Trudeau says Morneau was 'helping make the world a better place' by going on WE Charity vacation

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed media on Friday, one day after his testimony to the finance committee.

Though Trudeau was there to provide updates on the federal response to COVID-19, questions from the press focused largely on the ongoing WE Charity scandal, which has only ballooned in size in recent days.

Regarding Bill Morneau's opulent trips to Kenya and Ecuador at WE's expense, Trudeau said that the idea of someone choosing to support a good cause on a personal vacation "is not something that we should reject or turn away from."

"A lot of people at a lot of different jobs are always looking to see how we can make an even greater difference in helping people around the world, and that's certainly something that we should remain open to."

Though Trudeau believes Morneau was helping make the world a better place, he also noted that Morneau "apologized, and should not have accepted the elements of that that were gifts."

Trudeau went on to note "the work that he's done as finance minister in being there for Canadians."

Trudeau says he didn't know about Morneau's WE relationship

During yesterday's testimony, Trudeau said he did not know Morneau had accepted the $41,366 in vacation expenses, and only knew that one of Morneau's daughters had connections with the charity, not both.

At his own testimony, Morneau said that he and his family did a review of their finances, and they had found that he had previously paid $52,000 in expenses towards the trips. Morneau continued to say, though, that to his "surprise," he was unable to locate receipts for the WE trips.