'Impossible to continue': Trudeau Foundation CEO, board resign

The president and CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation as well as its entire board of directors are resigning, citing the “politicization of the Foundation.”

“In recent weeks, the political climate surrounding a donation received by the Foundation in 2016 has put a great deal of pressure on the Foundation’s management and volunteer Board of Directors, as well as on our staff and our community,” reads a statement from the foundation issued Tuesday.

“The circumstances created by the politicization of the Foundation have made it impossible to continue with the status quo, and the volunteer Board of Directors has resigned, as has the President and CEO,” it also states.

Three directors will remain on the board on an interim basis to allow the organization to uphold its obligations while replacements are sought.

• Capital Dispatch: Sign up for in-depth political coverage of Parliament Hill

Over the last few months, the foundation has been referenced repeatedly amid reporting on foreign interference and alleged attempts by China to meddle in the 2021 and 2019 federal elections.

In February, it was first reported by The Globe and Mail that the foundation had accepted a $200,000 donation seven years ago, from a Chinese businessman with ties to the Chinese government. In March, the foundation announced it would be refunding the donation because of the potential China connection.

CEO of the organization at the time was Morris Rosenberg, a former long-time public servant who was hired by the Privy Council Office to author a report on attempts to interfere in the 2021 federal election. 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.”

When reports of the donation to the foundation under Rosenberg’s leadership emerged, it sparked criticism from elected officials including Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, who said Rosenberg had a “deficit of credibility.”

Rosenberg told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in March that he has always conducted himself in a non-partisan way, including during his four years with the foundation.

And, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped former governor general David Johnston to serve as a foreign interference special rapporteur, his impartiality was questioned by the opposition parties, in part because he was a member of the foundation, which calls itself an independent, non-partisan scholarship organization.

Outgoing president and CEO of the foundation, Pascale Fournier, has been with the organization for five years.

“It is a shame to see the level of toxicity and political polarization that is going on in our country these days,” Trudeau said Tuesday. “But I am certain that the Trudeau Foundation will be able to continue to ensure that research into the social studies and humanities at the highest levels, across Canadian academic institutions, continues for many years to come.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for an investigation into the foundation.

“We need to know who got rich; who got paid and who got privilege and power from Justin Trudeau as a result of funding to the Trudeau Foundation,” he tweeted.

Trudeau, however, called out those who are “trying to get short-term political gain by increasing polarization and partisanship in this country,” and said “unfounded and ungrounded attacks against charities or foundations must not succeed.”

“I have no doubt that the Trudeau Foundation, like foundations and charities that Conservative politicians have attacked in the past, will continue to do the excellent work that it will do,” he said at a news conference in Toronto.

While the foundation is named after his father, the prime minister has not been involved with it since becoming Liberal leader.

“As you well know, the Trudeau Foundation is a foundation with which I have absolutely no intersection,” Trudeau also said. “It was established to promote knowledge and academic research into the humanities, following the death of my father, and has had an extraordinary impact on academic institutions and on brilliant Canadians.”

With files from CTVNews.ca’s Senior Digital Parliamentary Reporter Rachel Aiello and CTV News’ Kevin Gallagher