Chinese Billionaire Made $1 Million Donation to Trudeau Charity Following Election that Brought Liberals to Power | National Review - Ari Blaff:
February 28, 2023 - "Ahead of the 2015 Canadian elections, the Chinese Community Party (CCP) reportedly considered targeting Justin Trudeau, then the Liberal Party’s national leader, to be the recipient of a million-dollar 'donation' via the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, named after his father and former prime minister. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) sources told the Globe & Mail, on condition of anonymity, that a commercial attaché at a Chinese consulate in Canada instructed Zhang Bin, a billionaire political adviser to the CCP, to transfer $1 million to the Trudeau Foundation.... [T]he Chinese government further added that it would reimburse Zhang for the political donation....
"[T]he following year the prime minister attended a party fundraiser in Toronto hosted by the Chinese Business Chamber of Commerce which Zhang attended. Shortly after the fundraiser, Zhang and Niu Genssheng, a wealthy Chinese business leader turned philanthropist, made a joint $1 million donation 'to honour the memory and leadership' of former prime minister Pierre Eliott Trudeau. According to the Globe & Mail report, twenty percent of the contribution was earmarked for academic fellowships and scholarships, with the remaining bulk set aside for the University of Montreal’s law school that included grants for college students to visit China.
"However, the prime minister dismissed any nefarious connections between Zhang’s contribution to the Trudeau foundation in a statement on Monday. 'Following his election as Leader of the Liberal Party, the Prime Minister withdrew his involvement in the affairs of the foundation for the duration of his involvement in federal politics,' Press Secretary Ann-Clara Vaillancourt noted.
"The revelations come on the heels of investigative reporting by Globe & Mail last week which revealed that the CCP meddled in Canada’s 2021 federal elections with the aim of re-electing Justin Trudeau.... 'Most important, the intelligence reports show that Beijing was determined that the Conservatives did not win. China employed disinformation campaigns and proxies connected to Chinese-Canadian organizations in Vancouver and the GTA [Greater Toronto Area], which have large mainland Chinese immigrant communities, to voice opposition to the Conservatives and favour the Trudeau Liberals,' journalists Robert Fife and Steven Chase wrote.
"Another Canadian news outlet recently unearthed that Prime Minister Trudeau turned a blind eye to intelligence reports that Han Dong, a Liberal member of parliament (MP) was likely involved in a Chinese 'foreign interference network.' Han succeeded the incumbent, MP Geng Tan, who reportedly had disappointed the Chinese consulate in Toronto. Former Trudeau allies are now calling on the prime minister to appoint a “public inquiry” to investigate the matter in a non-partisan way."
Read more: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/chinese-billionaire-made-1-million-donation-to-trudeau-charity-following-election-that-brought-liberals-to-power/
Trudeau Foundation returning $200K to Beijing-linked donor | CBC News - Darren Major:
March 1, 2023 - "The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is returning a donation worth thousands of dollars made by an adviser to the Chinese government. In 2016, Zhang Bin, a wealthy Chinese businessman and adviser to the Chinese government, made a donation to the foundation worth $200,000. A story published by the Globe and Mail on Tuesday suggests that Canadian security officials linked that donation back to the Chinese government. Foundation president Pascale Fournier released a statement on Wednesday saying that, in light of the Globe's reporting, the foundation — which funds and promotes academic and public interest research — has reimbursed Zhang the full amount of the donation....
"The donation has drawn scrutiny from the Conservatives, who say it has compromised a recent report on foreign interference in the 2021 election. A report assessing the work of top civil servants tasked with monitoring and alerting the public of foreign interference in that election ... released Tuesday ... was written by Morris Rosenberg, a former senior public servant for more than 30 years. Rosenberg also served as the [Trudeau] foundation's president when Zhang made the donation.
"Even before Rosenberg's report was made public Tuesday, the Conservative Party said those ties discredit his work. 'This discredits the report and proves we need a separate investigation, and the government should fully cooperate with the House committee studying this very issue. They must cease their obstructionism, and the NDP must stop protecting the Liberals in committee so Canadians can finally discover the extent of [Chinese Communist Party] interference'.... Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc dismissed the Conservatives' assertions, calling them a 'gratuitous smear.'"
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-foundation-returning-donation-chinese-government-adviser-1.6764847
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