Former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation, Morris Rosenberg, is scheduled to testify at the House ethics committee on foreign interference. The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics has been conducting a study on foreign interference and threats to Canada’s democratic institutions since mid-March. Rosenberg, who was the CEO of the Trudeau Foundation when it accepted $140,000 in donations from a Chinese billionaire and a Chinese businessman with ties to the regime in Beijing, will testify on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had tapped Rosenberg to author a report on attempts to interfere in the 2021 federal election. In his report, Rosenberg concluded that while attempts were made, the panel whose work he was assessing “did not detect foreign interference that threatened Canada’s ability to have free and fair elections.”
Rosenberg’s testimony will come after several witness accounts before the committee with connections to the Trudeau Foundation. Pascale Fournier, the foundation’s most recent CEO, resigned along with the organization’s board of directors last month. She testified before the same committee last week, saying that she resigned because of a breakdown in trust on the board of directors and that she had pushed for an independent forensic audit into the donations, a move that caused tension between board members.
The foundation has since issued a statement saying that it “strongly contests” several aspects of Fournier’s testimony, including the internal governance process of the organization and the circumstances surrounding the board of directors’ mass resignation. Alexandre Trudeau, the prime minister’s brother and a member of the foundation’s board of directors when the donations were made, is also scheduled to testify before the committee on Wednesday.
The testimony of Rosenberg and the other witnesses is expected to shed light on the issue of foreign interference in Canadian democracy and the Trudeau Foundation’s role in it. The hearings are part of a broader effort by the Canadian government to safeguard its democratic institutions against foreign interference.