OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his call for further “due diligence” on a proposal to outsource a $544-million program to WE Charity was to defend against inevitable questions about his family’s ties to the Toronto-based organization. “The extra due diligence I asked for was really about being able to stand in front of Canadians and to stand in front of critiques from the opposition that were undoubtedly to come,” the prime minister told reporters in Ottawa. The prime minister testified that he was presented with a recommendation from the public service on May 8 to outsource the initiative to WE Charity, a youth service organization founded by Toronto’s Marc and Craig Kielburger. That’s why Trudeau said he pulled the proposal from his cabinet agenda that day and asked public servants to go-over the proposal again to ensure there was no other option. The program has now been cancelled, and Trudeau and Morneau are each facing an ethics probe over whether they broke parliament’s Conflict of Interest Act, a law Trudeau has already violated twice as prime minister.

Source: thestar July 31, 2020 20:39 UTC