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. The controversy arose when it was revealed that the WE charity had previously paid close family members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to appear at its events, despite making claims to the contrary. In total, Craig Kielburger confirmed at a parliamentary committee, WE Charity paid approximately $425,000 to Trudeau's family including expenses. WE Charity also used pictures of Trudeau's family members as celebrity endorsements in their application. 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. 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.
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. 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, no call for proposals was ever issued, nor were any received from any other organization. Reports also indicated that this was further amplified by pressure from Morneau to make the selection.
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. 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. 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, section 7 or section 21 of the Act." He added: "In my view, the creation and eventual ratification of the was not done improperly."
In his final report entitled The Morneau II Report, Dion ruled that Morneau had contravened sections 6, 7, and 21 of the Federal Conflict of Interest Act. 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." Dion also ruled that this preferential treatment was a result of the close friendship between Bill Morneau and members of WE Charity. 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.
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." 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. Rosen summarized, "A generation of young people lost the opportunity to volunteer and help their country in a time of need."
Early events
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. The Finance Department was tasked with devising a series of measures to address these issues. The previous month, Canada's official statistics bureau Statistics Canada had measured a record-high unemployment rate of 42.1% among returning post-secondary students aged 20 to 24, a third of which had lost their summer jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.On April 9, 2020, prime minister Justin Trudeau announced several measures intended to supplement existing programs supporting Canadian business and youths during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to instituting new relief programs, such as the Canada Summer Jobs program, Trudeau promised to create a Canada Student Service Grant program, which would further mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic's economic impact upon Canadian students by allowing students who couldn't find work to receive federal grants for performing volunteer service.
The opposition Conservative Party had criticized Trudeau's existing programs for excluding many businesses and others who needed assistance, and warned of economic catastrophe if the government didn't release funds soon. Responding to those criticisms, Trudeau said that the government intended to create broadly-focused programs which would provide assistance to a large number of people in a short time frame, and that the programs would quickly evolve to include those who didn't initially qualify. "We recognize we are not aiming for perfection", Trudeau said. "We want to make these measures as effective and inclusive as we can...So we're listening and making adjustments along the way."
Over two months later, on Thursday, June 25, 2020, the federal government officially launched the Canada Student Service Grant program, which had been anxiously awaited by students and charities alike. Speaking at a news conference in Ottawa that morning, Trudeau said, "Students are facing unique challenges this summer due to the pandemic. At the same time, many are wondering how they can help in the fight against COVID-19. So, today, we're launching the new Canada student service grant, which will allow post-secondary students and recent grads to gain valuable experience while also contributing to their communities."
The program, set to run through October 31, 2020, would pay eligible post-secondary students who couldn't find summer jobs up to $5,000 for volunteer work related to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. For every 100 volunteer hours performed, participants would receive a $1,000 grant paid as a lump sum upon completion. The program was open to students who were enrolled in a recognized post-secondary education program and to recent graduates up to 30 years old who had completed their studies no earlier than December 2019. In addition to grants for volunteer work, participating students would be eligible for an emergency benefit of $1,250/month.
WE Charity would have been responsible for connecting applicants with volunteer opportunities and for distributing grants to program participants For administering the $912 million program, WE Charity was to receive $43.53 million, of which $8.75 million was eligible to be shared with other charity and non-profit partners in directing the volunteers.
An online platform called "I Want to Help" provided details about the program and directed students to non-profits which were seeking volunteers. By the end of the day the platform opened, there were 23,000 placements listed, with new listings to be added through August 21, 2020. Among the charitable organizations seeking volunteers were Scouts Canada, Girl Guides of Canada, the Tim Horton Children's Foundation, Kids Help Phone and Rotary Canada as well as WE Charity.
The Public Health Agency of Canada mandated that opportunities supported by the CSSG honor social distancing requirements and other health and safety precautions. Charities which had already moved to virtual volunteering were the quickest to register to the website. Within the first week of the program's launch, 35,000 students and recent graduates had applied.
Some foreign students studying in Canada criticized the program for reserving grants for Canadian nationals, with the University of Winnipeg Student Association's international students codirectors Else Owusu and Francisca Idigbe writing: "COVID-19 has created unprecedented disruption for international students across Canada, International students are struggling to make ends meet and need support. We are calling on the federal government to provide income support to international students."
Opposition Conservatives criticized the program for coming too late, with Conservative employment critic Dan Albas and youth critic Raquel Dancho releasing a joint statement complaining that many students had finished their classes two months prior. "While we are pleased that the Liberal government has finally listened," the statement read, "once again they have been slow to act. We are already two months into summer – every day the Liberals delay support or refuse to fix their programs, Canadians fall through the cracks. Conservatives will continue to advocate relentlessly for all Canadians left behind by Trudeau and his Liberal government."
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. The contract agreement was signed with WE Charity Foundation, 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, would be paid $43.53 million to administer the program; $30 million of which was paid to WE Charity Foundation on June 30, 2020. This was later fully refunded. 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."
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. WE Charity would submit several proposals in April, beginning on April 9, 2020, about youth volunteer award programs. These were reformulated into what became the CSSG.