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The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation has been mired in a political controversy that pushed the organization’s president and board to resign last week.
At the centre of the controversy is a 2016 donation from two donors with links to the Chinese government. The donors pledged $200,000 to the foundation at the time.
While the donation spurred an initial controversy in 2016, interest in the story revived in the wake of recent media reports stating Beijing interfered in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. The foundation said it would reimburse the funds but apparently ran into administrative roadblocks. (Radio-Canada has confirmed the donation has since been returned.)
The foundation said last week’s resignations were in response to the latest controversy about the donation.
“The circumstances created by the politicization of the foundation have made it impossible to continue with the status quo, and the volunteer board of directors has resigned, as has the president and CEO,” a statement from the foundation said.
But reports from the Globe and Mail and La Presse suggest the resignations stemmed from the foundation’s handling of the donation.
The controversy has also spilled into the halls of Parliament.
Morris Rosenberg — who authored a government report on electoral interference in the 2021 election — and former governor general David Johnston — tapped by the Liberal government to be its special rapporteur on election interference — have had past affiliations with the foundation. Conservatives have argued that fact compromises both investigations.
Last week’s resignations only spurred more outrage from the opposition, with both Conservatives and Bloc Québécois MPs calling for investigations of the foundation. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wrote to the Canada Revenue Agency asking it to “launch a fulsome audit” of the foundation, with a focus on donations the charity received from foreign governments.
On Friday, the foundation itself asked the auditor general to probe the 2016 donation.
Here’s what we know about the organization at the centre of the controversy.
What does it do?
The foundation was established in 2001 to honour the former prime minister, who died in 2000. In 2002, the federal government endowed it with $125 million to help fund its core operations. It also accepts private donations. The foundation describes itself as an independent and nonpartisan charity.
The foundation helps fund and promote academic and public interest research. It awards up to 20 doctoral scholarships each year and finances up to five research fellowships. It also supports a network of “mentors” to help young academics and organizes public events, such as book launches and lectures on public policy issues.
These mentors — who have included former Supreme Court justices, current and former politicians, journalists and business leaders — receive an honorarium and travel costs during their term.
Where does its money come from?
As part of the 2002 agreement with the federal government, the foundation cannot spend the $125 million endowment. Instead, it was invested; only income earned from returns on the investment can fund the foundation’s activities.
According to its 2021-22 charity filings with the CRA, the organization earned millions of dollars in revenue from returns on its investments. It raked in less than a million dollars in donations.
Who runs the foundation?
The foundation has two primary governing bodies: the membership team and the board of directors.
The members are responsible for appointing board members and changing bylaws, while the board is more involved with the management activities of the foundation.
Most of the board of directors and its president, Pascale Fournier — who herself is a former recipient of a Trudeau scholarship — resigned last week.
The foundation said three board members will stay on until new ones can be selected.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the foundation will continue to make a positive impact on academic institutions across the country.
When he was asked recently about the foundation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted he no longer has any ties to the organization bearing his father’s name.
Trudeau was directly involved in the foundation from its creation in 2002 until 2014, after he was elected leader of the Liberal Party.
“The Trudeau Foundation is a foundation with which I have absolutely no intersection,” Trudeau told a news conference Tuesday.
But the prime minister’s brother, Alexandre Trudeau, is currently one of the foundation’s members.
Some members are people who were close to Pierre Trudeau, such as his former principal secretary Thomas Axworthy and senior economic adviser Denise Chong.
The board of directors also has had members who were close to the former prime minister — including his daughter Sarah Coyne, who was one the members who resigned last week.
The list of resignations also includes a wide range of academics, lawyers, former civil servants and business leaders.
Well-known Canadians have served on the board in the past, including Peter Lougheed and Bill Davis, former conservative premiers of Alberta and Ontario.
Former NDP MP Megan Leslie and former Conservative cabinet minister Chuck Strahl also have been board members, although Strahl resigned in 2016 during the initial donation controversy.
The foundation says directors and members serve on a voluntary basis. According to its CRA filings, the foundation has 13 full-time and three part-time administrative staff.
Who else has been affiliated with the foundation?
The foundation appears to attract mentors from all walks of life. Civil servants, journalists, academics, activists and authors have all been mentors to the foundation’s scholars.
Former Supreme Court justices Beverly McLachlin, Louise Arbour, Marie Deschamps, Thomas Cromwell and Frank Iacobucci were mentors in the past. The latter two were nominated by Conservative prime ministers Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney.
Federal, provincial and municipal politicians of all political stripes have also been mentors.
Many of the former politicians who have signed up to mentor Trudeau scholars in the past are associated with the Liberal Party, such as former cabinet ministers Anne McLellan and Pierre Pettigrew.
Former Conservative cabinet minister and senator Michael Fortier was a mentor as well. So was Strahl before he became a member of the foundation’s board.
Other past mentors include former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, former NDP premiers Tony Penikett and Michael Harcourt and current Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May.
One of the foundation’s former presidents, Pierre-Gerlier Forest, was appointed president of Quebec’s public health agency — Institut national de santé publique du Québec — by the provincial government in 2022.
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