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OTTAWA—The Canadian charity at the middle of a summer season scandal engulfing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his Liberal administration is shutting down, attributing the choice partly to the following political fallout.
Toronto-based WE Charity mentioned Wednesday it could wind down its Canadian operations, citing the lack of company sponsors and an anticipated drop in donations on account of a political uproar that weighed on Mr. Trudeau’s standing in public-opinion polls.
Mr. Trudeau’s authorities in June awarded a contract—by no means put out for public bids—to WE Charity to run a student-grant program, aimed toward getting cash to college students struggling to discover a job due to the coronavirus pandemic in change for volunteer work in their group. The charity stood to obtain as a lot as 43 million Canadian {dollars} ($32.6 million) for its work managing the almost C$1 billion program. It was later revealed WE paid a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} to the prime minister’s mom and brother to seem at charity occasions and canopy eligible bills.
Further, the previous finance minister, Bill Morneau, mentioned he and his household accepted tens of hundreds of {dollars} in hospitality and journey paid by WE Charity, and one in every of his daughters labored for the group. Mr. Morneau mentioned he paid again the cash in July after it got here to his consideration. He stepped down as head of the treasury final month, and left politics.
A spokesman for Mr. Trudeau declined to remark. The prime minister testified earlier than a parliamentary committee in late July, at which period he mentioned neither he nor his aides instructed officers to award the contract to WE Charity. He added he initially balked on the suggestion that WE Charity obtain the contract, and requested bureaucrats to do additional due diligence to guarantee it was greatest in a position to ship what the federal government wanted.
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