Evidence of meeting #45 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was sir.
A video is available from Parliament.
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
I just can't compare them to anything that's currently before your committee around the Canada student service grant. I just don't think I have enough experience on the application process to be useful to you in answering that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We will have to end it there, Sean.
Mr. Cooper and Mr. Fragiskatos, you will have about four and a half minutes each.
Mr. Cooper, the floor is yours.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Douglas, for your testimony and for your service to country.
I want to ask you a little bit about the circumstances surrounding the resignations of other board members following your resignation as chair. Can you provide any insight into that? Was it out of support for you or concern with the layoffs that were taking place without proper or transparent reporting to the board?
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
Well, I don't have particular insight on how they may have expressed themselves to each other, or indeed back to the organization, exactly how they would characterize their departure, but there was a process. We had had ongoing discussions with the organization. In fact, the board set up kind of a rotational cycle as a good practice for moving people along in a staggered kind of.... Not everyone would leave at the same time in a given year. People understood their rotational cycle for service.
In my opinion, the change of the board, the replacement of most on the board, happened in an accelerated way. I know that the members of the ad hoc committee did have concerns. We spoke in solidarity to Marc Kielburger and to Dalal Al-Waheidi in making those demands.
As for the precise nature of how they would characterize their resignation, I just don't know. I do know that on March 9, I was asked to stay on at least another year by co-founder Marc Kielburger.
Conservative
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
Right.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
What about the characterization that this was part of some sort of reorganization? Based upon what you know, you would, I take it, disagree with that characterization.
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
Yes. I did not see this as being in the ordinary course, and I resigned because I felt I had to.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Have you had conversations with the other former board members since?
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
I've had a few conversations, yes, with some former board members. I've never had conversations again with Marc Kielburger, Dalal Al-Waheidi or—
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Okay. The bottom line is that this is all very unusual. There was an upheaval in the organization in March.
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
It was a concern to me. I did have a number of concerns, yes.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
In terms of the number of employees who were being laid off, you said it was in the hundreds in a matter of weeks. Can you just explain, in terms of the scale of the organization, what that represents?
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
As we were receiving oral briefings, I heard numbers that literally changed every day. I believe the first number I heard on or about March 9 was 35. Then it moved up to approximately 100. Some of these numbers are combined with those for ME to WE, so they're not exclusively for the WE Charity. Eventually, it entered into the several hundreds—more than 400 at least.
Conservative
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
Approximately 1,000.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Just to be clear, then, almost half the employees were gone in a matter of weeks.
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
I think the organization could provide greater precision on that point.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Okay.
I think you cited in your testimony three specific reasons for your resignation. I don't know that you stated those.
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
The first, I would say, Mr. Cooper, is that employees were being laid off and the board did not have enough information to provide oversight.
The second reason, I would say, is that we were being denied access to the chief financial officer. We had sought two meetings with them, and they were both cancelled. We asked to also participate as kind of observers in a virtual meeting where many employees were going to be explained the upcoming layoff process.
Finally, I had concerns that in the midst of the crisis, Marc Kielburger travelled twice to Kenya, in a very short period of time, for reasons I don't fully understand. I asked the executive director to explain this to me. I did not receive a satisfactory answer.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you, both.
You'll have the last round of questions, Mr. Fragiskatos. Then we'll have to let Ms. Douglas go.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Douglas, I echo the comments of my colleagues. Thank you for your extraordinary service to this country and for your activism. It's admirable, to say the least. Thank you for taking the time to come to our committee today.
I do have limited time, and I want to ask you two or three questions.
The first question relates to your time at WE. Obviously, 15 years is a very long time with the organization. During that time, did you find or see any irregularities, financial or otherwise, that were of concern to you, or have any other sort of lingering questions about WE Charity?
Former Chair of the Board of Directors, WE Charity, As an Individual
I never saw anything about the integrity of the organization that caused me deep concern. I always felt, though, that it was my duty, especially where there are inherent tensions between co-founder-led organizations and a board of directors, to always push for enhanced forms of oversight and transparency in an effort to be better, but not because something was deeply concerning. We were always striving to get greater insight into the work.