OTTAWA — The federal Conservatives are calling on WE Charity to release a series of documents the Toronto-based youth organization promised to hand over to a House of Commons committee before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament.
The request is contained in a letter sent today by Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre and ethics critic Michael Barrett to WE co-founders Craig and Marc Kielburger.
It represents the Tories’ latest effort to dig into the government’s decision to have WE run a multimillion-dollar student-volunteer program since Trudeau temporarily suspended several committee investigations by proroguing Parliament on Aug. 18.
WE backed out of running the Canada Student Services Grant a few weeks after it was launched, citing political controversy, and the program has since been abandoned.
Poilievre and Barrett say the Kielburger brothers and other WE officials promised the documents during various appearances before the finance committee, and there is no need to wait until Parliament resumes in late September to hand them over.
The Conservatives say if the documents are not turned over, the committee will “aggressively” follow up once it is reconstituted.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2020.
The Canadian Press
