The prime minister Justin Trudeau
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July 14, 2020 13h53
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Case STATES: the Bloc also wants Trudeau testifies before a parliamentary committee
Catherine Lévesque
The canadian Press
OTTAWA – The Bloc québécois supports the demand of the conservatives to convene a meeting of the prime minister Justin Trudeau in front of a parliamentary committee so that it can be explained on a contract of almost a billion dollars that has been entrusted to the agency STATES, in spite of his links with the family Trudeau.
This application may also extend to the minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, and any other actor that could shed light on the granting of this contract.
The prime minister admitted on Monday that he had personally committed an error in deciding not to recuse himself when his government has assigned to this charity a contract of $ 900 million to manage a program of grants to students who volunteer.
The apology of Mr. Trudeau occurred in the wake of revelations that his wife, his brother and his mother have received $ 300,000 for having participated in public events of the U.S. for a few years.
In Ottawa, on Tuesday, the chief bloquiste Yves-François Blanchet has estimated that these excuses are not sufficient.
He therefore joined the federal conservatives to try to get to the bottom of the case in the parliamentary committee. Mr. Blanchet did not support, however, the police investigation also claimed by the conservatives to know if Mr. Trudeau has committed fraud against the government.
“We do not order a police investigation, such as ordering a pizza. (…) Political parties, it does not command a police investigation. If one wants to complain, it’s a deal. The police will decide whether to investigate or not to investigate. I have an idea to the effect that, already, they are in the process of leaning out of it,” said Mr. Blanchet.
The Block request instead, as it has done for several days, that Mr. Trudeau is giving up her place as prime minister, the time that the commissioner of conflict of interest and ethics to shed light on this matter. The office of the latter said on social networks that the average time for an investigation is around seven months.
“I think that Mr. Trudeau can tune it faster than that by giving us all of the information, especially during his or her appearances in one or several committees. It is up to him. If he has not done anything questionable, (…) I would therefore like to make the light as soon as possible,” replied Mr. Blanchet.
The New democratic Party has also called on the prime minister to “fully cooperate” in the investigation of the ethics commissioner, but has not yet said whether the party would support the application of a conservative to force Mr. Trudeau to appear before a federal committee.
The green Party of Canada, for its part, is why this scholarship program was established in the first place so that the public service already had programs that could administer the money.
“Why introduce a program, the operation of which requires a whole new bureaucracy ? It would be much more logical to allocate the funds to the Canada summer Jobs program (EEC) and to ensure that the funds are given to nonprofit organizations for the hiring of students,” said green parliament member Paul Manly.
