WE Charity co-founders Marc and Craig Kielburger emerged from a four-hour grilling at the hands of opposition MPs today insisting they did not stand to gain financially from running the Liberal government’s $900 million student grant program nor did they exploit their ties with the Trudeau family to secure the deal.
WE Charity co-founders Marc and Craig Kielburger emerged from a four-hour grilling by opposition MPs tonight saying they did not stand to gain financially from agreeing to run the Liberal government’s $900 million student grant program — and insisting they did not exploit their ties with the Trudeau family to secure the deal.
Craig Kielburger told MPs on the House of Commons finance committee he and his brother Marc agreed to administer the Canada Student Service Grant because they wanted to fulfil the mandate of their charity by helping young Canadians — not because they wanted to make a profit off the deal.
“WE Charity agreed to implement the Canada Student Service Grant not to be helped by government, but to help government and to help young people across Canada,” he said.
Since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced that WE Charity would run the program last month — despite the charity’s prior relationship with the Trudeau family — the charity and Trudeau have come under intense scrutiny by opposition parties and the media.
Two parliamentary committees are now studying the now-defunct deal and both Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau are being investigated by Mario Dion, the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, over allegations of impropriety.
The atmosphere on the finance committee Tuesday was often tense — with Liberal MPs on the committee focused on arguing for the value of WE Charity’s involvement in the program and opposition MPs questioning the truthfulness of the Kielburgers’ testimony.
At one point during today’s hearing, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre interrupted the Kielburgers multiple times — leading to a verbal tug-of war with committee chair Wayne Easter, who threatened to shut down the proceedings.
Prime Minister Trudeau and Katie Telford, his chief of staff, will appear before the House finance committee on Thursday to answer questions about their role in bringing WE Charity in to run the program.
Watch: Craig Kielburger’s opening statement to MPs:
Craig and Marc Kielburger, founders of the WE Charity, spoke to MPs on the Commons Finance committee Tuesday. 12:00
WE Charity’s reputation has taken a hit since the controversy began unfolding last month. Craig warned the controversy could undo 25 years of charity work. Several companies already have decided to end their partnerships with WE Charity — including GoodLife Fitness, the Royal Bank of Canada, Loblaw Companies Ltd. and KPMG — while WestJet and DHL are considering their next moves.
“It’s devastating to a Canadian charity,” Craig told MPs today, adding “there are days that we wish we had never answered the phone” when the federal government called asking WE Charity for a proposal to run the program.
In his opening statement before the House of Commons finance committee, Craig Kielburger said that — despite rumours to the contrary — WE Charity was not in financial trouble when it agreed to take on the student grant program.
“This program was developed in the midst of a global pandemic, when governments and the private sector were scrambling,” he said. “Some have suggested that WE Charity was in dire financial straits prior to the [Canada Student Service Grant] and that somehow motivated our actions. It simply isn’t true.”
Watch: ‘There are days when we just wish we hadn’t answered the phone,’ says Craig Kielburger
Craig and Marc Kielburger appeared before the Commons finance committee Tuesday. 0:38
Ties to the Trudeau family
Critics have suggested that WE Charity was chosen to run the program because of its close ties with the Trudeau family.
“We were not chosen for this work because of our relationship with politicians. [We] were chosen because we were willing to leverage every part of our 25 years of experience to build this program at the breakneck speed required to have an impact for Canadian youth over the summer,” Craig Kielburger told MPs.
He said WE Charity had experience in the area, having previously built two large youth service programs — one in Ontario based on a mandatory 40 hours of community service required of high school students, and a second one in the U.S. that would operate across all 50 states.
Asked if he considers himself to be close to the Trudeau family, Craig said that the relationship between the Trudea