Wealthy donors with ties to Beijing pledged $1 million to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation years ago. Now, the University of Montreal informed the media it intended to construct statues of the former prime minister with Chairman Mao Zedong with a portion of that donation.
Zedong, the Chinese leader of the Communist Party, oversaw policies that led to millions of deaths from famine and violence in China. The elder Trudeau re-established a repertoire with the controversial figure in 1970, which resulted in Taiwan’s Ottawa embassy closing as China’s Communist leadership became part of the global community.
“They suggested one of Trudeau and Mao together,” Geneviève O’Meara, the University of Montreal spokesperson, confirmed to The Globe and Mail.
According to a national security source, the billionaire Bin Zhang discussed the federal election expected for 2015 with a Chinese diplomat concerning the possibility of the Liberals forming the next government.