By Hugh Holland
ME to WE (formerly Free the Children) is a for-profit social enterprise that seeks to inspire young people to think less about ME, and more about WE—a concept that is sorely needed in today’s world of social media.
It raises funds by selling socially conscious retail items, offers leadership training to young people, and organizes volunteer working trips to developing countries where young people can do hands-on projects while observing conditions first-hand; like a Rotary Club for high school students.
Our grandchildren have been involved in inspiring ME to WE activities at their schools and my wife and I attended and supported an inspiring ME to WE fundraiser put on by students at Huntsville High School.
Craig Kielburger, raised in Thornhill, Ontario is the second son of two teachers, Fred and Theresa Kielburger. In 1995, 12-year-old Craig read a newspaper article about the murder of 12-year-old Iqbal Masih, a formerly enslaved Pakistani boy who became an activist against child labour following his escape from a forced labour camp. Craig was struck by the fact that the main difference between he and Iqbal Masih was where they were born. Craig learned that Masih’s story was just one example of child labour and was so moved by the widespread systemic injustice that he rallied some of his classmates to launch Free the Children, a youth-led advocacy group that sought to draw attention to child labour.
Their parents took Craig and brother Marc on a six-week trip to several developing countries where they observed child labour first-hand. Craig attended the University of Toronto’s Peace and Conflict Studies program. He was the youngest to ever graduate from the Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA program at York University. Brother Marc graduated from Harvard and Oxford Universities.
In 2008, 26-year-old Craig and 31-year-old Marc Kielburger founded the WE Charity. From 2014 to 2017, Me to We donated roughly 85 percent of its profits to the We Charity. The remainder was reinvested to expand the company and pay fair wages to the farmers and artisans it employs in South America and Africa. Me to We donated $1.1 million to We Charity in 2016 and $1.5 million in 2017. How does that contrast with 36-year-old billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose organization has permitted the posting of divisive, hate-filled comments that have caused riots and suicides? Craig Kielburger has been interviewed on 60 Minutes and is a recipient of the Order of Canada.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary and much-needed organization called ME to WE has recently become embroiled in an awkward situation. The coronavirus pandemic meant that finding needed summer jobs would be impossible for many young people. Government staffs were scrambling 24/7 to distribute emergency relief funds to many sectors and recommended the We Charity as a good fit, with capacity to manage a program in which students could receive some pay for otherwise volunteer activities.
Having a few other things on their minds at the time, such as dealing with the pandemic, China, and Trump, the staff and prime minister accepted that recommendation too quickly. In hindsight that was a mistake, given that some members of Trudeau’s family had been involved in and been paid for doing some work for the We Charity. While neither Trudeau nor his family stand to derive any benefit from the proposed arrangement, the optics are less than ideal. Unfortunately, opposition parties are trying to make the most of the situation for political purposes, since they themselves have little else to offer.
I am sure Trudeau regrets accepting that recommendation too quickly, but this must not be allowed to distract our government from all the other critical things it needs to do in this complicated and unprecedented period of time. This is child’s play compared to the daily acts of dishonesty and immorality that apparently a president south of the border can get away with.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!
Click here to support local news
Every day more is revealed, sheding light on just how flawed this WE entity actually is, and how out of touch and nieve some of the top people in the government are to have linked themselves so closely to it. It’s looking more and more like it was about image and political gains, not about delivering real results to Canadians that matter. What a spectacle.
Sad to watch really. I just hope the opposition parties don’t continue to prop up this drifting government and its poor leadership. Let the people judge..
If you remove all names and partisan politics, to look at the perception by Canadians, many of whom have had their plans and /or futures devastated by the pandemic, how is the trust factor affected?
We have been asked by the governments to follow their direction. The directions have at times been conflicting and rapidly changing due to some valid concerns and changes in the levels of knowledge about the virus. This has required massive amounts of trust.
In consideration of recent events (of 2-3 years), what is the level of trust for government by the average Canadian?
Are we willing to trust the integrity of various individuals representing us, were another pandemic to hit?
Would we be willing to comply with recommendations?
We are living through a crisis that has demonstrated the critical need for our representatives to act with integrity.
I see honesty and integrity as the critical issue here, not the partisan politics or splitting legal hairs.
Personal honesty and integrity are a choice.
Are any of our political leaders choosing wisely?
As someone who briefly worked overseas for a Canadian charity, I can tell you that this is NOT the way to do development. This organization brings in $60 million PER YEAR. It doesn’t cost a lot to build a school in a developing country, yet I don’t see that they’ve actually built that many schools. In addition, development aims to empower the less fortunate, NOT the young donors who scream and cheer at their rallies. Finally, any development agency worth their salt knows that you employ local workers to help the economy, not charge big bucks selling travel packages to idealistic, unskilled youth to travel to foreign locales to build infrastructure. The whole model stinks. I won’t get into what is actually being funded by all these donations, but it sure ain’t going to those less fortunate.
Although ME to WE is structured differently, it is worth noting that 85% of ME to WE revenue goes to their cause as compared to 50% for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and 36% for the Canadian Cancer Society. In each case, the remainder of revenue goes to fundraing and administration.
I would like more information about the administration of this charity like how did the charity accumulate over forty million in real estate? Was tax deductible money used to acquire the real estate? How does this real estate and its ultimate use work for the charity? What are the charity owners salaries?
Perhaps ethical politicians are not important to the PM’S supporters but I am 100% sure that if this had been an opposition MP the Liberal wailing would have been deafening . Tha attack is not on WE but on those who would use the charity for their financial or political benefit . Trudeau and Morneau have both apologized as they know they were wrong .Tha Deputy PM is also falling on the sword in an effort to relieve the 2 millionaire miscreants from the judgement of the Ethics Commissioner. Liberals in Ontario Government and Federally have made a Science of apology as a result of their many failures and misjudgements in Government. Stop defending the indefensible .
Shame on the feckless opposition for attacking a children’s charity and the prime minister’s family to score political points during a pandemic. What this amounts to is a procedural error on the part of the prime minister and finance minister and nothing else. There is really no reason for the amplified uproar other than the fact that the Conservatives have bottomed out in the polls and were angry that the prime minister would not grant them the circus theatre of parliament to grandstand for attention. So they forced the issue and now we get this. What is it the Cheetoman to the south says? “Great, terrific, yuge ratings”?
The testimony today proved it: the public service recommended the WE organization based on previous work they had done with the government of Canada *across party lines*. They had to rush out the program within three weeks and felt that this organization was able to do it at the scale they were anticipating. None of this was the brainchild of the prime minister. He had no involvement whatsoever. The minister stated that she had no conversations with him or PMO and neither did the WE program. Yet the media is invested in clickbait and a takedown agenda of Mr. Trudeau’s government, and are themselves being sloppy in reporting the facts. Or worse: they are willfully gaslighting the public with a false narrative to smear Mr. Trudeau.
The only “crime” here is that the prime minister did not walk out of the room when the program was being voted on. That’s it. The greater outrage is how the media and opposition are blowing it up out of proportion to the detriment of literally anything else. But Her Emails disease reaches Canada. What an absolutely tragic farce, and a character assassination of a sincerely generous children’s charity and Mr. Trudeau, who has done an excellent job managing the Covid pandemic. Why is this a top story? Whose lives are at stake? The second wave is already starting, CSIS announced that Russia is trying to sabotage vaccine research, Dr. Henry in B.C. made a tearful plea for the federal government to work with provinces at counteracting the opioid crisis. This is real news! Charitygate is Ottawa bubble f*rt catching! I DIDN’T CARE ABOUT SNC-LAVALIN AND I DON’T CARE ABOUT MARGARET TRUDEAU’S SPEAKING FEES!
Trudeau used government powers on spending during a crisis with virtually no opposition oversight and zero accountability for political and family gains. A clear example of abuse of power and corruption.
We should never accept it in Canada, regardless of the party in power involved. Thank goodness our free press uncovered it. It’s the difference between real democracies and corrupt bananna republics.
He should be replaced, as this behaviout has become a pattern..
One question this scandal raises for me, yet again, is the soundness of the PM advisor(s). An ethical, sound advisor(s) prevent this type of situation, even if at the end of the day, it does come down to only optics – still an important consideration for public trust in government. Was advisor Gerry Butts on duty?
Thank you Hugh for the background on the WE organization, a helpful article. I read that We is taking an opportunity to be more transparent in their dealings as well, lets hope so.
It bears bringing this to light, but over the top finger-pointing can only result in exclamations of scandal during the Harper conservative period. How useful is that?
This is perhaps the most petty and partisan issue that I have seen. Anyone that is the least familiar with the We Charity would realize that for the most part the speakers are international and inspirational, including Desmond Tutu; Jesse Jackson; Chris Hadfield; Al Gore….etc….etc…… On top of that former speakers include many, many conservatives such as Rona Ambrose; Christy Clark and Nazinin Afshin-Jam (Peter Mackay’s wife). I don’t know if Trudeau (who was also a speaker himself in 2010) should have recused himself from this decision or if it would have been worth the money. But I do know that with a pandemic; floundering economy;and social justice issues, the CPC should have better things to do with their time. Cheap political theatrics when what we need is reasoned leadership
How about this report in yesterday’s National Post? it has yet to be proven (as Me to We is witholding information that could clarify) but it’s possible if not likely that government money paid to this organization was then used to pay the Prime Minister’s mother for her speaking fee. If this is proven true then Trudeau must resign. There will be no amount of “I’m sorry and won’t do it again” that can remove that stain. https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/trudeau-government-contributed-1-18-million-to-we-day-event-in-2017-during-which-pms-mother-was-likely-paid-to-speak/wcm/cb72444d-9bc1-444a-b417-06d886325fba/
Hugh,
To presume that Justin was so busy with the pandemic, China and Trump that he forgot about declaring a conflict of interest!! Really!
Can one spell “nepotism”! If that doesn’t sit right, how about “privilege”.
Our PM’s mother and brother benefited almost $300 thousand for speaking engagements and he “forgot”!
This will be the third time he’ll be investigated for an ethics violation. I just wish the maxim “three and out” applied.
Who said Trudeau didn’t gain anything both his wife and mother were paid for some speaking and not just a few dollars. Kind of an easy way to make money from a charity.
Hugh, this is an illuminating and well-balanced article; right up to the point when you attempt to justify the PM’s error by comparing him to the president. A mistake can never be ameliorated by pointing to a larger mistake.
Now I’m a life-long Liberal, and I regret the PM’s mistake right along with him. But nothing excuses either him or his staff for not tendering this project. In all likelihood, the two bidders would have been WE and Volunteer Canada with the former winning. As long as Mr. Trudeau declared a conflict of interest in any discussion of the contract; everything would have been copacetic.
Instead it’s been two weeks, and the $912M is in limbo (after WE dissociated itself from the contract). So we have the unintended consequences of a plethora of students wishing to apply for $5K each (in return for 500 hrs. of volunteer work).
Of course, the media and the opposition have blown it into a full-fledged scandal. We’ll be fortunate to avoid a Capital Commission. A tempest in a teapot; but the price of democracy with a minority government.