Trudeau’s WE Charity Scandal Continues

In the past week, allegations against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continue to escalate as more details about the Liberal government’s involvement with the ME to WE Charity have been unveiled.

Just yesterday, Finance Minister Bill Morneau admitted that he had repaid over $41,000 in unpaid travel expenses from two family trips to WE charity facilities. He also added that he and his wife have given nearly $100,000 to WE Charity. Trudeau and Morneau are both under an ethics investigation as they both have had very close ties with the organization, which received over $900 million from the government to promote student volunteerism.

Trudeau’s family has also found a great deal of favour with WE Charity, with both his mother and brother having been paid more than $250,000 to speak at their events. Former speakers such as Emilie Nicolas responded to this by saying that “they told me that as a charity, they do not pay speakers. Oh well. I guess as a charity, they put the emphasis on giving their speaker money to those who need it the less, while asking black folks for free labour”.

In 2017, WE Charity had an advertisement called “WE are Canada” devoted exclusively to promoting Justin Trudeau. In this video, Trudeau stated that “[he] pledge[s] to work hard for all Canadians, and continued by saying “live WE.”

The $912 million awarded earlier this year was not awarded to WE Charity itself, but rather to a separate entity called the WE Charity Foundation. This foundation was set up two years ago to hold real estate assets. When the WE Charity Foundation was initially registered, the plan was to transfer 8 pieces of property.

At this time, the foundation registered itself as having a revenue of $150,000, with intended real estate assets of $37.5 million. Several months later, it achieved tax-exempt status from the CRA. However, the intended assets were never transferred, as the WE PR team announced that they had, “no assets, of any kind whatsoever, including real estate assets”. 

Then, on June 9th of this year, the mandate of the Foundation was updated (several days after being awarded the entirety of the Student Volunteer Grant contract).

Several MPs have expressed concern with the decision to not only transfer all of the grant money to the WE Charity, but to a shell foundation associated with the charity. Concerning this decision, NDP MP Charlie Angus stated: “How in God’s name is it that a credible decision by the government of Canada to funnel a billion dollars to a group that is very close to you and your family?”

Many are suggesting that Trudeau and Morneau are using tax dollars to potentially provide future work for their families, as Morneau’s daughter also works in a contractual role for the WE organization.

The $900 million contract with the charity has now been scrapped after these allegations arose, prompting the 6th ethics investigation (his 3rd as Prime Minister) of Trudeau’s career beginning on July 3rd, 2020.