Trudeau says he has “nothing to hide,” Threatens election if WE Scandal is Investigated

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has designated the opposition’s latest motion to set-up a committee that would look into the WE scandal as a confidence vote. 

Since the prorogation of parliament the Conservative MPs, as well as members of the NDP, have been working in an attempt to arrange a committee/committees that would look into the pandemic plan and spending the Liberals have implemented, including the student grant program for which the government contracted WE Charity earlier this year. 

This gift of a sole-sourced contract to a charity which was not especially equipped to handle the project raised many questions, including questions regarding payments made by WE Charity to various members of the Liberal cabinet as well as Justin Trudeau’s family.

Ahead of prorogation the government was looking into these issues as possible conflict of interest and corruption charges. 

One of the last moves from the investigating committee prior to the closure of parliament was to request a series of documents from the Liberal government which outlined their communications with the WE Charity, including communications from the PMO directly.

These documents were released, yet they were heavily redacted. The opposition has since been trying to obtain a copy of the unredacted documents of the communications between WE Charity and the PMO are unlikely to contain passages which should in fact be redacted.

It’s hard to imagine what kind of national security issues would be discussed in the decision to award WE Charity a student grant program.

Since the return of parliament Liberal MPs have been stalling any votes or questions regarding the WE Charity and the various committees the opposition is looking to arrange. The Liberal government says that the documents requested were released, show no wrongdoing, and that government is now too focused on dealing with COVID-19.

In doing so they have decided to filibuster health, ethics, and finance committee meetings, going so far as to read the newspaper to fellow committee members. 

A question many members of the opposition have asked is that, if the Liberals are so focused on Covid why did they have shut down parliament? Why would they cripple committees that are required to work for the people, especially as a second wave is approaching? Why would they threaten an election during the pandemic?

In order to avoid this slowing down of government procedure, and to allow the Liberal government to focus on Covid measures, the Conservatives as well as the NDP have proposed special committees to look into the various issues. 

Multiple committee options have been presented, whether this be one committee looking at WE Charity as well as pandemic spending issues, or separate committees, is up for debate. Yet the Liberals insist that they be given control of the committee, otherwise they will deem a vote to create such a committee a vote of no confidence.

Opposition member Pierre Poilievre says there is “no need for an election.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says “the Liberals aren’t interested in negotiating”, going on to say:

 It boggles my mind that the Liberal government, and Prime Minister Trudeau, want to threaten an election over who is sitting on a committee it is ludicrous… there is no way to imagine how a government in the middle of a pandemic thinks it’s okay to threaten the opposition party for just wanting to hold them to account.

The Prime Minister states:

It will be up to parliamentarians and the opposition to decide whether they want to make this minority Parliament work or whether they’ve lost confidence in this government’s ability to manage this pandemic and continue to govern this country during this crisis.

But Singh states this is not a choice the opposition is making, “I want to turn this around and say this is not about the opposition this is actually about a Prime Minister who is looking for an excuse”.

If the motion passes the Liberal government will therefore be calling an election that even the Prime Minister recognizes “nobody wants”.

The Liberals are relying on the fact that the spending spree they’ve gone on since the pandemic hit was enough to buy them a majority if an election were to be held. If they are successful in solidifying a majority government it would mean the Liberals now have the votes to avoid investigation.

In a statement Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, states he will vote to support the conservative motion, “we will vote in favour of it. and if there are consequences the liberals will have only themselves to blame”

Parliamentary procedure allows the Prime Minister to deem anything a confidence motion, but never before has an election been called over the creation of a special committee, let alone one tasked with investigating the Prime Minister, his family, and his office.

The vote is set to take place on Wednesday and it appears as though the NDP will be the deciding factor in whether Canadians see themselves heading to the polls or not, although Mr. Singh wants it to be clear that whatever happens in the end this was the Liberals decision.