If there is one world leader that has made a mockery of himself over and over again then it is none other than Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a long list of incidents that have brought embarrassment to the Liberal leader, another such incident has been added.
According to Canadian media, Justin Trudeau has prorogued the parliament to cover up a scandal that he and his family have been involved in. The decision to pre-maturely end the parliament was taken by Governor General Julie Payette at the behest of Trudeau on Tuesday this week.
“Today, I have asked the governor-general to prorogue Parliament, which must happen before any government can present a throne speech,” Trudeau said on Tuesday.
A charity that was awarded the tender by the minority government of Trudeau to provide grant funds to help students struggling to find summer jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic has been embroiled in controversy ever since its selection.
According to a Guardian report, the move to end the parliament session comes amid an ethics committee investigation into the ‘WE Charity affair’, in which Trudeau and former finance minister Bill Morneau face accusations of an improper financial relationship with the international development organization.
Evidence of cover-up of the corruption is evident as Trudeau through the back-doors sacked Finance Minister Bill Morneau who was an accomplice in awarding the tender to ‘WE Charity’.
If Parliament is prorogued, the move kills all bills that have not yet received royal assent, and no committees are allowed to sit during a prorogation. This will include several committee probes linking to Trudeau and Morneau to the WE Charity scandal.
WE Charity had disclosed last month that between 2016-2020 it paid honoraria to Trudeau’s mother, Margaret, amounting to C$250,000 for speaking at some 28 events, while his brother Alexandre received about C$32,000.
The Canadian PM had publically apologized for the conflict-of-interest but had conveniently side-stepped the alleged payment made to his family members.
“I made a mistake in not recusing myself immediately from the discussions, given our family’s history, and I’m sincerely sorry about not having done that,” Trudeau had said in a news conference.
It is the second time in less than a year that Justin Trudeau has apologized publicly for his actions in a live, nationally televised news conference. The first time was in September after decades-old images of him in blackface emerged.
However, the opposition parties came down heavily on Trudeau as Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer called him ‘spineless’ and accused the PM of “walking out on Canadians in the middle of a major health and economic crisis, in a disgusting attempt to make Canadians forget about his [alleged] corruption”.
Ahead of the 2015 federal election, the Liberals had promised to never use the measure to “avoid difficult political circumstances”.
Liberals around the world have a tendency to go back on their words when the going gets tough. With Trudeau evoking the Prorogation which his party swore not to use, a precedent has been proven correct.
When asked how his prorogation would differ from his predecessors, Trudeau didn’t give any coherent answer but instead claimed the Conservatives had prorogued parliament in order to shut it down and avoid a confidence vote.
Justin Trudeau is the Ozymandias statue of travesties and although he has avoided facing the music, for the time being, the clock is ticking and unless Trudeau whips up some sort of magic, the WEcharity scandal is going to haunt him and his party for long.
