View from Parliament Hill - Dec. 24
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- Published on Saturday, December 24, 2016
By Robert Sopuck
Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa M.P.
The Liberal government seems to lack a real understanding of what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to fundraising. Justin Trudeau’s cash-for-access fundraisers are wrong and potentially illegal. He needs to put a stop to it. What they are doing is having billionaires host fancy events at their homes, then making individuals pay $1,500 to the Liberal Party to attend, so that they can have direct access to the prime minister. As the official Opposition, we believe this is blatant corruption and simply not acceptable.
One of the more notable fundraisers Trudeau attended included several Chinese billionaires, who were seeking approval to set up a bank in Canada. Maybe it had something to do with the $1,500 donations to the Liberal Party, or maybe it was the almost $1 million they donated to the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation, with money earmarked to build a statue of the former prime minister. Needless to say, the bank was approved shortly after.
Here’s another example. Liberal MP Bill Blair – who is leading the charge to legalize marijuana – headlined a fundraiser that was attended by lobbyists pushing for laws to allow small businesses to sell pot legally to recreational users. While it is acceptable to lobby the government for certain policies, it should be done by setting up a meeting, not by donating to a political party to get direct access to the prime minister or his cabinet.
The opposition parties are not the only ones taking issue with this cash-for-access fundraising. The Ethics Commissioner has been forced to step in and question the prime minister. This is the first time in at least a decade that Parliament’s independent ethical watchdog has asked a sitting prime minister to defend his integrity.
It is difficult to understand why the Liberals cannot see their own hypocrisy. In November 2015 Trudeau gave all members of his cabinet a guide with the expectation that he and his ministers behave ethically. One section of the guide reads, “There should be no preferential access to government, or appearance of preferential access, accorded to individuals or organizations because they have made financial contributions to politicians and political parties.” Clearly, these fundraisers are a direct violation of the prime minister’s own rules. Rubbing elbows with millionaires at these cash-for-access events does not pass the ethical smell test to me, but you can be the judge of that.
