\u0027I should have recused myself, but I didn\u0027t. I decided to push back instead. And that I regret because young people aren\u0027t having the opportunities they would have\u0027
During his testimony, the prime minister listed the various ties he knew linked his family to the WE organization, such as his hosting of WE Day events in the past as well as his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, being a WE ambassador and hosting a WE podcast.
“I should have recused myself, but I didn’t. I decided to push back instead. And that I regret because young people aren’t having the opportunities they would have had this summer through that program,” Trudeau admitted. Marc Kielburger, left, and Craig Kielburger appear as witnesses via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee in Ottawa on Tuesday, July 28, 2020.Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre later asked Trudeau why he didn’t request the opinion of the federal ethics commissioner on if he should recuse himself or not.
During her own testimony after Trudeau’s, the prime minister’s Chief of Staff Katie Telford explained that the “pushback” focused on why it was either a choice between no program or WE Charity, of if the public sector had considered other organizations.Article content continued Katie Telford, chief of staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, testifies before the House of Commons finance committee on Thursday, July 30, 2020.“That would be something that is wise for political staff to be leaving to the public servants, to sort out the details of how a contribution agreement should flow,” Telford responded to NDP MP Peter Julian.
Telford also said she was not aware that the deal was signed with the WE Charity Foundation, an organization opposition members call a “shell charity” that has no assets.
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