The documents contradict the Liberals’ claim from the beginning of this scandal, that the choice of WE Charity came from the public service. In fact, internal government documents show it was a key meeting held on April 17 between Craig Kielburger and Liberal youth minister Bardish Chagger that got the whole process moving. Craig Kielburger wrote in an April 22 email that Chagger herself suggested WE Charity include a volunteerism component to their proposed “social entrepreneurship” pitch during the April 17 call, which took place five days before Trudeau announced the government-funded program to pay young Canadians who volunteered during the pandemic.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

OTTAWA – The federal NDP wants Liberal youth minister Bardish Chagger fired over her role in the whole WE charity mess where a $900 million contract was awarded to the Quebec based organization through questionable means.

NDP says internal government documents reveal that Chagger played a key role in putting WE Charity in the driver’s seat of the now failed student service grant program worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The documents contradict the Liberals’ claim from the beginning of this scandal, that the choice of WE Charity came from the public service. In fact, internal government documents show it was a key meeting held on April 17 between Craig Kielburger and Minister Chagger that got the whole process moving.

“The April 17 meeting between Bardish Chagger and Craig Kielburger changed everything,” said NDP Ethics Critic, Charlie Angus. “After that meeting, it became all about WE. In the documents, we see Minister Chagger giving a group close to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister the inside track on an agreement worth millions. This is about as Liberal of a scandal as you get.”

Minister Chagger initially denied meeting with WE and has gone out of her way to portray the April 17 meeting as a mere listening exercise but the documents show otherwise. They reveal a dramatic change in the government approach to the service grant following the meeting between Chagger and Kielburger.

“She should step down from her failure to come clean and explain why she had that meeting,” Angus told reporters in Ottawa this week. “I really don’t know how Minister Chagger stays in this position having so clearly misled two committees and misled the Canadian people at this point,” said Angus.

Before this meeting, WE was barely on the public service’s radar. After the meeting, plans by the public service to contact other organizations were scrapped and WE started getting exclusive briefings and meetings with all the senior officials working on what was to be called the CSSG.

“After being told by WE that Minister Chagger suggested they work together, the public service quickly put all their focus on WE. Soon, they became the only  group involved in planning, developing, and creating what became the CSSG. WE’s proposals merged into departmental plans until they were one and the same,” said Angus. “No wonder the minister tried to keep the details of this meeting secret. It blows their whole position out of the water.”

Angus says Chagger needs to explain why she has tried to cover up her role in moving WE into this key position.

“It’s shocking that a minister would try to misdirect Canadians from knowing what really happened,” said Angus. “What else is she hiding? Was she trying to protect the Prime Minister? Did she put this into motion on her own or was she directed to by others in the Prime Minister’s Office?”

A spokesperson for Chagger told Toronto Star that the documents supported the minister’s repeated assertions that “she never spoke with WE Charity about the Canada Student Service Grant.”

“The documents that have been disclosed support that comment and further support that this was a recommendation by the professional public service for WE to administer the program.”

But Craig Kielburger wrote in an April 22 email that Chagger herself suggested WE Charity include a volunteerism component to their proposed “social entrepreneurship” pitch during the April 17 call, which took place five days before Trudeau announced the government-funded program to pay young Canadians who volunteered during the pandemic.

Chagger has previously denied she made that recommendation: “I at no time directed WE Charity to amend or adjust or add any proposal.”

But Angus said that after the April 17 meeting, WE was the only entity being considered for the deal, according to correspondence included in the documents that were turned over. Before that, other options were on the table, he said.

“After April 17, there’s only one plan,” he said. “It’s the Kielburger plan.”

“Why did she cover up? Was she doing this on her own? Was she trying to garner a relationship to the prime minister when everyone knew that the Kielburger organization was extremely close to the Trudeau family?”

Angus told the Star that Chagger’s resignation wasn’t a condition on which the New Democrats would rest their potential support for the government’s upcoming throne speech, which could be crucial for the Liberals who need Opposition support to keep their minority government in power.