Evidence of meeting #24 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Matthew Torigian, in his October 2020 report, found different things. He reported that:
The Government of Canada, not WE Charity, first proposed that WE Charity might be suitable to administer the Canada Student Services Grant..... The Government of Canada considered other organizations and entities that might be capable of administering the Canada Student Services Grant.
and that:
The Government did not predetermine and, in particular, the Prime Minister’s Office did not predetermine that WE Charity would be selected to administer the Canada Student Services Grant.
Mr. Torigian's report states that in addition to documents provided to the parliamentary committee and parliamentary testimony, that WE “provided clarification and additional information where requested.”
4:45 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
There are a few things I'd like to highlight. One, Matthew Torigian is a former police chief from Waterloo. He's a member of the Munk centre advisory board as a fellow. He's somebody who served as assistant deputy minister—
4:45 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
—and solicitor general, specifically, for the Province of Ontario. He's extremely well respected and apolitical. He reviewed all 5,000 pages of documents. We've had many conversations with him, and in his independent report he found that all information that you shared is just that, and it is correct.
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
This is another open-ended question giving you the opportunity to provide us with the most up-to-date information or documents. I understand that [Technical difficulty—Editor] a breakdown of expenses, which I understand you are working on and that you will diligently provide to us today. You should feel no threat and not feel bullied. We are just here to collect as much information as we possibly can. You've provided, in previous testimonies, documents, annotations, agreements and information, and you're going to be providing a copy of the contract with regard to NATIONAL PR and making sure that those services would also have been in French in Quebec.
Is there any other additional information that isn't public, that you haven't made public with regard to the CSSG program, that isn't in the public sphere that you would like to share with us?
4:45 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
No. However, if I may take your time, I have an answer to Mr. Poilievre's request. The total in speaking fees worked out to $217,500. The total in expenses worked out to $210,250.92; therefore adding together what Margaret Trudeau, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and Sacha Trudeau received over that decade or so plus the expenses works out to $427,750.92.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
4:50 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
Yes, because 20% goes to Speakers' Spotlight as part of the booking, even [Technical difficulty—Editor].
4:50 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
Because of Mr. Poilievre's comments, we want to be explicitly clear that we reserve the right to double-check to ensure that every single [Technical difficulty—Editor] was paid directly by us as suppliers to others. We don't want to be [Inaudible—Editor] in any way, because we're here, of course, being put on the spot. However, that is the total number and it's the correct information.
4:50 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
I apologize, but to add, you mentioned the report by the former deputy solicitor general, who identified that there were not any inappropriate dealings with WE Charity in engaging the government. There was an independent review by forensic auditors who looked at the financial soundness of the charity at the time, and you corrected the record and said the charity was in a financially sound position, contrary to the narrative of a bailout, which some people have phrased this as. I wanted to put that on the public record.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you for that.
Again, is there any other public document that has not been shared in the public sphere or domain that you would like to share with us before you leave?
4:50 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
This has been going on for nine months. It's going to be seven hours that we've testified. We've spoken to a total of five senior reps. We've given literally thousands of pages on this matter over to various government groups. We've offered to co-operate. We know there are nine investigations going on. I think this has to be the most well-studied matter that I've ever seen, period.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Okay.
I'll go back to the question I asked you before with regard to engaging and concluding a contract with the NATIONAL PR firm to ensure that services would be done in both official languages, and specifically French in Quebec.
Your prior experiences included providing services, to my understanding, to English schools, and more specifically the EMSB schools in Montreal. Why did you feel it necessary to engage the NATIONAL PR firm if you had prior experience doing this?
4:50 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
We were given a matter of weeks to deliver this program in both official languages coast to coast to coast. It was all hands on deck. We needed to ensure that not only as many students in Quebec as possible could engage, but also as many non-profits in Quebec as possible could engage. Part of NATIONAL PR's activities were to help identify non-profit organizations in the province that we could potentially partner with. Dozens of organizations, if I'm not mistaken, in the province of Quebec put up their hands, and we're grateful for that.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
You also said that putting up this program was not just the [Technical difficulty—Editor], if I can say it as such. This program was being worked in previous years, correct?
4:50 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
That's correct. We've had the opportunity to work with young people all across the country in 7,000 schools—at least, again, until the political fallout of the situation—and 400 of those schools were in the province of Quebec.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you. Your time is up, Ms. Lattanzio.
We're going to turn to Monsieur Fortin.
4:50 p.m.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kielburger, I gather that your relationships with the Trudeau family carried on until at least last summer, when the scandal broke. I am referring to the Prime Minister's mother, brother and wife, as well as anyone else who may have been in the family's circle.
Have those relationships continued since last summer?
Do they still give talks for the WE Organization?
4:50 p.m.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Very well.
I listened to the exchange between you and Mr. Poilievre about the infamous thank you message on LinkedIn. You didn't really have to thank the individual because, according to your testimony, he never played a part in shaping the program.
How many people like that did you thank for nothing—people who had no involvement in shaping the program?
4:50 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
We, as a charity, always seek to personalize correspondence. Even for a LinkedIn request we get a line or two of personalization. We, as a charity, try to make people engage with us because that's what [Technical difficulty—Editor].
4:50 p.m.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
That doesn't answer my question. I don't remember the name of the individual whom Mr. Poilievre was telling you about. However, I gather from your comments that you wrote to the individual to thank him for helping you set up the program, even though you're saying that he didn't really help you.
How many people did you thank even though they didn't help you set up the program?
Did you send this message to other people?
4:55 p.m.
Founder, WE Charity
To clarify, a staff member wrote that. Every person got a personalized two-liner.... And because the federal government generally was engaging with us, it was a thank you for supporting—I don't even know the wording—for use, whatever—