WE Charity scandal
A political scandal took place in Canada in 2020 regarding the awarding of a federal contract to WE Charity to administer the $912 million Canada Student Service Grant program (CSSG). The controversy arose when it was revealed that the WE charity had previously paid close family of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to appear at its events,[1][2] despite making claims to the contrary.[3] In total, Craig Kielburger confirmed at a parliamentary committee, WE Charity paid approximately $425,000 to Trudeau's family including expenses.[4] WE Charity also used pictures of Trudeau's family members as celebrity endorsements in their application.[5] Trudeau stated that WE Charity had been uniquely capable of administering the program as "the only possible option", and that it was the civil service, not him, who decided that WE Charity was the best option.[6] It was noted that not only had the charity employed a daughter of former Finance Minister Bill Morneau but a close relationship existed between the minister and members of its staff.[7][8]
Other organizations, such as the Public Service Alliance of Canada and YMCA Canada, expressed skepticism at the claim that WE Charity was the only organization in Canada capable of administering the contract.[9][10] Evidence discovered by parliamentary committees investigating the scandal suggested a significant degree of preferential treatment given to WE Charity by the civil service, as, while WE Charity was allowed to repeatedly revise its proposals for the program (a common occurrence in sole-source contracts), no call for proposals was ever issued, nor were any received from any other organization.[11][12] Reports also indicated that this was further amplified by pressure from Morneau to make the selection.[13][14]
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion's report on the involvement of Trudeau, entitled The Trudeau III Report, confirmed his assertion that Canada's civil service had recommended WE Charity to manage the Canada Student Service Grant program.[15][16] Dion found that on 22 May 2020 Trudeau agreed to their recommendation following a briefing on the previous day in which they conveyed their determination that WE was the only existing organization capable of managing the nationwide program upon short notice.[15][16] The report exonerated Trudeau in the scandal, commenting: "In light of the evidence gathered in this examination and for the reasons outlined above, I find that Mr. Trudeau did not contravene subsection 6(1), section 7 or section 21 of the Act."[17] He added: "In my view, the creation and eventual ratification of the (Canada Student Services Grant) was not done improperly."
In his final report entitled The Morneau II Report, Dion ruled that Morneau had contravened sections 6(1), 7, and 21 of the Federal Conflict of Interest Act.[18][19] In the ruling, Dion stated: "The examination found the relationship between Mr. Morneau and WE included an unusually high degree of involvement between their representatives and afforded WE unfettered access to the Office of the Minister of Finance, which amounted to preferential treatment."[20][21] Dion also ruled that this preferential treatment was a result of the close friendship between Bill Morneau and members of WE Charity.[20] Dion added that "this unfettered access to the Office of the Minister of Finance was based on the identity of WE’s representative, Mr. Craig Kielburger", who was both a constituent and close friend of Bill Morneau.[15]
In a piece authored for the editorial board of The Cornwall Seeker, forensic accountant, professor and Founding President of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association L.S. Rosen examined allegations of impropriety surrounding the Canadian Student Service Grant program and determined them to be unfounded, writing that "several seemed launched to support attacks on other politicians" and that "WE became "collateral damage" in a battle for political power."[22][23] Writing for Education Canada, Professors Karen Mundy of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and Kelly Gallagher-Mackay of Wilfrid Laurier University lamented that, amidst a crisis in Canadian education, WE Charity was prevented from fulfilling its commission, with thousands of youth volunteer tutors sidelined due to the appearance of scandal.[24] Rosen summarized, "A generation of young people lost the opportunity to volunteer and help their country in a time of need."
Early events[edit]
On April 5, 2020 amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and his then-Finance Minister Bill Morneau, held a telephone conversation discussing measures to financially assist the country's student population.[25] The Finance Department was tasked with devising a series of measures to address these issues. This would begin a chain of events involving numerous governmental agencies.
Through a no-bid selection process, WE Charity was chosen to administer the CSSG, which would have created grants for students who volunteered during the COVID-19 pandemic.[26][27] The contract agreement was signed with WE Charity Foundation,[28] a corporation affiliated with WE Charity, on June 23, 2020. It was agreed that WE Charity, which had already begun incurring eligible expenses for the project on May 5 at their own risk,[29][30] would be paid $43.53 million[31] to administer the program; $30 million of which was paid to WE Charity Foundation on June 30, 2020.[30] This was later fully refunded.[29] A senior bureaucrat would note that "ESDC thinks that 'WE' might be able to be the volunteer matching third party ... The mission of WE is congruent with national service and they have a massive following on social media."[32]
At the same time, and prior to the announcement of the CSSG on June 25, 2020, WE Charity was simultaneously corresponding with the government agencies ultimately responsible for choosing the administrator of the program.[11] WE Charity would submit several proposals in April, beginning on April 9, 2020, about youth volunteer award programs.[12] These were reformulated into what became the CSSG.[11]
Investigation, resignation, and prorogation[edit]
In addition to the Ethics Committee, a further two governmental committees would be established to investigate the scandal: on Finance and Government Operations.[64] These would continue to run from their inception until August 18, when the government was prorogued, ending all sitting committees. Numerous individuals would be called to testify including the Kielburgers, the Prime Minister, Members of Parliament and public servants. From these committee there would be a number of important outcomes. One major piece of evidence that was uncovered through committee investigation was the revelation, on July 9, that WE Charity had directly paid members of the Prime Minister's family.[1] This was not disclosed by either party, who had in fact stated that the family had not been paid, and had to be discovered as a result of parliamentary investigation.
During testimony on July 22, 2020, Bill Morneau revealed that he had undisclosed travel expenditures from years prior, paid for by WE Charity. Morneau apologized and explained to the committee that he had forgotten about the costs, and had repaid $41,366 that same day.[65] This would haunt Morneau throughout the scandal,[8] as the forgetting of the payment was seen as incongruent to his role as Finance Minister, and the ability to write a cheque for that amount, when many Canadians were applying for COVID-19 benefits in the form of a $2000 monthly emergency payment, was seen as out of touch.[66] In his testimony to the Standing Committee on Finance on July 28, 2018, Marc Kielburger said: "Sir, yes, we're happy to provide that information in terms of especially the reimbursement of travel expenses that was specifically requested."[67]
Another consequence of these committee investigations was the eventual release of a massive quantity of data pertaining to the scandal on August 18, 2020.[68] Included were personal correspondence and inter-governmental memos written by the individuals responsible for the no-bid selection process. Contained within this file were significant disclosures, such as the awareness of the “bestie” relationship which existed between Morneau and the Kielburgers.[47] Moreover, these files strongly suggested that the public service had been pressured by political forces to select WE Charity[5] and that there had been a significant amount of governmental collaboration with WE Charity prior to the creation of the program.[12] A significant portion of the documents had experienced severe redactions however, rendering much of the information incomprehensible.[69] It was later found that these redactions had been done in an inappropriate manner, by individuals who were not authorized to make them.[70]
On August 17, 2020, Bill Morneau announced his resignation as the Finance Minister.[71] The stated reason for his resignation was that it was the right time for a new Finance Minister in light of the evolving pandemic. Many however, saw the timing as related to the ongoing investigations into the WE Scandal and increasing pressure by opposition members for his resignation.[65][72]
On August 18, 2020, Justin Trudeau officially prorogued parliament.[73] This disbanded all the sitting committees investigating the WE Charity Scandal. This was condemned by the opposition as a tactic to avoid scrutiny, if not an outright coverup[74] as the timing of the prorogation occurred on the same day as the release of the previously mentioned, redacted, 5000-page dossier. Although a significant portion of the documents contained inappropriate levels of redaction, these were unable to be addressed due to the prorogation. In a 2015 campaign manifesto, Justin Trudeau promised to never make use of prorogation to avoid scrutiny;[75] he had repeatedly castigated the practice of prorogation, even attending an anti-prorogation rally in 2010.[76] The prorogation had an additional consequence in that WE Charity, which had explicitly promised to release their side of the documents relating to the scandal weeks earlier in July, then refused to release them, as there were no standing committees to submit them to; WE Charity went on to label attempts to acquire this information as "politicking".[77]
Supporters of the prorogation suggested the scandal had no impact on the decision,[78] and pointed to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis as necessitating a cessation in parliamentary debate while the government reset its policy in light of the unprecedented events.[79]