Andrew Seol explains the recent WE Charity scandal and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s larger history of ethics violations and hypocrisy.
By Andrew Seol
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came under fire recently for a breach of ethics involving his family and an international charity. This controversy may come as a surprise to non-Canadians since many Americans view him as a charming champion of justice and human rights compared to the brash and belligerent President Donald Trump. However, this perspective is flawed and ignores Trudeau’s actual policies and actions.
What is the WE Charity scandal?
The WE Charity is an international organization that claims to “empower communities to lift themselves out of poverty” and “[nurture] compassion in students and gives them the tools to create transformative social change”. The charity received criticism in the past for aggressive corporate marketing and connections to companies that use child labor. The Trudeau administration recently approved a government contract worth 20 million Canadian dollars with the WE Charity which would allow the organization to administer 900 million Canadian dollars in student grants.
The size of the transaction immediately raised concerns from Democracy Watch, a Canadian group that monitors on government accountability. For context, the WE Charity received five previous contracts from the Trudeau government, though none were larger than 40,000 Canadian dollars according to the online government database.
These concerns led to the launch of an ethics commission investigation, which revealed that the charity had paid Trudeau’s family members over a quarter of a million Canadian dollars for their speaking gigs on behalf of the charity while coercing other speakers into working for free. Therefore, the contract approval created a conflict of interest leading to calls for Trudeau to testify before the Canadian House of Commons of Canada and even step down as Prime Minister. Additionally, the investigation found the daughters of Trudeau’s Minister of Finance Bill Morneau were employees at the charity, deepening the severity of the scandal.
Trudeau has a history of conflicts of interest
The Canadian Prime Minister is not new to controversies surrounding his transparency. In fact, this is Trudeau’s third scandal to date. In 2017, the Ethics Commissioner of Canada found him in violation of the Conflict of Interest Act after he accepted a vacation from the Aga Khan, a Shia Muslim imam and billionaire who has business ties with the Canadian government.
Last year the administration was rocked by the SNC-Lavalin affair, in which Trudeau was caught trying to pressure the Attorney General into dropping fraud and bribery charges against a Canadian engineering company. Trudeau claimed he only intervened because he feared that Canada would lose jobs if the SNC-Lavalin corporation was found guilty, but this concern was misplaced. Again, the Ethics Commissioner ruled that Trudeau breached the Conflict of Interest Act.
Surprisingly, Canadian federal ethics law does not grant the Ethics Commissioner the power to lay any sanctions against those who violate the act, meaning Trudeau survived two major political scandals without any punishment.
The charade of liberalism is riddled with holes and hypocrisy
Because Trudeau was not removed from office or even punished for his ethical violations, Americans are largely oblivious to his other issues. Living under the Trump administration, American liberals are particularly drawn to Trudeau due to his professed commitment to progressive policies.
Indeed, on the surface, the differences between the two leaders couldn’t be more clear. Trump plans to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, while Trudeau promises to make Canada carbon-neutral by the year 2050. At least 22 women allege that Trump committed sexual misconduct, while Trudeau ensured his first cabinet was 50 percent female and has emphasized feminism and gender equality to the point of ridicule from conservative media. But when observers go deeper, they will find that the Trudeau administration is not nearly as keen on being progressive as one might think.
Trudeau says climate change is an “emergency”, but his administration bought and expanded a 4.5 billion dollar oil pipeline last year. Even President Trump, who tweeted in 2015 he would “immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline”, cannot materialize his fossil fuel ambitions. Trudeau’s pipeline aspirations generated much controversy from First Nations (the predominant Canadian indigenous peoples) communities and environmentalists who take issue with infringement upon indigenous lands and are concerned about the high probability of a catastrophic oil spill.
In a speech about Canada’s large oil sands reserves, Trudeau declared, “no country would find 173 billion barrels of oil and just leave them there.” However, this ambition is in direct contradiction with the prime minister’s hardline support for the Paris agreement and carbon neutrality.
To reach the global temperature goals set by the Paris agreement, it is estimated the planet can only release 393 billion tons of carbon dioxide from now until the year 2100. But the process of extracting, processing and burning Trudeau’s figure of 173 billion barrels would use up nearly 30 percent of the entire global carbon budget. As Canada’s population makes up only 0.5 percent of the world, this should be deeply concerning to anyone worried about global warming. Yet Trudeau has doesn’t shown any signs of commitment to improving his policies on this front.
Trudeau also claims to be a staunch feminist and a protector of human rights, but he approved a 14 billion dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The Middle Eastern nation has a history of human rights abuses, including but not limited to punishing female rape victims under strict sharia law, executing political prisoners and imprisoning LGBT citizens. Even after the brutal murder of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Trudeau’s administration only imposed a weak moratorium (which they lifted earlier this year) instead of fully canceling the deal.
This hypocrisy calls Trudeau’s sincerity into question. It is impossible to be an advocate for both environmental sustainability while exploiting resources that negatively affect the climate. By looking past Trudeau’s charm and contrite statements, observers can see how little concern he really has for these issues.
Trump’s critics should not praise Trudeau
For the past few months, renewed criticism is taking its toll on Trump. Disapproval of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his attitude towards the George Floyd protests is reflected in a 5.5 percent drop in approval ratings since Mar. 27.
Additionally, a recent survey found that 42 percent of Americans would prefer Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to lead the country compared to only 38 percent of Americans who would prefer to keep President Trump in power. This reflects the popular view that Trudeau is dissimilar to Trump and does not deserve the same criticism as he does.
Of course, due to the aforementioned ethics scandals and hypocrisy, this is problematic. While Trudeau may not be actively ignoring climate change or facing allegations of sexual harassment, his willingness to look past the negative effects of his policies while feigning sincerity is equally worthy of condemnation.
Americans have the right to criticize Trump for his obvious negligence and personal misconduct, but they cannot overlook the obvious issues that exist within Trudeau’s masquerade of honesty. The Prime Minister repeatedly violates both the law and the trust of his supporters. If the Canadian legal system cannot punish him, the opinion of the people should.