Ottawa, ON – Michael Barrett, Common Sense Conservative Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, released the following statement:

“After nine years, Justin Trudeau is not worth the corruption. While millions of Canadians are having to line up outside of food banks just to survive, and as families are having to cope with the surging cost of housing, gas and heating, life for well-connected Liberal insiders has never been so good.

“Today, Canada’s Ethics Commissioner ruled that Trudeau’s handpicked Chair of the Liberals’ $1 billion Green Slush Fund, Annette Versheruen, broke the law. The Commissioner ruled that Trudeau’s Chair violated Section 6(1) and 21 of the Conflict of Interest Act, finding that her actions ‘furthered her private interests.’ On top of this, the Commissioner found that a second Trudeau-appointed director broke the same ethics laws during their time at the Green Slush Fund.

“Worse still, the scathing ethics report into Trudeau’s Green Slush Fund Chair detailed that the Liberal Minister of Industry was warned of Veshuren’s glaring conflict of interest, but proceeded to appoint her and leave her in the position until she was forced to resign. She only did this after being exposed for wasting an enormous amount of Canadian taxpayers’ dollars on projects that benefited her financially.

“This is the second investigation in a few short months that criticized the waste and corruption at Trudeau’s billion dollar Green Slush Fund. Earlier this summer, the Auditor General found that directors had ‘awarded funding to projects that were ineligible, [and where] conflicts of interest existed.’ In total, $123 million worth of contracts were found to have been given inappropriately, with $59 million being given to projects that never should have been awarded any money at all.

“On top of this, the Auditor General discovered that potential conflicts of interest were connected to approval decisions. The Auditor General found that over $330 million in taxpayer money was paid out in over 180 cases where there was a potential conflict of interest, with Trudeau-appointed directors funnelling money to companies they own.

“Time after time, Trudeau has shown total contempt for Canada’s ethics laws. Trudeau himself has been the subject of three ethics investigations and was found guilty of breaking ethics laws twice. This Liberal Government allows the culture of law-breaking to persist, as six Liberals have been found guilty of breaking ethics laws.

“Only Common Sense Conservatives will continue to expose the waste and corruption at Trudeau’s $1 billion Green Slush Fund and demand that his government recoups all taxpayer money that was funnelled inappropriately to Liberal insiders.”