Chris Warkentin, MP for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie (Photo by Curtis Galbraith)

By Liam Verster

WE Charity scandal

Warkentin says Trudeau, Morneau should resign over WE scandal

Aug 5, 2020 | 1:22 PM

The MP for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie says the WE Charity scandal shows the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance have alleged conflict of interests and won’t take responsibility for their actions, and should be forced to resign.

Both Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau’s families have ties to the organization, with Trudeau’s brother and mother having received money for speaking at events, and Morneau’s daughter being employed by WE. However, the pair continued to engage in cabinet discussions about awarding the WE Charity a sole-source $912-million contract to run a student volunteer program.

Once the connections were discovered, the agreement was withdrawn, but Chris Warkentin says there are still a lot of questions that have been left unanswered.

“When did the Prime Minister decide to go down this path? Was he aware that the Finance Minister’s family was employed by this organization? Was he aware that nearly half-a-million dollars was paid out to his own family by this organization? Was he aware that the Finance Minister had been given over $90,000 in luxury travel by this organization? This is supposed to be a charity.”

He says the stories don’t add up, and if and when the details come to the surface, it will likely end up showing the Prime Minister knew what he was doing was wrong, but continued with the plan all the same.

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The Prime Minister testified before the House of Commons finance committee, who were looking into this scandal, and Warkentin was not impressed, saying Trudeau appeared to claim not to be responsible.

“Basically what he tried to do was claim that it was everybody else’s fault. That while he knew that it wasn’t the right thing to do, other people were forcing him, or other people were telling him it was the right thing to do.

“He is the Prime Minister, we expect the premium ethical behaviour from the Prime Minister, and yet he claims and would suggest that he doesn’t have any obligations to follow any of the rules.”

Warkentin says Trudeau is breaking ethics laws as he tries to shift the blame and avoid responsibility.

Meanwhile, Warkentin says Morneau has allegedly demonstrated that he’s unable to undertake his responsibilities without creating some form of a conflict of interest.

He says it’s time for these two to step down. Warkentin would like to see the Conservative, NDP and Bloc Quebequois come together and call for an election, but if an agreement can’t be reached, then he would like to see the Liberal MP’s take action.

“I believe that Liberal MP’s have to hold their leadership to a higher account and to a higher standard, and quite frankly that hasn’t happened until now. The Liberal MP’s have continued to enable these guys to continue to break the law and continue to break the rules, and I think it’s time they step up and force these two individuals out of their respective responsibilities.”

Federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion is currently investigating the alleged conflict of interest case.