On Monday, MPs at the House of Commons ethics committee learned that records pertaining to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s and his wife’s WE Charity speaking engagements were destroyed.
“At the start of the meeting we heard something new, and that’s that Speakers’ Spotlight has destroyed all of the records of speaking engagements for the individuals named in the motion – the prime minister and his spouse – for any period outside of seven years,” said Conservartive MP and committee member Michael Barrett.
Opposition members of the committee have been pushing the federal government to answer further questions regarding the prime minister’s involvement in the WE Charity scandal.
Earlier this year, the Liberal government was entangled in yet another ethics scandal after it was revealed WE Charity was chosen to oversee a $900 million sole-sourced federal summer student service grant. The charity has since abandoned the bid for the program and terminated its operations in Canada.
Several members of the prime minister’s family, including his wife, his mother and his brother received payments from the organization for various speaking fees.
“On the eve that those documents were to be released to the committee and on the day that illegally redacted documents were released to the finance committee, prime minister Justin Trudeau prorogued parliament,” said Barrett referring to the last session of the House of Commons.
“Since that time, Speakers Spotlight had communicated with the committee clerk once this session started and even said that the documents were ready to go, but just now we heard that those documents, many of them had been destroyed.”
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion is currently investigating whether the prime minister broke ethics laws.
If found guilty, the violation would be the third time that the prime minister has broken ethics laws while in office.
