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Canada’s Auditor-General’s office says it cannot investigate a controversial donation to the publicly backed Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation from two wealthy Chinese businessmen acting at the behest of the government of China.
Ted Johnson, the interim chair of the beleaguered foundation, wrote to Auditor-General Karen Hogan earlier this month to request a formal audit of the non-profit organization, which was set up in 2002 with a $125-million endowment from the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien.
Natasha Leduc, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Auditor-General of Canada, said Monday such a probe is not within the Auditor-General’s remit.
Senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase and Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife report here.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Budget Officer is beginning work on a request by federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to look into the federal government’s commitment to provide up to $13-billion in production subsidies for a Volkswagen electric-vehicle battery plant in St. Thomas, Ont.
Mr. Poilievre, the leader of the Official Opposition, sent his request to Yves Giroux in a letter on Friday.
On Monday, Sloane Mask, the director of parliamentary relations and planning for Mr. Giroux’s office, said they are following up on the matter with Mr. Poilievre’s office, and plan to issue information requests to the federal government this week.
“Based on the type and timing of the information provided by the government, the PBO will be able to determine the scope and timelines for an analysis,” Mr. Mask said in a statement.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY'S HEADLINES
GREEN-HUED PEACE TOWER PART OF PLANS FOR CORONATION CELEBRATION - Ottawa is to mark the King’s coronation next month with a 21-gun salute fired from Parliament Hill, as the Peace Tower and federal offices are illuminated in emerald green, in tandem with buildings across the Commonwealth. Story here.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO TALK TO CSIS AGENTS, UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO TELLS RESEARCHERS - The University of Waterloo is advising its researchers that they are not required to talk to CSIS agents or give them access to faculty equipment if approached by the spy agency for information on joint research projects with scientists from foreign countries such as China. Story here.
PSAC WARNS OF STEPPED-UP STRIKE ACTION - The union that represents more than 100,000 striking federal public servants says it could begin to escalate strike action across the country starting Monday, by setting up picket lines at strategic locations such as ports. Story here.
OTTAWA EVACUATES EMBASSY STAFF FROM SUDAN, BUT THOUSANDS OF CANADIANS REMAIN STRANDED - A handful of Canadian embassy staff have been evacuated from battle-ravaged Khartoum in a dramatic airlift of international diplomats by helicopter, airplane and ship, but more than 1,590 Canadians remain trapped in Sudan as heavy fighting persists in the capital. Story here.
LIBERALS ADVANCE LEGISLATION TO TIGHTEN PASSENGER RULES - The Liberals have put forward legislation that aims to make good on their pledge to tighten passenger rights rules after a year marked by travel chaos and a ballooning complaints backlog. Story here.
QUEBEC PREMIER CALLS SPECIAL CAUCUS MEETING OVER BROKEN ELECTION PROMISE - With the malaise sparked by the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s decision to break an election promise to build an automobile tunnel to Lévis growing, Premier François Legault has called a special caucus meeting of his Quebec City region MNAs Tuesday. Story here from The Montreal Gazette.
CANADA SENDING MIXED SIGNALS ON HAITI SANCTIONS, FORMER PM SAYS - Fritz Alphonse Jean, a former governor of Haiti’s central bank who also served briefly as prime minister, said Canada is sending mixed signals by imposing sanctions on some of his country’s elites while avoiding direct criticism of the Caribbean nation’s government. Story here.
OTTAWA TO GET `NIGHT MAYOR’ TO BRING FUN BACK TO CAPITAL - The city of Ottawa will create the position of a “night mayor” as part of a new strategy to grow and develop the capital’s “nightlife” economy and shake off the image as the “town that fun forgot.” Story here from CTV.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, April 24, accessible here.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER’S DAY - Chrystia Freeland, also the Finance Minister, with Deputy Toronto Mayor Jennifer McKelvie, made an announcement in Toronto on zero-emission public transit infrastructure and hold a media availability.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL HEADED FOR NWT - Governor-General Mary Simon and her spouse Whit Fraser will be visiting the Northwest Territories from Tuesday through Thursday. Their itinerary includes stops in Yellowknife and the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, and meetings with territorial officials including Premier Caroline Cochrane. They will also meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his spouse Elke Büdenbender, who are on their own tour of Canada. The Governor-General’s tour is in Yellowknife on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a trip to Tuktoyaktuk toward the end of Wednesday.
POLITICAL FORECAST - THE WEEK AHEAD -Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was busy Monday hosting and meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who began a visit to Canada on Sunday that will run through Wednesday. Mr. Steinmeier, travelling with his spouse Elke Büdenbender, was departing Ottawa, on Monday evening for further stops in Vancouver, Yellowknife, Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik and Yellowknife before returning to Berlin.
Later in the week, Mr. Trudeau is attending the Global Citizen NOW summit in New York City, on Thursday and Friday. The summit is described as a gathering of intellects, influential decision makers and “the biggest names in pop culture” to create a global agenda for urgent action on the world’s biggest challenges,
France’s President, Emmanuel Macron is also attending along with Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley. Participants on the pop-culture side include actor Hugh Jackman, singer-songwriter John Legend and Chris Martin of the rock band Coldplay. Mr. Trudeau will also participate in a discussion on a gender-equal world with Jacqueline O’Neill, the Canadian ambassador for Women, Peace, and Security and Lisa LaFlamme, the former chief anchor of CTV National News.
Back in Ottawa, there will be a number of high-profile witnesses at committees in the House of Commons and the Senate this week.
On Monday, Defence Minister Anita Anand and General Wayne Eyre, Chief of the Defence Staff, were among witnesses set to appear before a hearing on security and defence in the Arctic held by the Senate national security, defence and veterans committee.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, Yuliya Ihorivna Kovaliv, was scheduled to appear before the Commons standing committee on foreign affairs and international development on the situation at the Russia-Ukraine Border and Implications for Peace and Security. (Meeting notice, including videolink information, here.)
Also, the Commons procedure and house affairs committee was, on Tuesday, scheduled to continue its look into foreign interference issues by hearing from Jeremy Broadhurst, a senior adviser to the Prime Minister and 2019 Liberal campaign director, and Azam Ishmael, who directed the party’s 2021 campaign and is now the Liberal’s national director. On the Tory side, Hamish Marshall and Fred DeLorey, who took lead roles in the 2019 election, will appear. (Meeting notice here.)
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the Ottawa region, welcomed and met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as he began a visit that will take him across Canada. The meeting was expanded to include Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Innovation Minister François Philippe Champagne, and a delegation of German business leaders. Mr. Trudeau and President Steinmeier later held a question-and-answer session with students at the University of Ottawa. In the early afternoon, Mr. Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau joined President Steinmeier, and his spouse, Elke Büdenbender for lunch with Governor-General Mary Simon and her spouse Whit Fraser.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is travelling back to Ottawa from British Columbia.
No schedules released for other party leaders.
THE DECIBEL
On Monday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, health reporter Carly Weeks discussed the drop in the faith in children’s vaccines, explaining how this happened, how it could affect Canada’s future outbreaks and what can be done to get those rates back up. Since the pandemic, confidence in childhood vaccines has decreased around the world, according to a new report by UNICEF. The Decibel is here.
PUBLIC OPINION
BAIL - Six in 10 Canadians believe a “tough-on-crime” approach to bail increases public safety, according to a new poll released as premiers and police are pressing the federal government to change course on bail provisions. Story here.
ROYALTY - Half of Canadians do not want the country to continue as a constitutional monarchy for generations to come and 88 per cent say it’s worth making an effort to sever the country’s royal roots, according to new research from the Angus Reid Institute. Details here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on political parties as the solution to Toronto’s electoral dysfunction: “Voters in Toronto will be going to the polls in two months for a mayoral by-election that will be, in typical Toronto fashion, an underwhelming event. Made necessary by the inglorious departure of ex-mayor John Tory in February, the June 26 by-election will feature all that is wrong with the way Toronto elects its mayors. It could, though, also be the moment when the flaws in the system become so apparent that Canada’s most populous city gets the electoral makeover that it needs. Which is to say, the creation of political parties at the municipal level.”
Kelly Cryderman (The Globe and Mail) on how a political shift has made Calgary the battleground in the Alberta election: “Why is Calgary the central battleground in next month’s Alberta election? Because the city is now the home of political diversity in the province – at least when it comes to provincial politics. This state of affairs might come as a surprise to some who see Calgary as many outsiders do – as Cowtown, the heartland of Canadian conservatism. The city still has those claims to fame. But it’s also a place where competition between the United Conservative Party and the Alberta NDP is nearly a blood sport. This is due to a number of changes in the city over the past 10 years, including a fracturing of the political homogenization that once characterized Calgary’s tight-knit, conservative business community.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on how Canada needs honest talk about its defence needs, spending intentions: “It is galling that Justin Trudeau will speak truthfully about Canada’s defence spending plans to NATO officials in private, while continuing to mislead the people he serves when speaking in public. The Prime Minister gets away with this deception because Canadians have become used to deceiving themselves about the lamentable state of our armed forces. Only when we get called out by our allies are we forced to admit our hypocrisy. That hypocrisy was laid bare last week by The Washington Post, which has been publishing leaked Pentagon documents. One document revealed that the Prime Minister had told NATO officials that Canada will never keep a promise made in 2014 by all NATO countries to spend at least 2 per cent of GDP on defence.”
David Parkinson (The Globe and Mail) on how the public-sector strike may have lingering economic implications: “There’s no question the strike of Canadian public servants is big. At 155,000 workers across 27 federal departments and agencies, it’s one of the biggest strikes in Canadian history. But is it so big it can throw the Canadian economy off course? The short answer is, yes. The longer answer is it depends on how long the strike lasts. And that “off course” won’t necessarily be far, or for long. But this is definitely large enough to make a serious short-term dent in the overall economy. And the dispute could point to some more troublesome longer-term implications.”
Elizabeth May (Policy Magazine) on the notorious international chocolate bar incident: “When the president finished signing the official visitor’s book for dignitaries, I thought Prime Minister Trudeau had the chocolate bar so I teased, “Mr. President, don’t let our prime minister keep your chocolate. He does that” (or some such cheek). Biden stopped in his tracks. “Where is my chocolate bar?” Trudeau did not have it, both men retraced their steps to look for it and one of the Senate clerks retrieved it from where he had put it after Trudeau handed it off to him. At which point Peace by Chocolate – not yours truly – all-but stole the show. The Prime Minister started explaining to President Biden that this chocolate was the work of a Syrian refugee family, now a major employer in Antigonish. The boom mics swarmed, the cameras clicked and the international chocolate bar incident went viral.”
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