Western Standard - March 21, 2024


Poilievre Questions Trudeau on WE Charity Payments Amid Testimony

Mentioned
Paulyev Pierre Wayne Easter Paul Yev Carleton Zerowitz Trudeau Polyef Fraser Julie Look
CMS： Let's get those municipal parties started. Residents shocked and angered after male assaults little girls in women’s change room in Duncan, BC

Episode Stats


Length

7 minutes

Words per minute

166.73

Word count

1,178

Sentence count

124

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been accused of a conflict of interest involving his family and the Wheat Growers Association, a group he founded with his brother and sister-in-law.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Prime Minister, you twice were found guilty of breaking the Ethics Act. After those two
00:00:06.160 convictions, did you decide to read the Act? You've got 14 seconds, Prime Minister.
00:00:13.520 Yes, I have read the Act a number of times. Are you aware of Section 21?
00:00:18.880 Yes, since I've read the Act, I'm aware of Section 21. What does it say?
00:00:22.080 I can pull it up for you, but if you have it in front of you, you'll know. Well, it says,
00:00:25.680 a public office holder of which you are one shall recuse himself or herself from any discussion,
00:00:30.880 decision, debate, or vote in any matter in which, in respect of which, he or she would be in a
00:00:36.960 conflict of interest. Now, what you've admitted today is not just that you were in a conflict of
00:00:43.120 interest, but that you consciously recognized in your May Cabinet meeting that such a conflict might
00:00:50.160 exist, that it didn't just slide by your desk, that you were consciously aware that there was an
00:00:57.120 inappropriate link to your family that would put you in a conflict. Why did you, at that moment,
00:01:04.240 not call the Ethics Commissioner and recuse yourself?
00:01:07.280 That is simply not true, Mr. Polyef. The issue of advancing issues for one's off, and by the way,
00:01:17.600 the Ethics Commissioner is looking into this right now, and I fully trust his judgment on determining
00:01:23.440 it, but at the same time, my concern around accusing myself was a question around perceptions,
00:01:29.600 because I knew full well that this Canada Summer Students Grant Program was not going to directly
00:01:35.200 benefit my mother or my brother. Your 16 seconds are up. Your 16 seconds are up.
00:01:41.040 I'm going to ask you again, because nobody believes you when you say you don't know how much money your
00:01:48.480 family has got from the wheat group. You've had a month to look into that. You knew you were going
00:01:53.680 to testify here. Again, how much money total have your brother, mother, and spouse received from this
00:02:02.800 organization? How much?
00:02:04.240 That information has been publicly shared, but I will highlight…
00:02:08.080 Well, then tell me what it is.
00:02:09.040 My mother…
00:02:10.000 How much?
00:02:10.560 …has…
00:02:11.040 It's just the dollar figure.
00:02:12.560 …throughout her life…
00:02:14.000 The dollar figure, Prime Minister.
00:02:15.120 …in various ways, and is proud of the work that she's done, and I'm proud of her.
00:02:19.360 How much? I'm looking for a dollar figure.
00:02:21.920 We can get that number for you, if you like. It's been out in the media.
00:02:25.440 It's been in the media, but you don't know it?
00:02:27.280 I don't have it in front of me, and quite frankly…
00:02:28.720 You don't know how much your family has received from this organization, which you tried to give a half
00:02:33.280 billion dollars. Really?
00:02:36.400 Can I answer, Mr. Paul Yef?
00:02:38.080 I'm waiting. You haven't done an answer so far. Let's make this the first one.
00:02:44.000 My mother has worked as an advocate…
00:02:47.440 The dollar figure, Prime Minister.
00:02:49.360 …speaker for many good organizations across the country…
00:02:54.000 Mr. Prime Minister…
00:02:55.120 …and she is proud that she doesn't have to rely on a husband or a son to support her,
00:03:01.520 because she does her own work, and I'm proud of the work that she does.
00:03:03.680 Point of order? Point of order?
00:03:05.440 I do not feel that it is my responsibility to peer into the work my mother is doing,
00:03:12.960 because I have loved the work she's doing. Point of order to suspend?
00:03:15.760 Point of order?
00:03:17.760 Point of order to suspend, please?
00:03:19.040 I've come to learn that the chairperson's power has gone out and is no longer part of this meeting.
00:03:24.640 Mr. Prime Minister, may I propose that we…
00:03:26.880 It's okay. We can keep…
00:03:27.760 Mr. Prime Minister and I can continue talking.
00:03:30.800 No. No.
00:03:31.760 Mr. Prime Minister, I suspected that might be a problem. It's very convenient timing for the lights to go out.
00:03:36.160 Look, I got a message to the effect that his power has gone out. I have no reason to distrust him.
00:03:41.760 I hope you don't pull the fire alarm now.
00:03:43.840 Yeah. Well, look, there's no intent in my own private home here in the middle of a pandemic. I don't have a fire alarm.
00:03:49.520 Mr. Fraser, the general process is that the Vice Chair assumes the chairing of the meeting. So we'll continue.
00:03:58.640 And that would be me. So we'll continue the meeting. And I now give the floor to the member for Carleton.
00:04:07.120 Mr. Prime Minister, you have… I'm going to ask you one last time. How much did your family get from this organization? How much?
00:04:16.480 Have you read the Conflict of Interest Act, Mr. Prime Minister?
00:04:19.760 Yes, I have.
00:04:20.880 How does it define family?
00:04:22.000 I'm asking you…
00:04:22.800 How does it define family?
00:04:24.160 How does it define family?
00:04:24.800 I'm asking you how much your family got here, don't I?
00:04:26.720 The Conflict of Interest Act defines family as spouse and direct dependents.
00:04:31.520 Okay. Point of order, you're not going to answer that question.
00:04:33.680 Point of order.
00:04:35.040 So you're not going to answer the question then?
00:04:37.760 So you're not going to answer the question about how much your family received?
00:04:40.800 Okay, you're right.
00:04:41.520 Mr. Prime Minister, hold it, gentlemen.
00:04:42.880 Point of order, can I welcome back Wayne Easter, a man we've deeply missed?
00:04:54.640 Come on, where have you been?
00:04:55.920 Mr. Look, you know…
00:04:57.600 I had things under control for you while you were gone.
00:05:00.160 I imagine that, Pierre, it wouldn't be the first time you tried to put my lights out,
00:05:04.880 and that's exactly what happened, Pierre.
00:05:07.280 We got a thunderstorm here.
00:05:09.280 Anyway, you're well into your five minutes, but go with one last question.
00:05:18.720 You, Mr. Trudeau, I'm going to conclude by asking you, you claim that you have no knowledge of the
00:05:28.160 amount that has been paid in expenses to your spouse. You correctly pointed out that the Act
00:05:32.720 defines family as including a spouse. Therefore, you know you're under investigation regarding the Act.
00:05:42.320 I'm going to ask you again, how much in total, and I'm looking for a dollar figure here, sir,
00:05:48.640 how much did your spouse receive in reimbursed expenses or other benefits from this organization?
00:05:57.680 How much?
00:05:58.080 The original question, Mr. Paulyev, was how much was my immediate family…
00:06:03.360 I asked you a different question now.
00:06:04.800 How much?
00:06:05.600 Mr. Paulyev, the Prime Minister has the floor.
00:06:08.320 My wife has never been paid since I was Prime Minister. 0.99
00:06:11.520 Reimbursed for expenses.
00:06:12.880 Mr. Paulyev, could we please have order? We'll allow the Prime Minister to answer the question,
00:06:19.840 and then we'll move on to Ms. Zerowitz. 0.99
00:06:22.560 Sorry, Julie. Mr. Prime Minister, you have about 30 seconds here.
00:06:27.760 The Ethics Commissioner has fully cleared my wife to continue her advocacy and her work
00:06:35.280 with WE Charity and other organizations in the kind of work that she's been doing all her life.
00:06:42.160 Just the dollar figure.
00:06:42.880 She's doing it unpaid for WE. She is not being paid by WE for her advocacy or for her podcasts.
00:06:49.520 They are simply reimbursing her for expenses.
00:06:52.400 Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.