Kielburgers to testify after all
After initially pledging to decline to testify in front of a parliamentary committee, WE organization co-founders Marc and Craig Kielburger said they will accept a formal summons voted on unanimously by members of the ethics committee.
In statement Monday evening, WE Charity lawyer William McDowell said the Kielburgers will testify if they can be accompanied by counsel. But they will decline to comment on allegations of dubious donor recognition practices that NDP MP Charlie Angus has since referred to the RCMP and the Canada Revenue Agency.
“We have listened carefully to the committee proceedings. In an attempt to break the impasse, the Kielburgers have again offered to testify provided that their rights are respected. Importantly, I have asked for standing to appear at the committee as counsel and to intervene in the proceedings as necessary in order to protect their rights,” McDowell wrote.
His statement contrasts with a letter he sent on behalf of WE Charity last week informing the committee that the brothers were rescinding their commitment to testify again (they have already testified for four hours in front of the House finance committee last summer).
“Our clients face significant unfairness should they appear before the committee,” McDowell wrote in a letter dated March 3.
“We have great respect for Parliamentarians and the important work of the committee. That said, we advise, with regret, that our clients will not appear before the committee, whether in answer to a summons or otherwise.”
That letter infuriated MPs on the ethics committee, who had planned on grilling the Kielburger brothers during a planned attendance Monday before they pulled out.
“Any organization that is looking to receive $912 million in taxpayers' money must be willing to show up and answer the hard questions. Instead, the key players in this scandal are refusing to testify and are defying Parliament,” Angus said during the committee Monday.
“We cannot be obstructed in this work just because the central people in the drama do not want to be accountable.”
The members unanimously approved a motion by Conservative MP Michael Barrett formally summoning the Kielburgers to appear in front of the committee during its current study on potential conflicts of interest in government spending during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study has largely focused on the Liberal government's — and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's family's — close ties to WE Charity, to which Ottawa outsourced a $912-million student volunteer grant program last summer before the Toronto-based organization pulled out of the deal.
The chair of the committee is expected to send a copy of the summons to the Kielburgers, who will have until Friday to appear in front of parliamentarians. Failure to accept the summons could have led to the issue being referred to the House of Commons, which has the power to issue a legally-binding invitation. Ignoring that summons could have led to the brothers being declared in contempt of Parliament, which can lead to prison time.
But the Kielburgers' initial promise to ignore any summons infuriated MPs of all political stripes, who argued that it is a constitutional (though very infrequently used) right for parliamentarians to legally summon people to come testify in front of a committee.
“We have the right to issue a summons, and for individuals to openly dismiss the invitation and to pre-emptively say that they will not respond to a summons really is flouting the legitimacy and the authority of Canada's parliament. It's shocking,” Barrett said in an opening statement presenting his motion.
Even Liberal MPs, who have regularly voted against opposition throughout this study and have been accused of “obstructionism” by opposition members, expressed their outrage towards WE's promise to ignore the summons.
“I too was very dismayed at the public statements that were made by the Kielburger brothers,” Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan said. “It was more than disrespect; it's a challenge to the authority that we have as parliamentarians.”
Bloc Québécois MP and lawyer Rhéal Fortin said he was stunned that the Kielburgers' lawyer would even dare put the threat of ignoring a parliamentary summons into writing.
“What we're reading is an announcement in advance that someone will be in contempt of Parliament. I think that is unacceptable,” Fortin said.
The Kielburgers' decision to initially pull out of their planned testimony comes after multiple media reports and an individual's testimony at committee revealing allegations of dubious donor recognition practices.
Nearly two weeks ago, American journalist and WE Charity donor Reed Cowan told ethics committee members that a school in Kenya he had funded in honour of his late son later bore a plaque with another donor's name.
Since then, the RCMP, the Canada Revenue Agency and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service have been called on to investigate the WE organization.