The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Trudeau’s Unethical Behaviour

00:00:00.000 hello and welcome once again to the blueprint it is canada's conservative podcast thank you

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00:00:47.240 itunes google play spotify you name it it is out there so again we have another wonderful show for

00:00:53.080 you again this week we have michael barrett is the member of parliament for leeds grenville thousand

00:00:57.880 island and rito lakes he's also the shadow minister for ethics and we bring him in today because of

00:01:04.480 course the we charity is back in the headlines and to talk more about it here's michael barrett

00:01:09.120 jamie how are you i am wonderful now that you're here because we have a lot to talk about of course

00:01:15.260 we the keelberger brothers were back before the ethics committee they're talking about their

00:01:19.560 now cancelled deal to run a federal program for student volunteers and you had them on the hot

00:01:25.580 seat yeah so of course the uh the we scandal is justin trudeau's um his failed student service

00:01:35.380 program from last year at the peak of the pandemic uh he and his government inked a half billion dollar

00:01:41.660 deal with the we organization which of course we learned had paid members of the trudeau family

00:01:47.860 a half million dollars in fees expenses and benefits and so uh you know we we started on this path

00:01:55.240 last summer last july and then once we got into august and things started heating up for uh the prime

00:02:01.960 minister and for uh his government uh he prorogued parliament and so when when parliament resumed uh we

00:02:09.760 started the process in some cases uh from the beginning and we had to restart the studies and

00:02:15.060 it was over 42 hours of filibustering by the liberals at the ethics committee before we were

00:02:22.740 able to actually issue a call for witnesses including mark and craig keelberger now when

00:02:28.100 when we did first invite them it was by that time december and so some people are wondering well why is

00:02:33.780 this back in the news well because the liberals filibustered for the equivalent of 20 meetings

00:02:38.740 just at the ethics committee alone and so uh we we had them agree to appear and days before

00:02:46.180 their scheduled appearance they said you know what we're not coming to your committee and even if you

00:02:51.640 issued a summons for us we wouldn't show up now jamie you and i know that um a summons issued by

00:02:58.820 a parliamentary committee is a legal summons and uh and and folks have to appear when a summons is issued

00:03:04.920 it's also exceedingly rare most people and and interestingly you wouldn't expect that the exception

00:03:11.140 to the the rule would be folks from a children's charity would require to be that they be legally

00:03:16.560 compelled to attend a parliamentary committee but we did uh we did issue that summons and contrary to

00:03:24.360 the letter from their lawyers the week before mark and craig keelberger did come to committee

00:03:28.520 okay now the controversy now is you'd like a few more witnesses to come forward those being

00:03:35.800 some of the prime minister's inner circle well that's right and at the committee uh any uh any of your

00:03:42.120 uh followers who watched those proceedings uh saw some very interesting exchanges and one by

00:03:47.800 by our colleague uh pierre polyev who who of course does an outstanding job in the house but also

00:03:53.440 at committee now most folks don't usually watch committee proceedings uh even when we have witnesses

00:03:58.080 appear but uh i think that the clips of of pierre uh asking questions of the keelbergers particularly

00:04:04.460 about a specific uh back and forth between um one of the prime minister's advisors his name is ben chin

00:04:11.420 and and the keelbergers now of course they said well no it was just a linkedin message it was an invite

00:04:17.020 but really in the message uh from the keelbergers to uh mr chin yeah they specifically mentioned that he

00:04:24.760 helped shape the the program and that the canada student service grant program and that's really

00:04:29.920 important because we were told in the summer during the hearings at the finance committee that this

00:04:35.200 program was not made by political staff or or created by political staff it was it was made by the public

00:04:41.860 service um now we've heard all kinds of testimony and seen dates uh meeting dates that don't support

00:04:49.500 this claim and in fact it looks like there was a pretty heavy lobbying effort by uh the we organization

00:04:54.800 in the days before this program was uh was suddenly imagined and so um so ben chin rick rick tice uh amit

00:05:05.320 paul singh um these are all uh either senior uh political staff in the finance minister's office and

00:05:11.660 in mr singh's case and in the other two uh mr chin and uh mr tice are senior uh pmo officials and so

00:05:20.160 that's why we're looking to have them come but now i i i know you're already sitting down so i hope all

00:05:26.060 of your uh all of your followers are sitting down when they hear this so we introduced the motion for

00:05:31.620 these uh these gentlemen to come testify a committee and of course if they've got nothing to hide they've got

00:05:38.060 nothing to fear before coming before a parliamentary committee and you would never guess what happened

00:05:42.600 jamie when we when we moved our motion the liberals started a filibuster so i did not see that coming

00:05:48.660 you're shocking me with this information so that's so that's kind of where we're that's where we're at

00:05:54.660 today uh and we and we signaled in advance um uh late last week uh pure pauliev and i uh we we did

00:06:01.960 let folks know that we would be asking for this uh for this to happen and um and the the the other

00:06:08.140 opposition parties agree that we we do need to hear this testimony look it's time it's time to bring

00:06:13.200 this to a close the committee does want to report to parliament so we we want to hear from the rest of

00:06:18.160 the witnesses there's uh there is the outstanding report from the ethics commissioner with respect

00:06:25.460 to uh prime minister trudeau and to uh his former finance minister bill morno and we're gonna we have

00:06:33.960 to hear what that report has to say and and and we'll uh and we'll see where we're at then but in

00:06:38.320 the meantime the committee needs to do its work and and now the liberals are saying that we've wasted so

00:06:42.820 much time and now we need to move on to new things well just a minute they they burned 40 hours

00:06:50.420 of committee time 20 meetings uh worth of time uh just ragging the puck so they wouldn't have to have

00:06:56.460 tough conversations while we're back into that mode again so um so we're going to put our elbows up and

00:07:01.240 and see if we can't um hear from these witnesses because we're talking about a half billion dollars of

00:07:06.880 taxpayer money here jamie and and canadians have a right to know um how this all came to be and that's

00:07:12.540 pretty serious too if the inner circle of the prime minister's office is supposedly and according to

00:07:19.200 this linkedin message crafting a crafting a program based around the end result of allowing the we

00:07:27.000 charity to administer this this program during a pandemic during a pandemic where the public service

00:07:33.140 has been able to roll out a whole slew of programs based on everything that has been going on but yet

00:07:38.880 these individuals from what we've seen in committee and the information i've seen they aren't lobbied

00:07:43.920 they aren't registered as a lobbyist they've been doing things behind the scenes and also the fact that

00:07:48.660 the trudeau family has received a lot of money from this we charity organization well that's right

00:07:54.860 you know the very early on we heard from the prime minister and the now former finance minister

00:07:59.360 um who look he bill morno was fired by justin trudeau just just to uh dispel any uh any illusions

00:08:08.460 there uh he he was um he was he was thrown under the bus and uh this is because uh the prime minister

00:08:16.580 and the finance minister got right into the decision making process here and later said

00:08:20.820 well we failed to recuse ourselves we're sorry um but you know this this was very clearly from the

00:08:28.100 beginning um a a a pitch that was um perhaps reverse engineered where uh before the the government

00:08:38.600 was looking for someone to administer it the the concept was introduced uh by the people who were

00:08:44.000 ultimately uh given uh given this agreement and i and i don't want to say awarded the agreement as in

00:08:49.740 there was some kind of procurement process they didn't ask anybody else and so we have uh we have

00:08:55.780 this group who made their presentation there you know they did their slide deck of their powerpoint

00:09:00.420 presentation and that went to cabinet and in that presentation you have pictures of the prime

00:09:04.780 minister's family and so if if you're if you're looking to um you know to a group of decision makers

00:09:11.460 uh to approve your proposal and your boss is sitting at the end of the table and in the proposal are

00:09:18.140 pictures of his family members well gee well now we know where he stands on it i wonder what my boss is

00:09:23.100 going to want me to do of course they're of course this is this is the this group is uh employing

00:09:29.460 members of their boss's family so and he's in the room while they're making the decision and and when

00:09:34.440 they you know uh call the vote or um have the conversation you know his hand is up is saying yep no we

00:09:40.980 we need to do this the same is true for the finance minister who who had members of his immediate

00:09:47.040 family who were employed by the we organization at the time and and look uh you know our family members

00:09:52.980 when you're when you're a politician they're going to do all kinds of things and uh and whether it's

00:09:57.020 for you know a not-for-profit or a for-profit uh organization that is what it is but the the public

00:10:03.380 office holder has a duty they have an obligation a legal obligation to recuse themselves to put to put

00:10:10.080 distance between them and this decision making process and not only is it clear that that didn't

00:10:14.840 happen there's serious questions about uh as you said the lobbying that happened in the lead up to

00:10:21.300 this when there were no registered interactions until we shone the spotlight on this we pulled the

00:10:27.460 curtains open the sunlight hit it and it looked like oh oh my goodness there's been dozens and dozens

00:10:32.540 of of lobbying contacts that weren't that were not registered and all of a sudden the lobbying

00:10:37.160 registry explodes with retroactive uh uh declarations or disclosures of lobbying like my goodness it

00:10:45.960 it's um it's it's pretty it's pretty shocking stuff so is that what you'd say for to i've seen the

00:10:52.640 comments i'm sure you have on some social media basically it's water under the bridge it's already

00:10:57.620 happened now you're seeing the the lobby registry come up to date you're you're seeing the finance

00:11:03.220 minister he's been fired so it's all been dealt with this is old news it's just a conservatives

00:11:07.740 being meddlesome uh there are still people saying that you see the talking heads on the media saying

00:11:13.600 that too and in some cases um what do you say to that what is what is the response as you and the

00:11:18.940 team continues to push forward on this well look we were happy to pursue this uh these inquiries

00:11:24.820 last august and the prime minister made the decision to shut down parliament for no reason other than to

00:11:30.100 stop hard questions and at the time he said when parliament resumes there'll be lots of time for

00:11:35.020 questions and then parliament resumed and they filibustered committees and they filibustered them

00:11:39.920 not just for a couple meetings but like i said for the equivalent of 20 meetings and it's and their

00:11:45.860 partners the organizations that they entrusted with a half a billion dollar agreement wouldn't even

00:11:52.760 present their the heads of those organizations to to come to committee but look if you're if you're

00:11:58.800 going to partner with an organization if the brand canada is going to be associated with a group and

00:12:05.460 the head of that group ducks uh invitations to appear at a parliamentary committee for all of

00:12:11.700 december all of january all of february and then moves the moves the the date of the meeting a couple of

00:12:18.160 times and then on the eve of the meeting says not only are we not coming to your committee if you

00:12:22.840 issue a summons we're still not going to come you know these are not you know these are not the type

00:12:28.580 of of uh characters that you would expect the government of canada to be partnering with on a

00:12:34.160 program like that and and what's more is that we've we've been looking for information and the

00:12:41.160 government has has failed to provide answers to us they've done that with illegally redacted documents

00:12:47.660 that they they gave to the finance committee and uh and we haven't been given straight answers by

00:12:55.660 the people who have come to testify you know at the finance committee in the summer i asked uh you

00:13:00.940 know minister chagger a very straightforward question about uh whether she had had conversations

00:13:07.100 about the grant program with the we organization and she said no she hadn't well later we learned

00:13:12.700 that in fact she had and what was her response oh well the grant program hadn't been uh hadn't been

00:13:19.440 named at that point in time so well i talked to them i just didn't talk to them about what you asked so

00:13:24.100 they're they're looking to um find every possible way to not answer the questions it's uh it's not

00:13:34.060 forthright it's frankly it's dishonest and we need to get answers it's a half a billion dollars and it

00:13:39.840 also speaks to a system where this can happen and the government didn't do any due diligence we've

00:13:46.140 heard all kinds of allegations and stories in the media about uh the the conduct of this of this

00:13:53.340 company people making very serious claims and allegations about uh double matching donations for

00:13:59.320 example and donors having been misled and charitable groups having misled and those allegations are

00:14:03.900 serious so did this did this not present itself when the government did its due diligence or is the fact

00:14:09.800 that the government failed to do its due diligence the other thing we asked for this week jamie at

00:14:14.640 committee was when we had the clerk of the privy council testify at the ethics committee uh one of my

00:14:21.160 colleagues uh asked for the report said well you did you did due diligence and they said yep and said well

00:14:26.780 you can provide us with a report of that they said of course well that was many many months ago and

00:14:32.660 we're yet to see that report so we asked for that and uh and that the liberals think well hey look let's

00:14:39.320 let's filibuster we we can't let them see what's not in the report because um i think that if the

00:14:45.700 government did in fact do their due diligence they would have found these things and so i think the the

00:14:51.320 fact of the matter is they failed to exercise uh reasonable uh steps to make sure that they were

00:14:57.760 partnering with uh with an organization that they should have been when you know when when canadians

00:15:03.520 were were worried about their lives and their livelihood uh justin trudeau and his government

00:15:08.160 were worried about looking out for their buddies so what changed how did you get the keelberger

00:15:12.340 brothers there well i think that once you're once you're in a situation uh after the summons has been

00:15:20.500 issued you have a a big public relations problem and that's what that's what they were facing

00:15:26.280 in advance of that i don't think that uh they believed that we would issue a summons for them

00:15:32.300 but hey these these uh gentlemen have both received the order of canada they've both been welcomed into

00:15:40.440 schools and communities across our country and they've done that saying that they had something

00:15:44.600 to teach and uh they were to teach the communities and to teach the school children and i think the uh what

00:15:52.200 they were looking at the choice they had to make is if they wanted to teach uh people that um you don't

00:15:57.680 need to follow the laws of this country and the law required that they do appear and i think that i think

00:16:03.460 that that was the choice that that they were faced with when um when it came down when the rubber hit the

00:16:09.760 road uh they were legally obligated to appear and so um so it was disappointing that it had to come to

00:16:15.700 that point but i think that frankly they owe it to uh they owe it to canadians to provide the answers

00:16:21.060 that we're looking for and and i would i would encourage anyone who's interested to to take a

00:16:25.140 look at that testimony not the video that they re-recorded uh and this is this is wild the the

00:16:31.100 witnesses mark and craig keelberger re-recorded a video they staged a video of their appearance at

00:16:38.820 committee so they recorded a fake appearance and then they put that on social media because i think that

00:16:44.320 if your viewers are interested go and take a look at their actual appearance at committee they were

00:16:50.180 asked to provide written remarks in advance for translation uh which one of them read they read

00:16:55.560 off of a teleprompter um so they had the written remarks did not provide them to the interpreter so

00:17:00.800 so simultaneous translation couldn't happen they were asked to wear headsets for the translators so

00:17:05.700 that translation could happen refused and and they they said on camera we refuse and uh they did not

00:17:11.600 present themselves as people who were looking to collaborate uh and it was um really interesting

00:17:17.300 i think it speaks volumes about uh uh about everyone involved and and so uh you know for for my part i'm

00:17:25.240 i'm quite proud to have been uh part of the effort to bring answers to canadians to to to get to the truth

00:17:33.660 and i think that um people who are looking to frustrate that work um need to take a long look in the mirror

00:17:39.740 before they appear at uh at at any of the schools or uh or in communities um across canada okay we need

00:17:47.860 to get out of here we have question period coming up so michael barrett in like 30 seconds or less

00:17:53.360 your closing comment well i think uh jamie that as we've moved through this pandemic we've seen the

00:17:59.400 government spend uh you know hundreds of billions of dollars and they need to be accountable to canadians

00:18:04.580 for all that they spend so we're going to keep looking for answers uh we are going to keep asking

00:18:08.860 the hard questions and uh you know when a summons needs to be issued or when uh late hours need to

00:18:14.760 be put in during a filibuster uh we're going to we're going to put in the time because uh canadians

00:18:19.900 are worth it uh they're they're worth the truth and uh i hope that everyone keeps watching for updates

00:18:25.360 right here because this is where you're going to get uh the straight information on what's going on

00:18:30.200 in parliament michael barrett to you and your team on the ethics committee keep up the great work and

00:18:35.260 you're doing a great job as the member of parliament for leeds grenville thousand islands

00:18:39.160 and rito lakes also the shadow minister for ethics thank you once again for coming on the show we'll

00:18:44.040 have you back again as this story develops and we do appreciate your time as mentioned question

00:18:49.280 period is coming up very shortly so stick around for that new content on the blueprint comes every

00:18:54.220 single tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time please watch it or if you can't listen to it later on you can

00:19:01.000 download it on platforms like castbox itunes google play spotify you name it it is out there

00:19:05.760 together we can push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda and of course remember low taxes

00:19:10.740 less government more freedom that is the blueprint

00:19:13.820 you

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - March 26, 2021

Trudeau’s Unethical Behaviour

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