OTTAWA – Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for the Canada Revenue Agency to investigate the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, while the foundation says it would welcome an investigation by the auditor general.
Poilievre sent a letter Friday to CRA commissioner Bob Hamilton, the agency’s top public servant, asking him to investigate how the foundation handled a controversial donation.
Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin pledged $200,000 to the foundation in 2016, but media reports this year reveal that CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, believed the funds were arranged by the Chinese government to use in an attempt to influence Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The foundation provides doctoral scholarships to researchers mostly in the social sciences.
Responding to these reports, the foundation announced in March that it would return the donation. The foundation said it would refund $140,000, the only part of the promised funds to have actually arrived.
