What is the WE Scandal and why does it matter? Traditionally the administration of taxpayers money is done by the Federal Public Service of Canada to prevent any potential fraud and misuse of funds. For some unknown reason, Trudeau and his cabinet decided to take $912 million (almost a billion dollars) of taxpayers money and give it to the WE Charity, allowing them to administer a government program to help students. The WE Charity agreed to administer this program as a “favour” to Canadians. This so-called favour, however, entitled the WE Charity to charge Canadian taxpayers $43 million in administration fees (so far they have charged taxpayers for $30 million). Canada has a huge capable federal public service, so why this arrangement was deemed necessary is anyone’s guess.
What Trudeau failed to tell anyone at the cabinet meeting is that his mother, Margaret Trudeau, had received $312,000; his brother, Alexander (Sacha) Trudeau, about $41,000; and his wife, Sophie Trudeau (a brand ambassador for WE), $1,400 from WE. All of this money was for “speaker fees”. They also received reimbursed travel expenses (the amounts and destinations are unknown). At this same cabinet meeting was Bill Morneau, the Minister of Finance who also had a case of sudden “amnesia” and failed to tell everyone that his daughter was connected to WE, and that WE had paid over $41,000 for him to go to Kenya and Ecuador (on a family trip).
Justin Trudeau has said that he is “sorry”. He seems to be saying that a lot these days. (This is his third ethics scandal.) Is he sorry for doing something disreputable (which he did) or is he sorry that he got caught? Canadians pay Justin Trudeau $361,500 per year and Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance, $269,800 per year. Both are also independently wealthy. Surely our well-paid and wealthy politicians don’t need to come up with inventive schemes using taxpayer money in order to help their families out!
