His successor, Pascale Fournier, told a parliamentary committee that people linked to the donors had contacted the foundation’s staff over a lack of information on a tax receipt related to the $140,000 donation by billionaire Zhang Bin and another man.

Mr. Rosenberg, then President and CEO, claimed that he was not aware of the emails and that he trusts his employees to handle the donations properly, adding that the issue has not been addressed in their own audits the foundation was also approached by others, the Canada Revenue Agency.

“I don’t remember there being a warning about this,” he said.

Mr Rosenberg, a former civil servant who also authored a report on how Canada is dealing with foreign interference in the 2021 federal election, addressed a parliamentary committee on Monday.

He said that everyone involved in the donation worked for Canada at the time.

“The whole world has been courting China, be it corporations, academic institutions or governments,” Rosenberg said.

Mr. Zhang is the chairman of a Chinese cultural organization that claims to operate under the “full direction” of the communist government and was established with the approval of China’s State Council – synonymous with central government.

Mr. Zhang is also included in numerous Chinese private company records as Chairman of Millennium Golden Eagle International, the company to which the Trudeau Foundation recently returned the donation.

Mr. Rosenberg claimed that the board of the foundation knew that he was dealing with Chinese people and did not hide it at the time.

“We probably weren’t suspicious, partly because we didn’t think we had to do anything out of the ordinary,” he said. We could do whatever we wanted with that money. »

Also, the fact that the donors required the receipt to be made out to Millennium Golden Eagle International is not a concern, Rosenberg said.

“People control companies and choose to use the company for one reason or another,” he said.

According to Mr. Rosenberg, the donation didn’t seem to be a big problem because the amount wasn’t very large.

“We did, you know, do these big conferences and put most of our energy into them,” he said.

However, Mr. Rosenberg said he was unaware that Mr. Zhang participated in a costly Liberal fundraiser known as “cash-for-access.”

“We didn’t know that at the time. If someone had told me this happened it probably would have gotten me thinking and we certainly would have investigated further. »

Rosenberg told committee members he was concerned about the future of the Trudeau Foundation and called for a speedy resolution to ongoing controversies.

“I think it will be difficult to find a new president until these issues are resolved. I think the same goes for the search for new board members, so I think it has to be quick,” he said.