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July 31st, 2020

Liberals must drop cabinet secrecy in Trudeau’s WE scandal

Testimony raised more questions than answered. Cabinet confidentiality must be waived

OTTAWA – Following the Prime Minister’s testimony at the finance committee, NDP Critic for Ethics, Charlie Angus is calling on Justin Trudeau to waive cabinet confidentiality and let all of his cabinet ministers speak freely about his WE scandal.

“There are still so many questions about how and why this decision was made and the obvious connections to the Prime Minister and other members of cabinet,” said Angus. “If the Prime Minister has nothing to hide, he needs to waive cabinet confidentiality so that committee and the Ethics Commissioner can do their job and get to the bottom of this issue without interference and excuses from the PMO.”

During testimony this week, Justin Trudeau said he had delayed the final vote on the program because he had concerns about perceived conflicts of interest and wanted more due diligence done. He also admitted, however that even after he raised those concerns, he did not contact the commissioner to get clearance.

There is also no evidence that shows he did anything to address the obvious shortcoming in the program including the fact that deal was signed with a shell company with no assets to protect the Kielburger brothers from liability, that no one from WE nor the Kielburgers were registered lobbyists, that there were clear violations of the Canadian and provincial employment legislation, and that there were potential issues around conflict of interest act.

The Prime Minister’s failure to address these concerns and move forward with this scheme has resulted in the program being delayed and young Canadians being left without the support they need.

“This is the third time the Prime Minister was found guilty of breaking these laws,” said Angus. “Canadians have had enough with apologies with no action behind them. They deserve to know the facts about how cabinet decided to give away $500 million in taxpayers’ money to an organization that has undeniable ties to the Prime minister’s family and friends. The Prime Minister must waive cabinet confidentiality now on this decision.”