Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed deputy PM Chrystia Freeland as the country’s first female finance minster on Tuesday after her predecessor Bill Morneau resigned on Monday amid an ethics controversy in connection with a well-known charity.
Trudeau, in an attempt to smooth things over, appointed Freeland before suspending the parliament till September 23. Parliamentary business, including committees probing WE Charity student volunteer grant controversy, is suspended. Trudeau had sought approval to end the current parliament session before making the announcement.
Both Morneau and Trudeau are being investigated after the government gave WE Charity a $43.53-million contract to administer a $900-million student grant program.
Several committees at the House of Commons including finance, ethics, government operations and official languages have been holding or planning to hold inquiries on why the government granted administration of a student service grant program to a group with financial ties to the families of both Trudeau and Morneau.
Trudeau will be giving his monarch’s speech in fall, which will lay out the government’s long-term plan to recover from the global pandemic. In a news conference on Tuesday, the PM said that it will also provide an opportunity for a vote on whether the House has confidence in the government.
“We need to reset the approach of this government for a recovery to build back better. And those are big, important decisions and we need to present that to parliament and to gain the confidence of parliament to move forward on this ambitious plan,” Trudeau said.
Opposition leaders feel Trudeau’s attempt to distract from the scandal is risking the country’s pandemic recovery.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called Trudeau “spineless” and said, “Justin Trudeau is walking out on Canadians in the middle of a major health and economic crisis, in a disgusting attempt to make Canadians forget about his corruption,” he said.
Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre tweeted that opposition MPs on the committee that is reviewing the WE Charity issue have written a letter demanding access to thousands of pages of government documents before Trudeau “shutters Parliament and locks up the evidence”.
In response, the prime minister has said that reams of documents have been provided to the committee by the government, and members can review them in the coming weeks.