The Kielburger brothers admitted Monday they were in touch with an aide from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office over a $43.5 million grant to their WE charity..Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre brought up a friendly June 27, 2020 exchange between the Kielburgers and Ben Chin, then a senior advisor to the Prime Minister..“Your smirking and your evading might be fun now,” said Poilievre. .“It’s not going to be fun when we’re investigating you for contempt of Parliament.”.Chin, a former CBC-TV announcer, in 2019 was appointed an advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He has never testified at any parliamentary hearings..Last May 22, the Liberals voted to award We Charity millions in funding to manage a pandemic relief program for students. .The funding was subsequently revoked July 3 on disclosures We Charity gave the Prime Minister’s family $481,751 in gifts, fees and expense-paid trips to London and New York, hired then-Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s daughter out of college, and covered Morneau’s $41,366 in expenses at resorts in Kenya and Ecuador..Morneau abruptly resigned last August 21..Trudeau has maintained he knew nothing of the We Charity grant until days before he voted for it, and that his office played no role in negotiating the benefit. .“We Charity received no preferential treatment, not from me, not from anyone else,” Trudeau testified last July 30 at the Commons finance committee..But the Kielburgers on Monday admitted contacting Chin to thank him for help with the program. The disclosure came under rapid-fire questioning by Poilievre..Poilievre: “What was the role exactly of Mr. Chin, senior advisor to the Prime Minister, in setting up this program?”.Craig Kielburger: “I don’t think he had any role in it.”.Poilievre: “Is that the answer from both of you?”.Marc Kielburger: “Who are you referring to, sir? Can you repeat it please?”.Poilievre: “Ben Chin.”.Marc Kielburger: “There was no role.”.Poilievre: “Craig, no role?”.Craig Kielburger: “Not that I’m aware of.”.Poilievre: “Then why did you send him a message on LinkedIn on June 27 saying, ‘Hello, Ben. Thank you for your kindness in helping shape our latest program with the government. Warmly, Craig.’”.Craig Kielburger: “Sure. I sent a hundred messages because I only had seven people, eight people on LinkedIn before that. That day a hundred messages went out. My executive assistant sent them to people to join on LinkedIn, and he was one of them.”.Poilievre: “Sorry, Craig, this is your message. It’s signed by you. And if I could be clear, it doesn’t just say ‘wish you well.’ It says, ‘Ben, thank you for your kindness in helping shape our latest program with the government. Warmly, Craig.’ You sent that, did you not?”.Craig Kielburger: “I don’t dispute that was sent but – ”.Poilievre: Sorry, you got yourself in a lot of trouble here. You just said a moment ago you thought the Prime Minister’s senior advisor Mr. Chin had no role in the establishment of the program, but I have correspondence where you thanked him for ‘helping shape’ that very program. Why did you thank him for shaping the program when now you claim you didn’t know he played any role in the program?”.Craig Kielburger: “My executive assistant wanted to personalize very kindly. She’s a great EA, wrote a few lines to a hundred different LinkedIn requests that went that same day to different people to join my LinkedIn page.”.Poilievre: “Excuse me, Craig You’re in a lot of trouble here, my friend. You’re under oath. Perjury is a crime.”.“This is important because you have until now claimed the Prime Minister’s Office was not involved in shaping the program, it was just a bureaucrat in the Department of Employment,” said Poilievre. “You’ve tried to distance the Prime Minister who your organization has paid off.”.“Mr. Chin actually responded to your message,” said Poilievre. “He said, ‘Great to hear from you, Craig. Let’s get our young working,’ obviously in direct reference to the program”:.Poilievre: “What was the name of the assistant that you claim wrote your email through LinkedIn to Mr. Ben Chin?”.Craig Kielburger: “Mr. Poilievre, I’ve gotten death threats. Our staff have gotten death threats…I am not naming another employee, especially a former executive assistant, to you, sir.”.Poilievre: “We will be asking for it to be handed over to the committee. We can keep that information from the public, but I want to find out if this person actually exists. Do you commit to giving that person’s name to the committee?”.Craig Kielburger: “With the permission of that person and the conversations that unfolded, we’ll get back to you on that point. That’s a private matter.”.Poilievre: “No, it’s not a private matter actually. This is someone you claim was writing correspondence to the Prime Minister’s Office on your behalf. We want to confirm this person actually exists, because the correspondence that has your name on it contradicts the testimony you’ve given directly, and you will need to provide it to prove you in fact are telling the truth here, because it’s very hard to believe…”.Marc Kielburger: “Mr. Poilievre, does anybody in your office write your correspondence?”.Craig Kielburger: “Do you write all your correspondence, sir? You don’t have an assistant who helps you with any of it?”.Poilievre: “I can tell you I didn’t send Ben Chin an email thanking him for a program that I didn’t think he set up, so back to you.”.“I appreciate your lawyer is trying to help you out here,” Poilievre told the Kielburgers. .“He looks extremely uncomfortable, and I don’t blame him. I hope he’s being paid well for this, and I think he will be in your employ for a very long time because lying to a parliamentary committee is in fact an offence.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
The Kielburger brothers admitted Monday they were in touch with an aide from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office over a $43.5 million grant to their WE charity..Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre brought up a friendly June 27, 2020 exchange between the Kielburgers and Ben Chin, then a senior advisor to the Prime Minister..“Your smirking and your evading might be fun now,” said Poilievre. .“It’s not going to be fun when we’re investigating you for contempt of Parliament.”.Chin, a former CBC-TV announcer, in 2019 was appointed an advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He has never testified at any parliamentary hearings..Last May 22, the Liberals voted to award We Charity millions in funding to manage a pandemic relief program for students. .The funding was subsequently revoked July 3 on disclosures We Charity gave the Prime Minister’s family $481,751 in gifts, fees and expense-paid trips to London and New York, hired then-Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s daughter out of college, and covered Morneau’s $41,366 in expenses at resorts in Kenya and Ecuador..Morneau abruptly resigned last August 21..Trudeau has maintained he knew nothing of the We Charity grant until days before he voted for it, and that his office played no role in negotiating the benefit. .“We Charity received no preferential treatment, not from me, not from anyone else,” Trudeau testified last July 30 at the Commons finance committee..But the Kielburgers on Monday admitted contacting Chin to thank him for help with the program. The disclosure came under rapid-fire questioning by Poilievre..Poilievre: “What was the role exactly of Mr. Chin, senior advisor to the Prime Minister, in setting up this program?”.Craig Kielburger: “I don’t think he had any role in it.”.Poilievre: “Is that the answer from both of you?”.Marc Kielburger: “Who are you referring to, sir? Can you repeat it please?”.Poilievre: “Ben Chin.”.Marc Kielburger: “There was no role.”.Poilievre: “Craig, no role?”.Craig Kielburger: “Not that I’m aware of.”.Poilievre: “Then why did you send him a message on LinkedIn on June 27 saying, ‘Hello, Ben. Thank you for your kindness in helping shape our latest program with the government. Warmly, Craig.’”.Craig Kielburger: “Sure. I sent a hundred messages because I only had seven people, eight people on LinkedIn before that. That day a hundred messages went out. My executive assistant sent them to people to join on LinkedIn, and he was one of them.”.Poilievre: “Sorry, Craig, this is your message. It’s signed by you. And if I could be clear, it doesn’t just say ‘wish you well.’ It says, ‘Ben, thank you for your kindness in helping shape our latest program with the government. Warmly, Craig.’ You sent that, did you not?”.Craig Kielburger: “I don’t dispute that was sent but – ”.Poilievre: Sorry, you got yourself in a lot of trouble here. You just said a moment ago you thought the Prime Minister’s senior advisor Mr. Chin had no role in the establishment of the program, but I have correspondence where you thanked him for ‘helping shape’ that very program. Why did you thank him for shaping the program when now you claim you didn’t know he played any role in the program?”.Craig Kielburger: “My executive assistant wanted to personalize very kindly. She’s a great EA, wrote a few lines to a hundred different LinkedIn requests that went that same day to different people to join my LinkedIn page.”.Poilievre: “Excuse me, Craig You’re in a lot of trouble here, my friend. You’re under oath. Perjury is a crime.”.“This is important because you have until now claimed the Prime Minister’s Office was not involved in shaping the program, it was just a bureaucrat in the Department of Employment,” said Poilievre. “You’ve tried to distance the Prime Minister who your organization has paid off.”.“Mr. Chin actually responded to your message,” said Poilievre. “He said, ‘Great to hear from you, Craig. Let’s get our young working,’ obviously in direct reference to the program”:.Poilievre: “What was the name of the assistant that you claim wrote your email through LinkedIn to Mr. Ben Chin?”.Craig Kielburger: “Mr. Poilievre, I’ve gotten death threats. Our staff have gotten death threats…I am not naming another employee, especially a former executive assistant, to you, sir.”.Poilievre: “We will be asking for it to be handed over to the committee. We can keep that information from the public, but I want to find out if this person actually exists. Do you commit to giving that person’s name to the committee?”.Craig Kielburger: “With the permission of that person and the conversations that unfolded, we’ll get back to you on that point. That’s a private matter.”.Poilievre: “No, it’s not a private matter actually. This is someone you claim was writing correspondence to the Prime Minister’s Office on your behalf. We want to confirm this person actually exists, because the correspondence that has your name on it contradicts the testimony you’ve given directly, and you will need to provide it to prove you in fact are telling the truth here, because it’s very hard to believe…”.Marc Kielburger: “Mr. Poilievre, does anybody in your office write your correspondence?”.Craig Kielburger: “Do you write all your correspondence, sir? You don’t have an assistant who helps you with any of it?”.Poilievre: “I can tell you I didn’t send Ben Chin an email thanking him for a program that I didn’t think he set up, so back to you.”.“I appreciate your lawyer is trying to help you out here,” Poilievre told the Kielburgers. .“He looks extremely uncomfortable, and I don’t blame him. I hope he’s being paid well for this, and I think he will be in your employ for a very long time because lying to a parliamentary committee is in fact an offence.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
