Katie Telford, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief of staff and her deputy were hosted by federal contractor Thomson Reuters at the Washington, D.C. social event of the year, says Blacklock's Reporter..Telford, who was earlier quoted by a Cabinet minister as boasting she could manipulate press coverage, attended the invitation-only White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, according to ethics filings. .Telford, in a filing under the Conflict Of Interest Act, said she and her deputy Brian Clow were invited by Thomson Reuters to attend the VIP dinner April 30..Some 2,600 attended the Washington banquet including Drew Barrymore, Brooke Shields, and Martha Stewart. Thomson Reuters in its coverage of the dinner called it an evening with celebrities..The filing did not explain what business Telford and her deputy had in Washington. .“Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson made a splash on the red carpet as US President Joe Biden resumed a Washington tradition of speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night, the first president to speak at the annual event since 2016,” the news agency reported, April 30..Toronto-based Thomson Reuters received $3.6 million in Government of Canada contracts in the past year, according to records..The Conflict Of Interest Act mandates that public office holders disclose gifts from contractors..“I do occasionally do public engagements,” Telford earlier explained in a 2018 interview with Maclean’s magazine..“I am not the first but the second woman chief of staff and I’m a believer in sort of the ‘see-her-to-be-her’ mantra.”.Telford in 2019 denied boasting of media manipulation..Then Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould testified at the Commons justice committee she overheard Telford as remarking: “We could of course line up all kinds of people to write op-eds that what she is doing is proper.”.Cabinet in a 2019 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons said it did not have any actual list of friendly media outlets it assigned to publish Liberal-friendly commentaries..“Is that a common practice of the Prime Minister’s Office, to instruct pundits and editors to write and publish favourable op-eds for the government?” then Senator Linda Frum (ON) asked in February 28, 2019 Question Period..“She will know from her acquaintance with the journalism profession that those attempts are rarely successful,” replied Senator Peter Harder (ON), then Government Representative in the Senate.
