Incendiary testimony before a House of Commons committee has ignited a reckoning for the scandal-ridden Trudeau government.
The explosive disclosures have blown the lid off shady practices at the Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund.
As accusations swirl of political interference and wilful blindness, an angry Pierre Poilievre is demanding answers.
This bleak saga of misused taxpayer money, internal rot, and attempted burials has kicked the Trudeau Liberals into full-blown damage control mode.
But with the tenacious whistleblower lighting fuse after fuse, the PMO is struggling to contain the fallout from this ethics inferno.
The new revelations from the whistleblower about corruption and mismanagement at Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or the SDTC, have rocked the Trudeau government.
In bombshell testimony at the House of Commons Industry Committee, the whistleblower, who remained unnamed but showed his face, accused the federal government of an “egregious cover-up” regarding allegations against SDTC’s board.
The whistleblower is a former SDTC employee who worked there from 2020-2022, conducting financial due diligence and compliance for projects.
He was able to speak openly about SDTC because he had not signed a non-disclosure agreement like many other employees had been forced to do.
In his testimony, the whistleblower said that $150 million of taxpayer money had been granted improperly by SDTC, including to companies directly connected to SDTC’s own board members.
He accused the board executives and senior management of “gross mismanagement of taxpayer money” and of victimizing countless employees. The whistleblower also blamed the federal government for its “embarrassing lack of oversight” that allowed these problems to happen and its subsequent cover-up of the truth.
The SDTC scandal followed Trudeau into the House of Commons as Poilievre grilled him over the allegations during Question Period. In response, Trudeau sidestepped the question entirely and changed the subject.
Trudeau’s evasive answers in the House starkly contrast the government’s previous claims about the SDTC review. Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne had touted the audit results as exonerating SDTC only a month earlier.
Champagne had previously claimed that an independent review by the accounting firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton found no evidence of misconduct at SDTC.
However, the whistleblower insists that senior ISED officials and the Minister’s office became heavily involved in the review process before the report was finalized.
The whistleblower made serious allegations about improper influence from Minister Champagne’s office over the SDTC review. He said that after discussions with the PMO in June, the audit went from being a basic “fact-finding exercise” to a targeted “investigation.” Further, even though the understanding was that the whole SDTC board and management would be replaced, this apparently changed after intervention by Minister Champagne.
The whistleblower told MPs: “The real truth of the matter is there was a definitive consensus across the bureaucracy at both ISED and PCO that the full board and executive team at SDTC needed to be terminated.”
He added, referring to recorded talks with a top ISED official: “This was described to us in detail and on multiple occasions in late August and September. The outcome of the situation only changed when the minister’s office became involved.”
According to the whistleblower, there had been a consensus among bureaucrats that the entire SDTC board and executive team needed to be removed. But this changed after Minister Champagne’s office got involved.
Champagne has denied this allegation, insisting that he respected due process and that questioning the integrity of the independent review was “ludicrous.”
Further evidence of alleged political interference emerged when comments by ISED’s assistant deputy minister Doug McConnachie were leaked.
In a conversation from August 25th captured on tape, McConnachie can be heard sharply criticizing SDTC’s senior management and predicting that Minister Champagne would “flip out” after being briefed on the damning report. McConnachie stated that the Minister would likely want “an extreme reaction, like shut it all down” once he saw the findings.
Yet just over a month later, the final report was far less hard-hitting, and the leadership remained largely intact. The leaked tapes lend credence to claims that the PMO pressed bureaucrats to water down the report’s conclusions and recommendations before publication.
The expose revealed not just financial mismanagement but also disturbing HR practices at SDTC. The whistleblower described a “toxic” workplace where employees who raised concerns were threatened and forced to sign NDAs on departure. Four HR directors had gone on stress leave in just two years or were fired.
The whistleblower stated that “every single one of them was put under an NDA which specifically had language that prevented them from even going to the federal government to complain about these issues that were ongoing.”
The testimony comes on the heels of recent resignations from SDTC’s leadership. CEO Leah Lawrence resigned, citing a “malicious campaign” against her, matching the whistleblower’s description of vindictive management. Chair Annette Verschuren resigned after funneling money to a company she runs, one of the conflict-of-interest breaches highlighted.
Now, we are wondering why Champagne did not replace the tainted SDTC leadership as bureaucrats had advocated after the initial review. The subsequent management plan imposed seems like too little too late.
With these dramatic revelations, the whistleblower has pulled back the curtain on the rot inside a government agency tasked with supporting green technology.
He has exposed how Trudeau’s Liberals failed to provide oversight and then tried to minimize the issues to protect the agency’s leadership. For us, this raises serious questions about political interference to cover up corruption and mismanagement.
The whistleblower took great personal and professional risks to come forward with the truth. His moral duty to reveal the depth of the problems exceeds that of government officials appointed to serve the public’s interests and instead only serve their own agendas and distribute taxpayer money among themselves, then cover up the shady ordeals to stay in power. Now, Trudeau’s government faces tough scrutiny about how SDTC was allowed to spin out of control under their watch.
Canadians, as well as Poilievre and opposition members, are demanding accountability and expressing outrage at the cover-up allegations. They want to know how SDTC was allowed to stray so far from its mandate and turn into a hotbed of corruption. With Canada trying to position itself as a global climate leader, the misuse of funds intended to develop green technology is a major embarrassment.
Trudeau claims his office did not influence the initial review process, but the whistleblower’s detailed allegations raise doubts. How can a prime minister not know what transpires within his own government? How can instances and scandals like this keep occurring and every time Trudeau feigns ignorance?
After managing to largely dodge political responsibility for scandals throughout the years, Trudeau must now be held directly accountable for the SDTC corruption scandal.
There are now calls for the Auditor General and the Ethics Commissioner to fully investigate SDTC’s actions and the government’s handling of the previous review. The whistleblower’s testimony has ensured the issues at SDTC can no longer be swept under the rug. The depth of the problems demands significant action and accountability.
The whistleblower has exposed negligence from the Prime Minister’s Office down through the bureaucracy. Canadians expect better oversight of a $1 billion public fund, not a cover-up.
The Prime Minister seems to believe he can continue governing from one scandal to the next with little consequence. But continuously testing the limits of public trust like this is a risky gambit.
Canadians expect and deserve the highest standards from our leaders. Trudeau cannot keep presiding over controversies involving ethical lapses and still claim to be a champion of transparency. The Liberal brand is increasingly being seen as synonymous with cover-ups and corruption.
The time has come for accountability, not more hollow apologies and promises to do better next time. Canadians are rightfully running out of patience.
