TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2021) A Canadian parliamentary committee passed a motion compelling Craig and Marc Kielburger, whose WE Charity was at the heart of the scandal that plagued the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to testify, Shadow Minister for Ethics Michael Barrett said.
On Thursday, the Kielburger brothers informed the Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee that they will reject the panel's summons.
"Ethics Committee passed a motion to compel the Kielburgers to testify," Barrett, a member of the Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee, said via Twitter on Monday.
Barrett added that no entity, no matter "how powerful or well-connected," can disregard parliamentary authority.
It is unclear if other high-ranking WE Charity executives, including Chief Financial Officer Victor Li, will appear before the Committee.
Trudeau as well as current and former members of his cabinet incurred heavy criticism last summer after media revealed close ties between the officials' families and the WE Charity, in light of government decision to award the charity a $670-million sole-source contract to administer a government-sponsored student volunteer program.
The Kielburger brothers told a parliamentary committee earlier last summer that members of the Trudeau family received upwards of $380,000 in speaking fees, travel expenses and other reimbursements over several years.
Former Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who also faced mounting backlash following his admissions that he accepted expense paid trips and that both of his daughters have relationships with the charity, resigned in August.
There are currently multiple ongoing investigations of Trudeau and his government related to the scandal. The prime minister is presently the subject of a conflict of interest probe by the Canada's Ethics Commissioner into his relationship with the WE Charity - the third during his five years in office.
Concurrently, there were a number of parliamentary investigations concerning the awarding of the multi-billion-dollar government ward to the WE Charity that have been halted after Trudeau shut down Parliament until the end of September.
WE Charity announced in September that it would be winding down its operations in Canada.
