Trudeau Foundation donation was negotiated with group linked to Beijing, MPs hear | CBC News

The negotiations that led to a controversial donation to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation were conducted with a Chinese cultural association with ties to the Chinese government, the former president of the foundation told members of Parliament on Friday.

Testifying before the House of Commons ethics committee, Pascale Fournier said she dug into past e-mails related to the 2016 donation that had been attributed to two Chinese businessmen — Bin Zhang and Niu Gensheng — after news reports earlier this year raised questions about whether the donation had been made at the behest of the Chinese government.

Fournier said the e-mails revealed the foundation corresponded with the Chinese Cultural Industry Association, which told the foundation which name should be listed on the tax receipts for the donation and where they should be sent.

Asked by NDP MP Matthew Green about the role Bin Zhang played, Fournier said he was involved with the Chinese Cultural Industry Association that corresponded with the foundation about the donation.

“What I did notice was that he was the chair of the board of that association based in China,” Fournier said. “That association was in relationship with the [Chinese] government, he was the chair of that association and he was one of the donors.”

Fournier was asked if the association was an extension of the Chinese government. “There was a very strong proximity,” she said.

“I don’t know if I would say extension but it was clearly under the guidance, I think, was the expression used on their website. Under the guidance of the government.”

Fournier said her research also revealed that while one receipt was issued in the name of a company — Millennium Golden Eagle — with an address in China, the second was issued in the name of a company with an address in Quebec.

“The more research I did, the more I wanted an investigation,” Fournier told the committee.

Fournier told MPs her calls for an investigation by lawyers and accountants, and for directors on the board at the time of the donation to recuse themselves from the file, led to a split in the foundation’s board and her resignation, along with those of several board members.

Fournier’s testimony is the latest twist in a complicated tale involving a $200,000 donation to the foundation — $60,000 of which was never sent. Because the donation was made to fund conferences centred on Canada-China relations which were never held, Fournier said, the money was never spent.

More light is expected to be shed on the donation Wednesday when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brother Alexandre Trudeau, who was involved in the donation, is scheduled to testify.

The committee also voted Friday to call on Edward Johnson, a founding member of the foundation and a former aide to Pierre Trudeau, to testify before the committee.

Speaking to reporters in New York City, the prime minister said his brother has been involved in the foundation for years and will answer the questions MPs ask of him.

“It’s my brother,” he said. “I love him very much but he does his things and I do mine.”

In the House of Commons, the prime minister has said repeatedly he has not been involved with the foundation that bears his father’s name for a decade and was not involved at the time of the donation.

Fournier said the donation contract was signed before she joined the foundation but the story prompted her to look into it more closely.

Green asked if it could be inferred that the Chinese government influenced the negotiations on the donation.

“Possibly,” replied Fournier. “That’s why I wanted to have an unrestricted forensic audit to understand what had happened before I became president and CEO of the foundation.”

Fournier said the foundation decided to reimburse the donation before she realized that the cultural association may have had ties to the Chinese government.