Opposition MPs want the Speakers' Spotlight to produce receipts for all Trudeau speaking engagements

The House of Commons ethics committee has punted a decision on whether it should launch its own probe of the WE Charity scandal to next week after Liberal MPs filibustered through part of the four-hour meeting.

Conservative MPs said today the committee must launch its own parallel investigation into how the contract to administer the $912-million summer student grants program was awarded to WE, a charity with close personal ties to Trudeau and his family.

Committee members were debating whether to adopt a motion that would compel Speakers' Spotlight, the agency that arranged more than $300,000 in WE speaking engagements for Trudeau's mother and brother, to produce receipts for all of their paid appearances over the last 12 years.

The motion also would give the committee the power to "review the safeguards which are in place to avoid and prevent conflicts of interest in federal government procurement, contracting, granting, contribution and other expenditure policies."

Youth Minister Bardish Chagger said yesterday at Commons finance committee that WE stood to receive $43.5 million if it could sign up up tens of thousands of students for volunteer opportunities. That's more than double the $19.5 million the government initially said it had earmarked for WE.

"We need to pin down all of the facts as soon as possible so we can assure Canadians that Parliament is exercising its function as a check against the executive branch of government," Barrett said.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said that while he wants Prime Minister Trudeau to appear before the committee, he's not interested in dragging Trudeau's family members up to answer MPs' questions.

The opposition parties have a majority on this Conservative-chaired committee. There are four Conservatives, one Bloc Québécois, an NDP member and five Liberal members.

The Liberal contingent stalled a vote today with lengthy speeches that pushed the committee meeting's duration well past its scheduled 2 p.m. end time. The Liberal members and Angus agreed to adjourn the meeting and reconvene next week to debate launching a study and whether Trudeau should be called personally to testify.

Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan attempted to argue that it was beyond the mandate of the ethics committee to probe an ethics breach of a public office holder like Trudeau.

The committee's official mandate says that it "can also study any legislation or regulation or propose initiatives that relate to access to information and privacy and to ethical standards relating to public office holders."

Another Liberal MP, Élisabeth Brière, delivered a rambling 30-minute speech which touched on the definition of democracy, quoted French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville and his writings on America, recounted her time as a notary and mediator and extolled the virtues of the University of Sherbrooke and the riding she represents.

Brière said she was opposed to any move by the opposition to "humiliate or intimidate" members of the Trudeau family. She said the Conservatives are too eager to brand someone a "crook and a thief."

"I don't believe these people should be subjected to a public inquisition," she said, citing Trudeau's mother and brother.

Liberal MP Greg Fergus, who gave an equally long speech to the committee — at times speaking in Latin and referencing ancient Greece — said the opposition-backed motion was a "fishing expedition" and any such investigation of the alleged ethical lapses should be left to the commissioner.

"We're going to seek out information on the mother of a politician, or the brother of a politician? Where does this stop?" Fergus said.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ethics-committee-we-trudeau-scandal-1.5653606