Justin Trudeau agrees to reimburse charities amidst criticism







Amid backlash from his opponents, Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau has agreed to pay back all charities which had given him money to speak at their events since he became an MP.

Trudeau experienced negative black lash June 14th, when the Grace Foundation said they had lost money at an event he spoke at last year. The charity then requested that he pay them back $20,000 in order to compensate the loss they experienced.

Trudeau addressed the issue on CTV’s Question Period, reiterating that he was willing to compensate the charities involved.

"I'm willing to pay all of the money back, if that's what it comes to, but I am going to fix this,” Trudeau said.

The request for repayment by the Grace Foundation, spawned other requests for Trudeau to repay them for funds he received through public speaking engagements.  The Huffington Post reports Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall asked Trudeau repay $20,000 he received for speaking at the Saskatoon literacy conference last year.

In response to the backlash, Trudeau had voluntarily given information about his finances in order to ease concerns and demonstrate his desire and appreciation for transparency. He also made it clear that he did not think he had done anything wrong, and had not broken any rules.

"I'm doing this not because I'm worried that I did something wrong, because I didn't. Everything was done exactly according to the rules. For me, transparency isn't a slogan or a tactic; it's a way of doing business. I trust Canadians. I value their opinions. And now that I've heard them, I'm going to act," he said in a written statement obtained by the Huffington Post.

Despite Trudeau’s attempts to rectify the situation, he is not immune to critics. New Brunswick Conservative MP Rob Moore commented on the incident noting that the Grace Foundation’s request for reimbursement had gone unanswered for four months, and action was only taken once Trudeau was publicly embarrassed by the media to do so.

"[Trudeau only agreed to pay back the funds] when embarrassed in the media has he now claimed he will 'make it right.Justin Trudeau's willingness to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from charity demonstrates that Justin Trudeau's favourite cause is ... Justin Trudeau," Moore said in a statement.

Obviously it is never possible to satisfy all of ones critics, but it was important Trudeau agreed to pay back the money as this would definitely have been an issue that would reappear during a run for election.


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