Finance committee  Mr. Bittle, I'm here at the invitation of the committee of which you are a part today. I have agreed to come here and share the reporting that I and my colleagues have done, which others did not, over the past five years. I am constraining myself to facts we have verified and rep

Finance committee  Excuse me—

Finance committee  As I have stated, I am here presenting journalism that is the result of five years of investigation. It is absolutely based on the accounts of over two dozen people who have worked for the WE organization. It's based on copious documentation. It's based on the statements of the W

Finance committee  I can't explain their motives, but I will say that, on getting information from the WE organization and specifically getting the information that you are asking for, we at Canadaland did receive copious information throughout our investigations from the WE organization, much of i

Finance committee  I can speak to that because Canadaland reported questions about the chief financial officer both of ME to WE and of WE Charity. Victor Li is also the CFO involved at the high level of other affiliated organizations. That's strange. A CFO of a charity answers to different masters

Finance committee  Mr. Cumming, I'm not an expert on charities' capacities. The facts are what they are. This is an organization that had just laid off hundreds of its workers. This was an organization that had the entirety—save one individual—of its Canadian and American boards either resign or re

Finance committee  I'm aware that expert analysts have cited that the classification of the Kielburgers within the charity in effect relieves them of certain responsibilities and accountability. They are founders but not directors, and there are certain benefits to that.

Finance committee  Mr. Angus, again we're well outside of what our reporting has covered. I know that the WE organization themselves have said that they established this new entity in order to limit their liability, and I can't imagine that they would do anything if it were not in their interests.

Finance committee  I won't speculate. My only comment is that when Canadaland inquired about the real estate holdings, the extensive real estate holdings, of the Kielburger family, we were told both by attorneys representing Fred and Theresa Kielburger and by the WE organization that these are comp

Finance committee  No. I know that WE Charity has confirmed that they paid for Sophie Grégoire Trudeau's expenses during the trip to the U.K. I am aware that media questions have been submitted to the WE organization about the exact number. I do not believe that those figures have been disclosed.

Finance committee  To your first question, I think that's a terrific line of inquiry that we are pursuing as well. It's not something I'd speculate on. To your second question, I know what you know from the terrific Global News report today, which is that, by WE's own description, they set up this

Finance committee  My opinion of how strange that is is not something that I want to offer for the purpose of this committee. I hope you'll appreciate that I prefer to keep my punditry elsewhere and limit myself to my reporting. I think people can come to their own conclusions about whether that is

Finance committee  Again, I'm going to refrain from speculating, Mr. Poilievre. I will note that keeping track of the labyrinthine structure of this organization makes reporting incredibly challenging, not merely because we take accuracy so seriously, but because the WE organization has responded

Finance committee  We are aware of 12 in North America. Some of this is completely doing NGO work and international development. You must set up separate entities in these countries; some of this is really understandable. But in Kenya, I believe, there are four different companies. The same issue o

Finance committee  Mr. Angus, I'm going to try to limit myself to what we've reported already. As you have pointed out, many different entities hold real estate, both for WE's private companies and for their various charities—holding companies, the Kielburger family themselves and relatives of the