Information & Ethics Committee on Feb. 26th, 2021

[Sofia Marquez]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

We will turn to Mr. Angus now for the final questions.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Well, thank you, Madam Marquez. This has been very helpful. I hope your new career is very successful for you.

Some of the reasons we had to ask these questions are that the issue here is $912 million and whether or not that was obtained through illegal lobbying, because the failure to register to lobby.... What makes it a toxic issue is that if we can't track how people discuss and meet with government, deals can go down. That's why I wanted to ask you that initial set of questions about the April 9 email that Craig Kielburger wrote directly to Minister Morneau. It was to see if you were involved, and you weren't.

We're talking about a $12-million grant that was verbally approved by the minister. We have Craig Kielburger personally reaching out to the finance minister of a G7 country about that. You, as director of government relations, were not involved at all. This was Craig calling Bill, his bestie. You were not involved in those discussions. Is that correct?

[Sofia Marquez]

As it pertains to the email you're alluding to, no, I was not involved in that conversation.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you.

I want to go back to the April 17 meeting, just to be clear, because I have an April 22 email from Craig Kielburger to Minister Chagger. He says:

Thank you again for your time Friday.

We appreciate your thoughtful offer to connect us with relevant members of your Ministry. Over the weekend our team has also been hard at work to adapt your suggestion of a second stream focused on a summer service opportunity.

Would you say that was correct, that she had suggested this second stream?

[Sofia Marquez]

I can't recall specifically the minister saying word for word that there was a specific service stream that we should have been building.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Okay. In your email you specifically mentioned that Craig specifically mentioned it.

Let's go through the timeline. This is the reason it's so important.

On Friday, April 17, you and Craig meet Madam Chagger. We have you on the record as saying that he said she talked about a second service stream. That Sunday, Rachel Wernick contacts Craig Kielburger to discuss launching a youth service program. Monday morning, you're contacting Ritu Banerjee, the executive director of the Canada Service Corps, who works for Chagger. Then there's a full briefing given to you that day by the Department of Finance about what they're looking for. By that night, at midnight, you had proposed to them what becomes the Canada service grant. Two days later it's announced, the $900 million plus the $12 million. That's an extraordinary turnaround time.

I need to go back to April 17, when you were meeting with Minister Chagger about one thing, but she talked about the separate service stream. Within a couple of days, over that weekend, you guys got that planned. You must have been up all night on the weekend getting that service component together, n'est-ce pas?

[Sofia Marquez]

Thank you so much for bringing that up.

I want to make it very clear that the call on April 19 from Rachel Wernick to Craig Kielburger to discuss the broad parameters of what would become the Canada student service grant program was what really triggered us, including me in my particular full-time attention and work, in building a proposal based on those broad policy directives. I think there are a number of people who have gone on record to confirm that—and yes, we spent many hours working on many versions and editing that proposal in a very short time window.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Well, I can imagine, and I'm going to end it here. This is nothing to take away from the extraordinary work you did. I mean, you turned around something huge in just a couple of days. For me, the issue is that when we asked Minister Chagger, she said she had no recollection of talking to you about the separate service stream at all on April 17. She did not talk about that meeting, but it becomes the germinal moment that becomes this whole program.

I want to thank you so much for your testimony. It's been very helpful.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Thank you, Mr. Angus. Thank you, Ms. Marquez. We thank you for joining us this afternoon.

Colleagues, we're going to suspend the meeting for just a few minutes so that we're able to set up the next witness.

The meeting is suspended.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

I call this meeting back to order.

Colleagues, it's our second hour of this meeting. In this hour this afternoon we have Mr. Reed Cowan, who is a donor and fundraiser with Wesley Smiles Coalition, with Free the Children. I believe that it was an organization that was founded by Mr. Cowan to raise funds for the Free the Children organization.

Mr. Cowan, we want to thank you so much for joining us. We'll turn it over to you for your opening statement, after which we will definitely have some questions for you.

The floor is yours.

[Reed Cowan, Donor and Fundraiser, Wesley Smiles Coalition, Free The Children, As an Individual]

I'm here today to speak for and on behalf of this little guy right here. This is Wesley Cowan.

When I talk today, I hope you will receive what I say as the words of a dad who's here to speak on behalf of his son. I am the proud father of Wesley Cowan, the little boy whose April 23, 2006, fall from a swing set claimed his life and thrust those of us who love him into a years-long effort to turn pain into purpose by building schools in Kenya on the assurances of Dalal Al-Waheidi, Craig Kielburger, Marc Kielburger and Roxanne Kielburger that those schools that we built, that we engaged donors to help us build, would be named after him, would have his name on them on a plaque on each school, to give Wesley a legacy and to serve the children in Kenya.

I know that all of you got up this morning and you likely prepared for this hearing by going through routines and procedure. I want to assert to you that routines and procedure are really never a good way to understand what I hope to convey in this hearing, which is this: That, to me, learning that WE Charity and Free The Children are embroiled in a scandal and that assurances made to donors are now in question feels like returning to my son's grave to find it broken open, defiled and empty. It feels like the place that you thought was safe and secure for the body of your child has somehow been made unsafe and not secure. Standing there, you don't know exactly how it happened. You don't know exactly who did it, but you know something is not right. That sense of safety, security and solace is damaged, and the damage is done. That's how if feels to be here today.

I want to let you know, with respect to your process, that I really did not want to be here for this hearing this morning, but from my perspective, when members of Parliament request your truth, you have to oblige. I also right off the top want to say in fairness to Craig Kielburger and Robin Wiszowaty and board member David Stillman with Free The Children and WE Charity that they indeed have blown up my phone, emails, text messages, voice mails and phone calls after I gave Craig hell over what the Bloomberg article claimed about Free The Children and WE Charity, with staff telling reporters that there were often jokes that plaques should be made of Velcro because they were so often swapped out, once the donors had left, from schools that donors thought they had built.

I also want to say and acknowledge here, because I know the media are watching, that I've had a lot of media inquiries, and for very good reasons I've held back going on the record about this situation. I'm a member of the press myself. I don't want to do this. I don't like the amount of press that could likely come about for a U.S. donor who is connected, as I am, to a presumption of millions of dollars raised, all tied back to my son and our efforts, and I have not wanted to participate in the process of selling papers or helping bloggers get web clicks for outlets or boosting ratings on the back of my beautiful son.

I want to be clear about something: Wesley's name, Wesley's face, Wesley's life of four years and his legacy were used to make money for Free the Children and WE Charity, and somehow letting media outlets make money using the same has been painful and just too much.

Before I answer your questions, I ask each of you that I can see on this screen and those that I can't to search your souls in this moment, because frankly, I don't know who the bad guys are. If there are any of you in this meeting who are seeking to use Wesley's face or name or life or legacy as a political card to play in something other than finding truth on behalf of donors, I ask, with respect, that you call off my portion of the hearing now.

That said, to frame your understanding briefly, I formed the Wesley Smiles Coalition fundraiser in the days after we left Wesley inside his mausoleum. Our group—we—paid Free The Children and WE Charity out of our own pockets, none of us with a great deal of money, to travel to Kenya three times. We were given unlimited access to Kenyan operations and staff for interviews, using documentary crews that I hired and paid for.

In Salt Lake City, I believe in 2006, our efforts raised just short of $100,000. In Florida, when I partnered with one of the largest school districts in the United States of America, our fundraising brought in more than $100,000, as I believe and have been told.

I'm also aware that over the years large cheques have come in to Free the Children and to WE Charity via my speaking around the United States and people who saw my TED Talk. All in, I believe I am connected to what I presume are millions of dollars raised. In fact, as WE Charity board member or Free the Children board member David Stillman told me on a phone call recently, quote, “Because you did this for your son, Reed, people saw that. That got groups like welders, like Walgreens, like Unilever, like Allstate, to join. So many people went over who told us, wow, if one guy did this for his son, what can we do for our company, and they adopted villages because of you.”

I want you to know something, because I believe in seeing facts on paper, and I've tried to get some of the facts on paper: I've repeatedly asked for an accounting of all monies raised connected to Wesley Cowan's legacy, and as of this date I have not been provided that accounting. I'd like it. I've repeatedly asked for an accounting of how much money our group and our groups paid to Free the Children and WE to travel to Kenya to stay in their facilities and be on their program, and so far I have not been provided with that accounting.

As a result of the scandal, and to my great mortification, I have had to contact members of the Broward school district in Florida and those who led our Salt Lake City, Utah, efforts to tell them about the reports, about my discovery, and they're horrible phone calls to have to make.

Now, also, to the bloggers and tweeters who are out there watching right now, I saw your tweets this morning. I want you to know something clearly: I'm not in a campaign against the Kielburgers or their organization. I do not wish them harm. I do not wish their families harm. I do not wish to harm any of the good work that may have been done. Very clearly, I am not, as board member David Stillman said to me on a well-transcribed phone call, out to harm the legacy of his late brother Howie, whose name is on some of the schools in Kenya. What I am doing is speaking for a child who cannot speak for himself. I'm here as Wesley Cowan's father to guard his legacy, and I want to know why his legacy feels robbed.

Finally, before I take your questions—and I know eyeballs are on this—I have a request for the rich, the powerful and well connected, the celebrity and the corporate set who lent their power to the elevation of Free the Children and WE Charity: I'm asking that you come out of hiding on this matter and go on the record, as I have had to do today.

Come out to vouch for Free the Children and WE Charity and Marc and Craig Kielburger. Come out to open all of your records and communications with them, and let people like me and other donors know that you believe Free the Children and WE Charity are indeed on the up and up. Prove it. Prove it with your brand and your big names. Let kids in Canada and kids in the United States know it, and be done with this.

With respect, that means you, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and your family. That means every corporation that engaged with Free the Children—Walgreens and others. That means Oprah Winfrey and the members of the Oprah's Angel Network and affiliates. That means pop star Demi Lovato and Nelly Furtado and Madonna, who sent her daughter Lourdes. That means Prince Harry. That means the Dalai Lama. That means Mia Farrow. That means Nate Berkus. That means Malala and any other big name whose profile, credibility and power brought Free the Children and the WE charities to being that mega-million-dollar powerhouse on the backs of children and on the back of my late son.

I'm asking all of you whom I have named and anybody out there who might fall in those categories to do it within seven days, because hear me now: None of you have lost anything. I lost a child, and here I am in front of a camera not wanting to be here. By stepping forward and telling the world that you vouch for Craig and Marc, WE Charity and Free the Children, you've lost nothing, and this is an opportunity now, when the spotlight is on this issue, for anyone who is involved with them to use their truth, their light and their power for advocacy, if there is any to be had. If you don't, your silence says everything, and people like me and my donors and legacies like Wesley Cowan's, Howie Stillman's and countless others are hanging in the balance—people like me, who stand feeling like the graves of their children have been robbed.

I appreciate you hearing me and I am ready to take your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Thank you, Mr. Cowan, for your testimony in your opening statement.

Mr. Barrett, we'll turn to you for the first round of questions.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Cowan, thank you for joining us today and for your very powerful opening remarks.

I want to start by offering you my sincere sympathies on the loss of your son Wesley 15 years ago. I want to thank you for using the 15 years since then to build a legacy in your son's name. I can't imagine the difficulty with which you had to undertake that and the daily reminders of the loss of your son in turning it into such a legacy for your son. I want to say his name again, because the transcripts of this committee will be preserved in perpetuity—Wesley Cowan. Thank you, sir.

With respect to the Bloomberg article you referenced and the comment made by staff, the reported comment about how donor plaques ought to be made of Velcro, how does that relate to your fundraising efforts in your son Wesley's name for a school in Kenya?

[Reed Cowan]

That was the starting point to doing a lot of investigation on my part.

Forgive me....

Of all that I read in the Bloomberg article, that was the most important touchpoint for me to investigate. I received, not long after the article, photos that were taken, I presume within recent months, of every door on every school at every campus in Kenya. I noticed that the door to the school building we had opened on the one-year anniversary of Wesley's tragedy....

We had made a goal. We had said that on the one-year anniversary of what happened to Wesley—I still can't say the D word—we'll be in Kenya and we'll be opening a school.

After I read the Bloomberg article and acquired photos of every door of every school of every campus in Kenya, I saw that the school we had opened and put our plaque on, with Wesley's name and his motto, “Be Happy Every Day”, which I wear on a bracelet—we gave away thousands of these bracelets—was no longer on his school. Instead, it had the name Esther Grodnik, and then, in a smaller font, the Howie Stillman Foundation.

I thought, “Who's Esther Grodnik and who's the Howie Stillman Foundation?” I went to the foundation's website. I don't know if their videos are still up, but I followed the link to videos. I saw a video—I have it, but it may have been taken down now—and there was a time-stamp for an opening celebration where they opened the very same building less than two weeks before we arrived there. We went to Kenya thinking we were opening that building for Wesley, but their video, with the time-stamp on it....

I've matched it. I've matched it frame for frame, because I have extensive documentary footage. It shows, or suggests damningly, that what the Stillmans celebrated in their video was the same one that I think 13 days later we opened. The ceremony was re-cued for us with the same people, same songs and same everything, but with different plaques.

It's pretty devastating. As I told Craig Kielburger....

You know, you mentioned 15 years, but I have PTSD. I still walk these floors at night. On the hardest nights, I close my eyes and go back to Enelerai campus and the school building we opened, believing that was Wesley's campus, and that the sun was coming up in Kenya and kids were in his desks. That got me through lots of nights, so you can imagine that when I saw the time-stamp on the Howie Stillman Foundation's building that bore the name of Esther Grodnik on the building that we thought our plaque was on, it raised a lot of questions and felt pretty damned devastating.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Thank you, sir.

Chair, how much time do I have?

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

You have two and a half minutes.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Thanks.

[Reed Cowan]

Sorry.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

No, no, I appreciate your answer, sir.

You mentioned that you have spoken with Mr. Craig Kielburger since you made this discovery. Would you be able to share with us Mr. Kielburger's explanation or his comments on your finding?

[Reed Cowan]

I sent Craig an email after this discovery and let him have it pretty good. I told him that I had pretty clear and solid evidence. He responded a couple of times by email, and I felt a kind of a bit of a defensive tone in the emails. He then passed me off up to board member David Stillman. That conversation, I still feel, went down in flames, so then Craig called me. Craig has repeatedly engaged me to try to talk to me. Finally, I agreed to a phone call, and we talked for I think about two hours.

The explanation that Craig gave me, to the best of my memory—and I can go back and look at the notes of the conversation—was that there was a little bit of a mea culpa. You have to know that when we went there, we were told by Roxanne Kielburger that “Over there is Dr. Atkins' school, and over there is the Oprah's Angel Network library, and Wesley's school is going to be right between those.”

The explanation Craig gave me, again to the best of my memory—I'd want to go back to the notes to be specific—was that at some point the Stillman foundation wanted to come in and adopt Enelerai campus lock, stock and barrel, and that they reached out to members of Oprah's Angel Network, they reached out to Oprah, they reached out to the Atkins family and they got their permission to take their plaques down so the Stillman plaques could go up, but they failed to reach out to me to ask for my permission. He apologized for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Thank you, Mr. Barrett.

We'll turn to Ms. Lattanzio now for her round of questions.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First things first, Mr. Cowan: Thank you so much for being with us today. I too want to offer my condolences for the tragic loss of your son.

I want to talk more about the advocacy and fundraising work you've done since to honour his memory. Can you tell us a bit more about Wesley and how you came to the decision that it was time to turn your grief into action? Let's hear you on that.

[Reed Cowan]

Thank you. This is out there on my TED Talk, so I'll be brief.

In the days after we lost Wesley, we saw Craig Kielburger on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It was at a time when I was being monitored. Nobody would leave me because they were afraid I'd harm myself, frankly. My partner Gregory said to me, “You know, we can do something with this. We can give Wesley a legacy and we can help these kids. Let's get in touch with Free the Children.”

Very quickly, we called Dalal Al-Waheidi at Free the Children. I explained to her that I'd been on TV in Salt Lake City for seven years, that I had launched the Power tour with Governor and Mrs. Huntsman, former ambassadors to China and former ambassadors to Russia. He was the son of billionaire Huntsman chemical founder, Jon Huntsman Sr. They quickly latched on to helping me build the Wesley Smiles Coalition fundraiser. Dalal said, “Don't do a 501(c)(3). You can become a fundraiser. We'll always track every donation that comes in under Wesley's name. Have them just send the cheque to us.”

Craig Kielburger told me that he cancelled a trip with President Bill Clinton and instead diverted himself to Salt Lake City for the first fundraiser, where we raised quite a bit of money. I think the rest is in my opening statement, and in the interest of condensing time, I'll say it continued.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay. Continuing on in that realm of your involvement in the Smiles coalition and Free the Children, what did that mean for you and how has that helped you get through your grief?