摘要:How Justin Trudeau's latest ethics scandal could spell the end of his careerTrudeau的丑闻如何葬送了他的事业First there was the secretive trip to the Bahamas in 2016 when Canadian Prime Minister Justin ... ...
How Justin Trudeau's latest ethics scandal could spell the end of his career
Trudeau的丑闻如何葬送了他的事业
First there was the secretive trip to the Bahamas in 2016 when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family rode in a helicopter owned by the Aga Khan, the billionaire and Ismaili Muslim spiritual leader whose organization has received hundreds of millions of dollars in Canadian federal grants to advance its work overseas.
Then, some three years later, the Trudeau government was found to have pressured then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to spare SNC Lavalin, one of Canada's largest engineering companies, from prosecution for bribing Libyan officials in return for lucrative government contracts between 2001 and 2011.
After the Canadian ethics commissioner said Trudeau had violated federal conflict of interest rules, he said, "I assume responsibility for everything that happened in my office." He added, "We recognize the way this happened shouldn't have happened," but said his government was acting in the interest of the national economy.
Ultimately, Trudeau lost two star female cabinet ministers (they resigned) — including the first indigenous woman to become minister of justice — and the scandal almost cost his Liberal Party's hold on power.
最终司法部两个知名女性内阁辞职，包括当地首位女性司法部部长，这次丑闻差点让总理在自由党中的权利不保
indigenous本地的
Now the charismatic G7 leader has a different problem on his hands. It not only threatens to deal a fatal blow to the once impenetrable Trudeau brand, it also casts unwelcome scrutiny on his immediate family and on an international charity juggernaut with links to Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and several other well-known celebrities and leaders.
The latest imbroglio is related to the government contract handed to the WE Charity to run a $660 million program for students unable to find summer work due to Covid-19.
最近的一次丑闻是关于WE慈善机构承接的政府的合同，为救济因疫情找不到暑期工作的学生，政府拨6亿款项
imbroglio丑闻，尴尬
Despite the fact that the charity paid Trudeau's family members for speaking engagements, Trudeau never thought to recuse himself from the cabinet decision on the contract. The federal ethics commissioner will also investigate Finance Minister Bill Morneau's involvement in the decision, since his daughter currently works for the charity. Since the revelations, Trudeau and his finance minister have both publicly apologized for not removing themselves from cabinet conversations regarding WE. On Thursday, Bardish Chagger, the minister of diversity and inclusion and youth, revealed that WE could have received a maximum of about $32 million for its role in administering the program
This controversy comes just as Trudeau, thanks to a savvy response to the Covid-19 epidemic that prioritized science over politics, began to recover the political capital that could regain his majority if an election were called.
His latest apparent lapse in judgment means Trudeau may add one more ethics violation to the two he has already earned from the Bahamas trip and SNC Lavalin scandal.
他近期的判断失误意味着除了巴哈马旅行和SNC工程公司丑闻之外今后将会有更多丑闻
lapse in judgment判断的失误
add…to…that somebody has…在原有错之上增添了新的问题
Trudeau has claimed it was the public service that recommended WE as the only charity in Canada able to manage the multimillion dollar contract aimed at giving students paid summer volunteer placements.
总理说WE是大众推荐的唯一一个可以管理百万资金的慈善机构，为了给学生提供带薪实习
summer placements暑期实习
recommend…as…推荐
As the controversy deepens, the federal contract with WE was canceled in a "mutually agreed" upon decision and it is unclear when the federal bureaucrats now in charge of the program will be in a position to disburse the grant money to students.
But the ugly fact remains that a charity that paid more than $200,000 to immediate members of the Trudeau family appears to have benefited from the intimate connections with the prime minister. (Prominent figures in Trudeau's inner circle have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the charity.) Initially, WE said Margaret Trudeau was "never paid an honorarium" to appear at their events.
This latest controversy surrounding Trudeau, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, recalls other missteps and transgressions, including wearing brownface at a party in his younger years and embarrassing the country during a state visit to India in February 2018 when the entire family overdid it with traditional dress. To make matters worse, a man convicted of attempted murder was invited to the Canadian High Commission, where he was photographed with Sophie Trudeau. (A liberal MP later took responsibility for inviting the man and apologized).
