Trudeau government, WE Charity part ways

WE Charity pulled out of its agreement with the Trudeau government to manage a $912-million student volunteer grant contract after a week of controversy.

“While WE Charity launched the program and saw over 35,000 applications within the first week, including 64 per cent of applicants identifying as visible minorities, 23 per cent from rural Canada, and 10 per cent individuals from LGBTQ2 communities, moving forward they will not be managing the program,” minister Bardish Chagger said in an email.

Earlier this week, the National Post reported that WE Charity – which has close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family – had received only sole-source contracts from the federal government in the last three years. Video obtained by the National Post showed WE Charity co-founder saying that the prime minister’s office had called his organization directly asking it to “help implement” the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG). Critics said this was “extremely concerning” and appeared to be “cronyism”.

In a statement Friday, WE Charity said that it was concerned that the controversies surrounding the CSSG would cause the program to suffer.

“Even as CSSG take-up has been very strong, the program has also been enmeshed in controversy from the moment of its announcement. Questions have been asked about the program’s origin, about the concept of outsourcing the program’s operations, about the choice of WE Charity as the government’s partner, and the underlying merit of paid service. These are all valid questions and the government has provided explanations for each. However, controversy has not abated,” WE Charity said in a statement Friday.

“Our concern is that to continue in this way, the program itself will begin to suffer – and as a consequence, opportunities for students might be negatively affected. Not only would that be unwelcome, it is unnecessary. The program has now been launched with a level of operational functionality and a critical mass of engagement that permits it to be otherwise administered.”

Despite a press release that claimed the decision was “mutually agreed upon”, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that it was in fact WE Charity that had decided to pull out of the CSSG.

“Obviously, the way this situation has unfolded has been unfortunate. We will continue to work hard to make sure that young people get the opportunities to serve their country, but it will no longer be with the WE organization.”

Trudeau had regularly attended or hosted the organization’s annual stadium-sized rally for Canadian youth called “WE Day” up until 2017. His wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, is currently a WE ambassador, hosts a WE podcast and attended a WE Day event in London in March with her daughter and the prime minister’s mother, Margaret Trudeau.