OTTAWA—A parliamentary hearing on the federal government’s now-dead deal with WE Charity threatened to devolve into chaos on Monday after the Liberals sent a cabinet minister to answer questions on behalf of one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s senior aides. Members of the House of Commons ethics committee had expected to hear from Trudeau’s director of policy Rick Theis after opposition parties used their majority in Parliament last week to demand he appear to answer questions on the WE deal. Government House leader Pablo Rodriguez instead appeared via teleconference, even though he admitted that he had no direct involvement in the multimillion-dollar agreement to have WE run a federal student grant program last summer. While the committee ultimately opted to hear what Rodriguez had to say in place of Theis, opposition members repeatedly criticized his testimony over the course of nearly three hours, and accused the Liberals of ignoring Parliament’s …