Canada’s ethics watchdog has cleared Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in relation to his involvement in last summer’s WE Charity controversy.
But the ethics commissioner ruled that former finance minister Bill Morneau breached the Conflict of Interest Act by not recusing himself from the matter.
Commissioner Mario Dion was asked to investigate Trudeau and Morneau for their involvement in selecting WE to administer the Canada Student Grant Program.
Dion ruled that Trudeau was not required to recuse himself from the discussions, despite he and several members of his family having been involved in WE’s activities for several years.
Although Mr. Trudeau has acknowledged publicly that he should have recused himself because of the appearance of a conflict of interest, there is no requirement to do so under the Act in such circumstances,” Dion wrote.
The commissioner noted that the duty to recuse is only required when the public office holder would be in a potential conflict of interest.
In his report involving Morneau, Dion said the former finance minister had close ties with WE co-founder Craig Kielburger and they were considered “friends” within the meaning of the fact.
“As soon as Mr. Morneau was advised that WE would likely play an important role in the student relief initiative, he should have recused himself from that point onwards from Cabinet discussions and decision making,” Dion wrote.
