I got an email on Monday asking me to come to the committee and testify. I was surprised. I asked, “Who? Who would do that?” I only know now that it was the opposition. Possibly the opposition, because I have been critical.... As Kate Bahen believes, too.... I have been vocal and critical, for the past decade, about how the charity sector carries out its business. The full title of my book in 2017 was Cap in Hand: How Charities are Failing the People of Canada and the World.
Although I don't put as much focus on financial measurements as Charity Intelligence does, Kate and I both believe that it is really important to gauge the impact of charities. There are a lot of charities in Canada that don't give taxpayers a very good bang for their buck. You can talk about donors, but taxpayers basically fund charities more than anybody else.
So perhaps they thought that I would automatically take a negative approach to WE.
The point of the matter is that when bureaucrats were trying to deliver and make this program in an emergency setting, this program was endorsed by Telus. They had bank executives. The Globe and Mail was their media sponsor. They had stars. The cream of the Canadian crop was identified with WE. If I were a bureaucrat looking at an organization, I would say, “Well, hell, the committee that hands out appointments to the Order of Canada thought it was okay. The executive vice-presidents of the Royal Bank think it's fine. Telus thinks it's great.”