Thousands of pages of newly released documents back up the Trudeau government’s contention that it was federal public servants who recommended a student service grant program be administered by WE Charity.
But they also suggest bureaucrats may have been nudged to look in that direction by their political masters.
The documents were released late Tuesday afternoon to members of the House of Commons finance committee, on the orders of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he announced he was proroguing Parliament until Sept. 23.
Prorogation puts a temporary end to the four committees that have spent the summer probing how a charity with close connections to Trudeau’s family was chosen to administer a multimillion-dollar program to encourage students to volunteer in pandemic-related community service.
The controversy over the now-abandoned program has spawned investigations by the federal ethics watchdog into possible conflict of interest on the part of Trudeau and his former finance minister, Bill Morneau, who also has close family ties to WE Charity.
The 5,000-plus pages of government documents were tabled with the finance committee almost two weeks ago but had not been released to committee members because legal counsel was still vetting them to ensure there were no breaches of cabinet confidences or personal privacy.
In deciding to hand them over directly to committee members Tuesday, Trudeau may have hoped to get any controversy associated with them out of the way well before Parliament reopens on what he hopes will be a more positive note — with a throne speech designed to launch the country on the road to economic recovery after the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic…
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