Trudeau 'welcomes' ethics probe of alleged PMO interference in SNC-Lavalin case

[Twin_Moose]

Federal website advertising hundreds of non-existent student-volunteer positions

OTTAWA — The federal website advertising volunteer positions for students hoping to earn money for their educations through a $900-million government aid program contains hundreds of positions that do not actually exist.

Among the student-volunteer positions advertised as available on the I Want to Help website are 1,500 spots with YMCA Canada to help create online exercise regimes for kids and seniors in their communities.

Yet the YMCA says those positions were actually the brainchild of WE Charity, the organization originally tapped by the Liberal government to administer the Canada Student Services Grant, and that the YMCA never agreed to them.

Both the YMCA and WE blame a miscommunication as WE scrambled to get the grant program — through which students can get up to $5,000 toward their schooling if they volunteer the maximum 500 hours — up and running as quickly as possible.

WE has since withdrawn from running the program.

In an interview, YMCA Canada president Peter Dinsdale said his organization proposed hosting 391 volunteers through dozens of YMCA locations. They would focus on three areas: helping local branches with marketing and website design; data analysis; and assisting seniors with tech questions.

The YMCA arrived at the number after reaching out to branches across the country, Dinsdale said, after which the national office drew up a draft memorandum of understanding with WE to formalize the arrangement.

"We sent a draft in and they sent a draft back and that's when we saw these other positions and we asked to separate them," he said of the 1,500 positions for online exercise regimes. "And they said great. And we haven't heard from them since all this has gone down."

"These discussions (with the YMCA) took place quickly, given our short timeline for delivery, and some confusion arose around the two separate agreements," WE said in a statement to The Canadian Press.

"That confusion contributed to a misunderstanding on our part which led to one group of service positions being posted, rather than the other group of service positions."

It nonetheless means those advertised positions are not actually available.

The status of thousands of other positions apparently created by WE to meet the requirements of the volunteer program remains uncertain.

Youth Minister Bardish Chagger's spokeswoman Danielle Keenan stood by the Canada Student Services Grant program on Wednesday, saying that while there will be delays in its rollout following WE's departure, the government remains committed to it.

"The Canada Student Service Grants program provides opportunities for students who want to help with their communities COVID-19 response," Keenan said in an email to The Canadian Press.

"Although the delivery of the program will change, our objective has not changed which is to ensure students, not-for-profits, and communities are supported throughout the pandemic."

WE and the Liberal government announced last week that they were ending a sole-sourced contract to have the charity manage the grant program after questions were raised about a potential conflict of interest between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the organization.

Dinsdale said the YMCA did not know the 1,500 positions had been posted, noting the agreement with WE was never signed. At the same time, the 391 positions that the YMCA does want to fill have yet to be advertised. Dinsdale said the YMCA is waiting to hear from the government on those.

"The 391 that we're actually putting forward, our Ys are ready and willing to engage in it and there are some really interesting opportunities that could exist for youth and our YMCAs and communities," he said. "So we're certainly hopeful those go ahead."

Thousands of other positions posted on the federal website involve the creation of online content or the mentoring of other students on such topics as COVID-19's impact on the environment, nutrition and cyberbullying.

Some of those are posted in huge batches, such as a call for 1,000 volunteers to be trained to hold one-to-one sessions with people on "the impact of COVID-19 on food security in your community."

Another seeks 1,250 volunteers to devise "social-media assets" such as captions, memes and videos, for local and regional awareness campaigns to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

None of those postings includes the name of a hosting organization: they're listed as "supporting local non-profits in your community" rather than with a specific agency.

WE did indicate that it was behind many of them as it sought to meet the government's requirement that in order to be eligible for the student grant, positions must be linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The purpose of the CSSG was to engage tens of thousands of post-secondary students in service programs to assist with the impact of COVID-19," WE said in its statement.

"COVID-19 has been in Canada for a relatively short period of time and there are limited new service opportunities related to addressing (it). This is partly why WE was brought in (to) develop and co-ordinate service roles that fulfil the program guidelines and deliver a meaningful impact."

Employment and Social Development Canada, which will now administer the grant program instead of WE, did not respond to repeated questions about the positions, including whether they would move ahead or not.

Conservative employment critic Dan Albas said the questions about the federal website underscore the need for answers when it comes to the student grant program, including how positions have been chosen or created and what benefit they are expected to have.

"To find out that perhaps hundreds of positions have been put forward and in good faith maybe people have applied for those positions without having a correction from the government?" he said.

"This is public money. They need to come clean and clean up this program so that any dollar that is spent gets the maximum opportunities for young people and value for money for taxpayer dollars."

 

[Decapoda]

WE sure makes a lot of cash as a charity... CRA might want to take a look at that

The indictments just keep stacking up...apparently it was just revealed that Justin's mom and communist brother were both paid "speaking fees" by WE. It looks like Margaret was paid a quarter of a million dollars.

This after the last admission yesterday that Justin admitted he did not recuse himself from the decision making process and took part in the cabinet vote, which is one of three ethics violations currently being investigated in this latest Trudeau scandal.

He just admitted to one violation (conflict of interest), and looks like a second is a slam dunk (prohibits public office holders from making or participating in the making of a decision that furthers their private interests or improperly furthers the private interests of another person).

PM Trudeau's mother, brother paid to speak at WE Charity events

Not that any of this matters, he'll just pay the $500 fine and be on his merry way, and the feckless Eastern Canadian voters will just give him another majority.

 

[Ron in Regina]

The bullshit never ends.

http://www.cjme.com/2020/07/09/confusion-frustration-abound-as-feds-weigh-options-for-900m-student-program/
The WE organization said Thursday that it had paid Trudeau's mother Margaret about $250,000 for 28 speaking appearances at WE-related events between 2016 and 2020. His brother Alexandre has been paid $32,000 for eight events, according to WE. The organization that represents them as speakers was paid additional commissions, WE said. And Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau received $1,400 in 2012 for a single appearance that year.

Most of the payments went from the for-profit component of the organization, which sponsors the charitable component, WE Charity said in a statement, though about $64,000 went from WE Charity to Margaret Trudeau's speaker's bureau because of "an error in billing / payment."

"Justin Trudeau has never been paid by WE Charity or ME to WE Social Enterprise for any speeches or any other matters," WE Charity said. The government says it is working on what to do with the Canada Student Services Grant after its agreement with WE was cancelled amid controversy over the Trudeau family's connections to the Toronto-based charity and its for-profit arm, ME to WE Social Enterprise.

Trudeau is now under investigation by the ethics commissioner over allegations of a potential conflict of interest when the government awarded the sole-source contract to WE. Trudeau has acknowledged he did not recuse himself when cabinet approved the deal.

http://nationalpost.com/news/politi...ng-fees-to-trudeaus-mother-and-brother-report

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet demanded Trudeau temporarily step aside from his role as prime minister and hand over the reigns of government to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland until all remaining questions surrounding WE Charity and the Trudeau government are answered.

“The nature of the allegations, the importance of the sums in play, the blatant appearance of conflict of interest, the possibility … that there are criminal investigations on this file in the future, make it impossible for the prime minister to continue in his functions,” Blanchet said during a scrum in Rivière-du-Loup, Que. He said it would not be appropriate to call for Trudeau’s resignation in the middle of a pandemic.

“When one holds a function as important as that of prime minister, you have an obligation to be above all suspicions. And this would not be the first time that Trudeau woefully fails a probity test,” Blanchet added. The payouts to family members directly contradict previous statements by WE Charity claiming that no member of the Trudeau family had ever been paid for their work with the organization, minus the occasional travel expense offered to Sophie Grégoire Trudeau.

In response to a question asking why Trudeau had never revealed the fees paid to his relatives or corrected WE’s statement claiming they had never received payment, the Prime Minister’s Office said that he wasn’t involved in his family members’ business.

But that explanation did not satisfy Transparency International Canada executive director James Cohen. “No, you don’t get to put up ‘won’t someone please think of the children’ as a defence from ethics scrutiny,” Cohen tweeted Thursday.

The bullshit never ends.

http://nationalpost.com/opinion/matt-gurney-what-trudeau-doesnt-get-about-the-we-scandal
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/margaret-justin-trudeau-we-charity-1.5643586
http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeaus-paid-big-to-appear-at-we-day-events
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pm-t...-paid-to-speak-at-we-charity-events-1.5017697
http://www.thestar.com/politics/fed...peaking-fees-from-we-charity-report-says.html
http://globalnews.ca/news/7153106/trudeau-we-charity-recuse/
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/...alexandre-trudeau_ca_5f079c25c5b6480493cd899c

 

[pgs]

http://www.cjme.com/2020/07/09/confusion-frustration-abound-as-feds-weigh-options-for-900m-student-program/
The WE organization said Thursday that it had paid Trudeau's mother Margaret about $250,000 for 28 speaking appearances at WE-related events between 2016 and 2020. His brother Alexandre has been paid $32,000 for eight events, according to WE. The organization that represents them as speakers was paid additional commissions, WE said. And Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau received $1,400 in 2012 for a single appearance that year.

Most of the payments went from the for-profit component of the organization, which sponsors the charitable component, WE Charity said in a statement, though about $64,000 went from WE Charity to Margaret Trudeau's speaker's bureau because of "an error in billing / payment."

"Justin Trudeau has never been paid by WE Charity or ME to WE Social Enterprise for any speeches or any other matters," WE Charity said. The government says it is working on what to do with the Canada Student Services Grant after its agreement with WE was cancelled amid controversy over the Trudeau family's connections to the Toronto-based charity and its for-profit arm, ME to WE Social Enterprise.

Trudeau is now under investigation by the ethics commissioner over allegations of a potential conflict of interest when the government awarded the sole-source contract to WE. Trudeau has acknowledged he did not recuse himself when cabinet approved the deal.

http://nationalpost.com/news/politi...ng-fees-to-trudeaus-mother-and-brother-report

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet demanded Trudeau temporarily step aside from his role as prime minister and hand over the reigns of government to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland until all remaining questions surrounding WE Charity and the Trudeau government are answered.

“The nature of the allegations, the importance of the sums in play, the blatant appearance of conflict of interest, the possibility … that there are criminal investigations on this file in the future, make it impossible for the prime minister to continue in his functions,” Blanchet said during a scrum in Rivière-du-Loup, Que. He said it would not be appropriate to call for Trudeau’s resignation in the middle of a pandemic.

“When one holds a function as important as that of prime minister, you have an obligation to be above all suspicions. And this would not be the first time that Trudeau woefully fails a probity test,” Blanchet added. The payouts to family members directly contradict previous statements by WE Charity claiming that no member of the Trudeau family had ever been paid for their work with the organization, minus the occasional travel expense offered to Sophie Grégoire Trudeau.

In response to a question asking why Trudeau had never revealed the fees paid to his relatives or corrected WE’s statement claiming they had never received payment, the Prime Minister’s Office said that he wasn’t involved in his family members’ business.

But that explanation did not satisfy Transparency International Canada executive director James Cohen. “No, you don’t get to put up ‘won’t someone please think of the children’ as a defence from ethics scrutiny,” Cohen tweeted Thursday.

http://nationalpost.com/opinion/matt-gurney-what-trudeau-doesnt-get-about-the-we-scandal
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/margaret-justin-trudeau-we-charity-1.5643586
http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeaus-paid-big-to-appear-at-we-day-events
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pm-t...-paid-to-speak-at-we-charity-events-1.5017697
http://www.thestar.com/politics/fed...peaking-fees-from-we-charity-report-says.html
http://globalnews.ca/news/7153106/trudeau-we-charity-recuse/
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/...alexandre-trudeau_ca_5f079c25c5b6480493cd899c

Back in the day some minister or other do a mea culpa step on his sword and be banned from caucus . The reward would come after whatever scandal went away . Now the majority party just goes
, shrug , oh well ! The sad thing is they don’t even have a majority.

 

[Twin_Moose]

LINK

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the prime minister’s wife, is an official “ambassador of WE well-being.” She hosts the charity’s online podcast and is listed as a “mentor, booster and champion” of the WE Charity.

She is also a frequent speaker at WE Day rallies — a sort “progressive” tent revival and boy-band frenzy for junior high students, all rolled into one.

The charity insists Gregoire Trudeau has not been paid for these appearances, only that WE has picked up her travel costs.

But Gregoire Trudeau and her children were recently in London, England, at a WE event just before the pandemic lockdowns. If WE paid for the children’s expenses (and not just hers), that might well qualify as a personal enrichment under the ethics rules.

There is also the inconvenient fact that Trudeau himself was a frequent keynote speaker at WE rallies between 2012 and 2017 — two years after he became prime minister.

Indeed, Trudeau’s first public speech after being sworn in as prime minister in November 2015 was at a WE Day rally in Ottawa. That’s how close the Trudeaus, the Kielburgers and WE are.

On the credibility front, Trudeau of course initially insisted when the WE scandal broke that he had nothing to do with recommending WE for the sole-source contract nor approving the contract between his government and the charity.....More

LINK

And Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau received $1,400 in 2012 for a single appearance that year.

Most of the payments went from the for-profit component of the organization, which sponsors the charitable component, WE Charity said in a statement, though about $64,000 went from WE Charity to Margaret Trudeau's speaker's bureau because of "an error in billing / payment."

"Justin Trudeau has never been paid by WE Charity or ME to WE Social Enterprise for any speeches or any other matters," WE Charity said.

 

[Ron in Regina]

I was listening to the Sports program on the way home on 980AM. The CFL is looking for a financial top up (Due to COVID). Originally they where going to ask for $150,000,000 but after the WE $900,000,00+ crash&burn fiasco they're only going to ask for a 1/4 of that ($37,500,000). They're willing to hire Alexandre Trudeau as a player (with a signing bonus & then put him immediately onto the injured list) on the team of his choice (OK, onto the roster of the Montreal Alouettes), some CFL SWAG & season tickets for Justin's Family (but not to Justin directly...nod-nod, wink-wink...to avoid conflict of interest accusations). I wonder when we'll here about an official announcement?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7orwIHuabY

 

[Ron in Regina]

Sorry, for Hoid. The radio program is still on, but check here http://www.cjme.com/green-zone/ in a day or two for the podcast link to what I listened to on my commute home earlier this afternoon. The on demand link is here: http://www.cjme.com/show-captures/

 

[captain morgan]

Ron, everyone knows that trudeau is a total douche, regrettably, the East will still put him in power.

Time to go

 

[taxslave]

The bullshit never ends.

Thats what happens when you let idiots ruin the country.

 

[Twin_Moose]

(UPDATE) Rebel News success: WE Charity scam scrapped (sort-of)

(July 6 UPDATE) The story has been updated here to correct misinformation from the Elections Canada website. This information seemed to show that Craig Kielburger may have exceeded the legal donation limit. An Elections Canada spokesperson denies this, saying the double entry was a clerical error.

(July 3 UPDATE) The work that Rebel News published last night helped to cancel a nearly billion-dollar boondoggle.

The WE Charity has been stripped of their sole-sourced contract just 16 hours after we uncovered that the founders, the Kielburger brothers, were financiers of Trudeau’s leadership campaign and the Liberal Party itself.

This WE Scam was poised to be as big as the Lav-Scam, and it still might be.

There is more to uncover.

Here’s the original story:

$900M in political kickbacks: Before Trudeau funneled nearly a billion dollars through the WE Charity, the founders financed his leadership campaign and the Liberal Party directly.
The founders of the charity playing host to the nearly billion-dollar Canada Student Service Grant financed Justin Trudeau’s leadership campaign along with directly funding the Liberal Party of Canada, Rebel News has learned.

According to documents we’ve uncovered, Craig Kielburger donated $2,400 in two installments to Justin Trudeau directly in 2013. In 2011 he also donated to the Ontario Liberal Party.

Craig’s brother and co-founder, Marc Kielburger, donated to the Scott Brison leadership campaign and directly to the Liberal Party coffers.

Over a billion dollars in the last decade
Over the course of Trudeau’s government the Kielburger organization has scooped over $5,197,155 in taxpayer funded contracts with Canadian Heritage, Employment and Social Development Canada, and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Trudeau has been under fire recently for funneling almost a billion dollars to the WE Charity to implement the CSSG on behalf of the Government of Canada. Trudeau says that they are the "only organization capable of administering the program."

WE will pay student "volunteers" 33 per cent below minimum wage in some cases to support the efforts of the left-wing charity. Unemployed college students who are unable to find work during the pandemic are being directed by the government to work for the Kielburger brothers' charity at less than a living wage.

Students will be “volunteering” for a stunted salary, paid by taxpayers, to become progressive social influencers for two brothers that are financial donors to Justin Trudeau’s political campaign.

Spending so much it was easy to miss
Back in the early days of the Wuhan Pandemic, you might remember Justin Trudeau announcing government spending programs every single day. A day would not pass, not even a weekend, without Canada’s Prime Minister announcing grants and cheques here, and government programs there. It would be easy to forget when he announced that students would be eligible for a “Service Grant.”

Many folks, even those who were upset that the government was rambunctiously accumulating debt thought to themselves “oh, alright – food banks might get some extra help, and maybe seniors lawns might get mowed and a hot meal delivered.”

The Canadian Student Service Grant turned out to be anything but, and is becoming Justin Trudeau’s new SNC-Lavalin. Instead of helping young Canadians do good work in their community, taxpayers are paying off Trudeau’s debt to the Kielburger Brothers. The $900 million will be directed towards WE programs, but it is unclear how much the organization is retaining for a management fee.

The connection that the Trudeau family has with the WE Charity has been reported on before – but not the financial ties the founders have to Trudeau’s political exploits.

Sophie Trudeau has her own section on the WE website, outlining how important she is to the cause, also highlighting some of her international celebrity junkets.

The Trudeau family has directly benefited from the success of WE, and vice-versa. Sophie Trudeau repeatedly goes on international speaking trips to New York and London (where the Prime Minister’s wife famously transmitted COVID-19 to Idris Elba after close personal contact).

Rebel News reached out to the Kielburger brothers and will update the story if they return comment.

 

[Twin_Moose]

WE Charity lays off contract workers who would have administered student service grant

WE Charity laid off hundreds of contract workers who were brought in to administer the federal government's Canada Student Service Grant, according to a statement from the charity on Saturday.

According to the Toronto Star, who first reported the story, WE Charity had hired 465 contract workers before the charity and Ottawa ended their partnership of the CSSG. Subsequently, WE Charity laid off 450 of them, while giving the other 15 full-time positions, the Star reported.

"With the government funding no longer available we had to make the incredibly difficult decision to end the contracts for those hired to deliver the CSSG program. Additional pay was given based on tenure, in addition to compensation for the time they had worked," the charity said in a statement to CBC News.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have been under fire since announcing on June 25 they were awarding a $19.5 million sole-source contract to WE Charity to administer the CSSG, a $912 million program offering grants of between $1,000 and $5,000 to post-secondary students in return for supervised volunteer hours.

The federal Ethics Commissioner has said he will investigate the decision to award the contract to WE. On Friday, the opposition Conservatives called for a criminal investigation into Trudeau and his ties to the WE Charity after CBC News and Canadaland reported that, despite initial claims, WE had financial dealings with some of Trudeau's family members, most notably his mother Margaret and brother Alexandre.

As well, two members of Finance Minister Bill Morneau's family have ties to WE Charity — one of them as a paid contract employee. Morneau did not recuse himself from the Liberal cabinet's consideration of the contract for the charity, CBC News and Canadaland reported.

WE Charity said on July 3 it was pulling out of administering CSSG, citing the ongoing controversy surrounding it and the government's decision to give the sole-source contract to WE. Trudeau said the federal government would take over the program.

"WE Charity made the decision to not take any of the funds that were allocated to pay for the work delivered for the CSSG program. All sunk costs and remaining payments to contractors and vendors are being paid for by WE Charity," the charity said Saturday.

 

[captain morgan]

Federal website advertising hundreds of non-existent student-volunteer positions

Oh my.... This can't be good

 

[Twin_Moose]

Oh my.... This can't be good

How much compensation will have to be paid for the inconvenience of being caught in a scandal?

 

[captain morgan]

Hundreds of billions more to Que and Ont

 

[petros]

Unlike an absolute monarchy....

King Justin Covidicus Rex XIX runs a pretend monarchy.

 

[Decapoda]

Oh my.... This can't be good

The stench of this is so familiar...like sponsorship scandal only without the brown paper bags full of money. Guess Trudeau felt he didn't need to hide it when it's hidden in plain sight. I mean...it's for the kids....it's a charity. Anyone who questions it is a heartless, kid hating fascist!

 

[pgs]

The stench of this is so familiar...like sponsorship scandal only without the brown paper bags full of money. Guess Trudeau felt he didn't need to hide it when it's hidden in plain sight. I mean...it's for the kids....it's a charity. Anyone who questions it is a heartless, kid hating fascist!

Any one who lets their children attend a We indoctrination session is brain dead .

 

[Hoid]

I think you will find there is massive public support for the program itself.

Students need some help too and they especially need to get some experience in the workplace which private enterprise obviously is incapable of providing.

Paid volunteerism is win win and any Canadian politician opposing had better get their excuses ready.

Handouts aren't just for the oil industry these days

 

[Twin_Moose]

Feds should have put $900M into Canada Summer Jobs program: Opposition

OTTAWA — Federal opposition parties are demanding to know why the Liberal government created a $900-million program to help students find volunteer positions rather than putting the money into an existing summer jobs program.

The government says the new Canada Student Services Grant is intended to reward tens of thousands of students who are having a hard time finding work and want to help with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opposition parties say the Liberals could have accomplished the same task by putting the money into the existing Canada Summer Jobs program, through which thousands of jobs for students are subsidized by the federal government every year.

The opposition says doing so would have avoided the numerous problems that have plagued the volunteer program, including the fact participants will receive less than minimum wage for each hour worked.

It would also have avoided the conflict-of-interest allegations that are now swirling around Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other members of his government after WE Charity was selected to administer the volunteer program before eventually backing out.

The Green Party this morning called for the government to immediately shift the money earmarked for the volunteer program to the summer-jobs program to help students who need work.

 

[JLM]

I think you will find there is massive public support for the program itself.

Students need some help too and they especially need to get some experience in the workplace which private enterprise obviously is incapable of providing.

Paid volunteerism is win win and any Canadian politician opposing had better get their excuses ready.

Handouts aren't just for the oil industry these days

That might be a little more convincing if it wasn't for the fact his Mother siphoned about $1/4 million off the taxpayers.