as an MP.”