The minister of Finance Bill Morneau
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16 July 2020 13: 24
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STATES: the minister Morneau also under investigation by the ethics commissioner
Catherine Lévesque
The canadian Press
OTTAWA – The ethics commissioner will not investigate not only on the prime minister Justin Trudeau, but also on his Finance minister Bill Morneau to check if it has contravened the act when the federal government chose the body STATES (WE) to manage a volunteer program, student $900 million.
Thursday morning, commissioner Mario Dion has advised conservative mps Michael Barrett, Michael Cooper, Pierre Poilievre and ndp mp Charlie Angus that he will investigate the case of Mr. Morneau and the minister of Finance has been made aware. Mr. Dion will release a report once the study is completed.
In a letter sent to members of parliament, Mr. Dion says that he will try to determine if the minister of Finance has contravened section 6 (1) of the Law on conflict of interest, which “prohibits any public office holder shall make a decision or participate in making a decision in the exercise of his office if he knows or ought reasonably to know, that, in taking this decision, it could find itself in a situation of conflict of interests”.
Just like Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Morneau has admitted that he had not recused himself from cabinet discussions surrounding the granting of the contract to the organization STATES. But just like Mr. Trudeau, the family of Mr. Morneau has close links with UNITED.
In fact, it has been revealed in the last days that the two daughters of the minister of Finance have links with STATES – one of them gave a speech for the organization in 2016, and another is a contract employee for the united STATES.
On Monday, MR. Trudeau and Morneau admitted that they had made a mistake in not objecting party not in the discussion surrounding STATES due to the proximity of the body with the members of their respective families. These excuses have not been deemed sufficient by the opposition parties, who believe that all the light should be done on this case.
In a statement sent to The Canadian Press, Mr. Morneau has assured that he would “fully” cooperate in the investigation of the ethics commissioner and that he intended to withdraw from all discussions relating to UNITED in the future.
Mr. Dion had already announced earlier this month that Mr. Trudeau was to be the subject of an investigation for his involvement in the case STATES. This is the third time that his office will inquire about it, the prime minister has already been the subject of investigations regarding his trip with the Aga Khan and the case of SNC-Lavalin.
The commissioner’s office said that an investigation takes an average of seven months.
