Rapporteur David Johnson, Eminent Canadian
- Thread starter Ron in Regina
- Start date
That's just Ron giving away his eighties-ness.
I'm curious as to the tune, or aural scouring as Tec might call it, you are alluding to here, Petros?
♫ it may be the devil or it may be the lord
but you're gonna have to serve somebody ♪
?
Rex Murphy: Trudeau Foundation board defenestrates itself — National Post
More evidence that David Johnston is the wrong man to investigate election interference
There is no way, especially after the events of this week, that the family friend and past member of the Foundation can continue to be the single source investigating Chinese interference; most especially since it is a donation to the Trudeau Foundation from Chinese sources, that is the epicentre of this entire messy saga.
Rex Murphy: Trudeau Foundation board defenestrates itself — National Post
More evidence that David Johnston is the wrong man to investigate election interferenceapple.news
Mr. Trudeau’s response to the Foundation’s leadership collapse came in an unusually worded blast: “The Trudeau Foundation is a foundation with which I have absolutely no intersection.” The first half of that causes not problems at all — being a pure tautology: “the …foundation is a foundation. ” (Almost as good as another PM’s famous declaration that “a proof is a proof.”
It is the second half that staggers, and not just because of the clumsy inversion “with which I have no intersection” and the curious noun at the end. No “intersection.” Is this a traffic report?
I can plausibly surmise he went with “intersection,” because “connections” wasn’t available. Of connections, may we say they are legion. He is the son of the man after whom the Foundation is named. He has served as a member of the Foundation, just like David Johnson. His brother Alexandre served, until this week, on the board. It was originally financed by a grant of 125 million dollars from the Liberal government of Jean Chretien. The Foundation as already noted is the epicentre of the Chinese interference story.
So to say he has no “intersection” with the foundation set up to honour his father, for which he and his brother have served, and which received $125 million from a Liberal government — is at least curious, and certainly perplexing. Whatever did the man mean?
Replying to Pierre Poilievre’s question of the matter, Mr. Trudeau called the opposition queries an example of toxic politics. I think we may agree with that. With the qualification that what “toxicity” there is, is not coming from the opposition benches.
To go with the trite but telling phrase: Bottom line — a full public inquiry now. And a shutdown of the now completely untenable “special rapporteur.”
Nothing "free" about True Dope's ways. All toll road.
Well, we laid a strip for the Ottawa whore
Prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn't have a doggoned dime
I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck
"We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll"
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight
I says "Let them truckers roll, 10-4"
GOLDSTEIN: Trudeau should bite bullet and call public inquiry into election interference — Toronto Sun
Surely, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now realizes that his self-appointed “special rapporteur” and life-long friend, David Johnston, isn’t going to solve his problems when Johnston advises him by May 23 whether he should hold a public inquiry into alleged interference by Beijing in the last two...
LILLEY: Trudeau blames conservatives for trouble at Trudeau Foundation — Toronto Sun
The biggest problem that Justin Trudeau sees in the turmoil at the Trudeau Foundation is that conservatives don’t like charity. That’s his baseless claim anyway as he tries to blame others for what is happening. If you haven’t heard, the Trudeau Foundation president and CEO, along with the board...
Trudeau Foundation says it's launching independent review of potential China-linked donation
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation says it will be launching an independent review of the organization's acceptance of a donation 'with a potential connection to the Chinese government.'
Independent of what? On Wednesday, La Presse reported, based on interviews with departing officials from the foundation, that the real issue was that the Trudeau Foundation hadn’t returned the controversial donation, because the name on the cheque wasn’t the name of the real donor, which also didn’t appear anywhere in the foundation’s books.
Thus, it would been “unlawful” to return the money, La Presse said, based on a foundation document it obtained.
La Presse said this set off an internal war within the Trudeau foundation, with new directors who weren’t part of the decision to receive the donation, calling for an independent investigation, arguing board members who were involved, should recuse themselves from the matter since that would be a conflict of interest.
Trudeau Foundation Board Members like the two Justin Trudeau selected to investigate Chinese interference into the last two federal elections?
Another source told La Presse: “What we experienced was an internal crisis of governance in relation to the management of this file. We have lost confidence in the ability of the organization to handle this file with transparency, integrity and accountability.”
That’s what led to the resignations, La Presse said. “That gift is a stink bomb,” one of the resigning board members said.
The Trudeau Liberals are as committed as ever to the shameless argument that the scandal is not Chinese interference into Canadian affairs, but the fact that China’s meddling was revealed to the public.
It is a tactic that can’t withstand anyone looking too closely, or facts getting in the way, as was the case with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation this week.
The charity said Wednesday that it would conduct an investigation into a $200,000 donation allegedly made on behalf of the Chinese government in an apparent attempt at influencing Justin Trudeau. That announcement came after the CEO and the entire board of directors of the foundation resigned, and after the Liberals tried to blame “Conservative” attacks for the upheaval…
It was barely a day before the obviously disingenuous explanation from the CEO that blamed “politicization” for the mass resignations was debunked. According to former board directors who spoke to Montreal’s La Presse, that story was a “bunch of lies.” It wasn’t the “unfounded and ungrounded attacks” against the foundation, as Trudeau put it, that led to the board resigning.
In fact, tensions at the organization, which was set up to honour the prime minister’s father, flowed from “ethical” concerns over accepting the donation, which one former board director called a “stink bomb” of a gift.
apple.news
To try and resolve the matter, no fewer than eight board members demanded an independent investigation and called for anyone who was part of the foundation at the time of the 2016 donation to recuse themselves from discussing the matter. The old guard refused, which raises its own set of questions.
“Anyone who was on the finance committee or the audit committee at the time of the donation has a conflict of interest because they accepted these cheques,” one board member told La Presse.
This is what led to a toxic climate that concluded with the CEO and the board quitting, though they did agree to a “third-party” investigation before leaving.
But the revelation that foundation board directors may have quit over a question of ethics, and not because they were cowering in fear from some undefinable right wing plot, is not going to dissuade Trudeau and his followers from putting all their efforts into deflecting blame for foreign interference.
The details of the donation and its supposed intent have been known for weeks, and are uncontested. Liberals are not concerned about “polarization,” as Trudeau claims, they are upset the story was made public in the first place.
Trudeau, who is a former member of the foundation, said that the organization is just the latest charity, according to him, that “Conservative politicians have attacked,” as if a charity, particularly one espousing left wing ideals, is intrinsically immune to corruption.
Yet, whether or not the Trudeau Foundation was compromised by the Chinese government is irrelevant to whether or not an investigation is needed into the donation.
Trudeau’s appointment of former governor general David Johnston as a special rapporteur investigating allegations of illegal Chinese government donations to multiple Liberal candidates and other instances of interference, was immediately suspect, not just because he is a close personal friend of the prime minister, but also because he was a member of the Trudeau Foundation, which helped select the board of directors.
Any investigation into foreign interference should inevitably include investigation of the foundation, which, if it was being done properly, would involve Johnston himself being questioned. The rest at the above link…
It is a tactic that can’t withstand anyone looking too closely, or facts getting in the way, as was the case with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation this week.
The charity said Wednesday that it would conduct an investigation into a $200,000 donation allegedly made on behalf of the Chinese government in an apparent attempt at influencing Justin Trudeau. That announcement came after the CEO and the entire board of directors of the foundation resigned, and after the Liberals tried to blame “Conservative” attacks for the upheaval…
It was barely a day before the obviously disingenuous explanation from the CEO that blamed “politicization” for the mass resignations was debunked. According to former board directors who spoke to Montreal’s La Presse, that story was a “bunch of lies.” It wasn’t the “unfounded and ungrounded attacks” against the foundation, as Trudeau put it, that led to the board resigning.
In fact, tensions at the organization, which was set up to honour the prime minister’s father, flowed from “ethical” concerns over accepting the donation, which one former board director called a “stink bomb” of a gift.
Carson Jerema: Trudeau Foundation deserves its fate — National Post
Several board members now say 'politicization' excuse for them resigning is 'a bunch of lies'
“Anyone who was on the finance committee or the audit committee at the time of the donation has a conflict of interest because they accepted these cheques,” one board member told La Presse.
This is what led to a toxic climate that concluded with the CEO and the board quitting, though they did agree to a “third-party” investigation before leaving.
But the revelation that foundation board directors may have quit over a question of ethics, and not because they were cowering in fear from some undefinable right wing plot, is not going to dissuade Trudeau and his followers from putting all their efforts into deflecting blame for foreign interference.
The details of the donation and its supposed intent have been known for weeks, and are uncontested. Liberals are not concerned about “polarization,” as Trudeau claims, they are upset the story was made public in the first place.
Trudeau, who is a former member of the foundation, said that the organization is just the latest charity, according to him, that “Conservative politicians have attacked,” as if a charity, particularly one espousing left wing ideals, is intrinsically immune to corruption.
Yet, whether or not the Trudeau Foundation was compromised by the Chinese government is irrelevant to whether or not an investigation is needed into the donation.
Trudeau’s appointment of former governor general David Johnston as a special rapporteur investigating allegations of illegal Chinese government donations to multiple Liberal candidates and other instances of interference, was immediately suspect, not just because he is a close personal friend of the prime minister, but also because he was a member of the Trudeau Foundation, which helped select the board of directors.
Any investigation into foreign interference should inevitably include investigation of the foundation, which, if it was being done properly, would involve Johnston himself being questioned. The rest at the above link…
Maybe we should get China to send cheques to the NDP so they have funds for an election campaign ASAP.
Maybe China will sponsor a Liberal Rapporteur through the Trudeau Foundation to investigate Chinese political interference into Canadian Federal elections?
He'd be a 报告员(Bàogào yuán) if working for CCP.
Bowgow is easier to spell and say than rapporteur.
Hmmmm….gets weirder. Sources with ties to the Trudeau Foundation say the organization’s leadership is divided on how to handle the 2016 gift after it was reported by The Globe and Mail that the Chinese government was behind it as part of an influence operation to curry favour with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
A businessman whose reported donations to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation led to the resignation of its CEO is the president of a Chinese cultural organization that says it operates under the authority of the communist government.
Since the Globe report, senior staff and board members who joined the foundation after 2016 have discovered that the donor of record was Millennium Golden Eagle International, a Chinese state-affiliated company run by billionaire Zhang Bin. They have also learned that associated tax receipts may not be accurate. Zhang is a political adviser to the government in Beijing and a senior official in China’s network of state promoters around the world.
The website of the China Cultural Industry Association says it adheres to the "total leadership" of the Chinese Communist Party and was formed with the approval of China's State Council, which is synonymous with the central government.
The China Cultural Industry Association said in 2016 on its WeChat social media account that it has set up a "Trudeau Education Fund" at the Université de Montreal.
The association says on its Chinese-language site that its president is Zhang Bin, a Chinese billionaire that the Globe and Mail reported had donated $200,000 to the foundation in 2016, along with another Chinese businessman.
But the Globe reported that a receipt named a company called Millennium Golden Eagle International (Canada) as the donor.
The China Cultural Industry Association says Millennium Golden Eagle International is one of its executive board members and was created with the approval of China's culture ministry.
At a news conference in Regina on Thursday, Trudeau repeated that he has not had ties to the organization that bears his father's name for about 10 years. "And it continues to be that way," he said.
But on Tuesday, its board of directors and president resigned, saying the politicization of the charity made it "impossible to continue with the status quo."
The foundation, for its part, had promised to return the $200,000 donation that came from Zhang and Niu Gensheng. Montreal-based La Presse reported Wednesday that the foundation was not able to return the money it received from Millennium Golden Eagle, which ultimately amounted to $140,000.
Trudeau Foundation donor heads group under Chinese Communist Party 'total leadership'
A businessman whose reported donations to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation led to the resignation of its CEO is the president of a Chinese cultural organization that says it operates under the authority of the communist government.
www.rmoutlook.com
Trudeau Foundation donor heads group that adheres to 'total leadership' of Chinese Communist Party
Zhang Bin, who reportedly made a donation to the Trudeau Foundation, leads an organization under leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
Le donateur à la Fondation Trudeau est lié à un organisme contrôlé par le PC chinois
Un homme d’affaires dont les dons à la Fondation Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau ont conduit à la démission de sa PDG et du conseil d’administration est le président de l’»Association chinoise de l’industrie culturelle», qui affirme mener ses activités sous l’autorité du gouvernement communiste.
www.lesoleil.com
Mr. Blanchet finds these revelations extremely concerning. In his opinion, the allegations of foreign interference raise fears and affect public confidence in Canadian institutions.
Prime Minister Trudeau recently appointed former Governor General David Johnston as a “special rapporteur” to investigate foreign interference.
The massive resignations at the foundation give the prime minister an additional reason to revoke the mandate granted to David Johnston, according to Yves-François Blanchet.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre recalled this week that Johnston was a member of the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation. He posted on his Twitter account on Wednesday a copy of a letter he allegedly sent to Mr. Johnston.
His scathing and terse missive read: “Dear Reporter, explain this: how are you going to investigate Beijing’s donation to the Trudeau Foundation while you were part of the Trudeau Foundation? I am waiting for your answer “.