Morning Brief: Push to grill PM over WE at committee – iPolitics

Jul 13, 2020

Good Monday morning.

The Conservatives plan to call Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to testify at committee over the ballooning WE scandal. Finance critic Pierre Poilievre said at a news conference Sunday he is pushing to have Trudeau appear and swear under oath before said grilling. Parliamentary expert Philippe Lagassé points out, though, a committee cannot directly compel a PM to testify. But he pointed to one way around that, and noted it would be “good form” for Trudeau to appear anyway, given that it’s still a minority Parliament.

The list of politicos tied to the WE Charity continues to expand, now including Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan and the prime minister’s chief of staff Katie Telford. The Globe reports they “helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for WE Charity” before the Liberals formed government.

After blocking off his weekend for two days of otherwise unspecified “personal” activities, there’s no word yet from Trudeau’s office on exactly when he will return to the public spotlight. But when (and if) he does, he should brace for a fresh flurry of questions on the widening controversy over that now-scrapped deal to put WE Charity in charge of divvying up nearly one billion dollars in funding for youth volunteers. Kady O’Malley has a full Hill programming roundup previewing the days ahead in iPolitics AM. Given that the WE crisis appears set to dominate the summer political spotlight and widen the gap between the government’s front and back benches, you also don’t want to miss her What We’re Watching column.

Read More: https://ipolitics.ca/2020/07/13/morning-brief-push-to-grill-pm-over-we-at-committee/