Canada: Kielburgers to appear before House Committee, WE Charity's honour at stake, says Polls
Ottawa/IBNS: The appearance of Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger, WE Charity founders, before a House committee on Tuesday to answer questions about their recent partnership with Canada's Liberal government to administer a $900-million student grant program, would risk the reputation of the charity, pollsters say, media reports said.
We Charity, formed in 1995 by the rights advocates the Kielburgers, soon developed relationships with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's family.
With pandemic already hurting the businesses and charities, any threat to a charity's reputation can result in a crisis, said Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute. "This is already a tough year for charities in Canada. You don't want to be the tall poppy making headlines for the wrong reasons," she said, CBC News reported.
It was late last month when Trudeau granted the multi-million-dollar sole-contract to We Charity to administer the Canada Student Service Grant, that WE Charity's close relationship with the Trudeau family came under scrutiny.
The revelations that Trudeau's wife Margaret was paid approximately $250,000 for speaking at 28 events, and Alexandre, Trudeau's brother, received about $32,000 for speaking at eight events raised controversy between WE and the federal government which made WE and the Liberals to part ways on July 3.
Trudeau is now being investigated by Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, as is Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
Both the House of Commons finance and ethics committees are conducting separate inquiries. Trudeau and his chief of staff Katie Telford are scheduled to appear before the finance committee on Thursday when their testimony will be compared to that of the Kielburgers.
The present pandemic has already heightened attention to news being followed by many people, said David Coletto, CEO of the polling firm Abacus Data and added,
"That raises the stakes for any organization that is in the crosshairs of opposition parties looking to inflict damage on a government, particularly one that has shown, whether actual or perceived, favour or [that] plays in the same playgrounds as Liberals, as the Kielburger brothers seem to have done," said Coletto. "It means that Conservative and New Democrat and Bloc MPs are not going to feel that they need to be soft on them. And so I think the scrutiny that this controversy has already brought to the organization will only get worse, potentially, unless the story somehow dies this week and everything sort of closes up, which I do not perceive happening," CBC News reported.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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