8chan/8kun QResearch CANADA Posts (1)
#10379924 at 2020-08-22 05:59:48 (UTC+1)
Welcome To Q Research Canada Bread #7 - Brinks Bank and a Box of Doughnuts Edition
>>10379858
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/solving-wes-which-came-first-problem/
==Solving WE's 'which came first' problem
Andrew MacDougall: How did WE become the only option for Ottawa's youth program? A look at the official lobbying records offers some clues.==
By Andrew MacDougall
August 19, 2020
When it comes down to it, the WE Charity scandal is essentially a 'which came first' problem. Only, instead of a chicken and an egg, we have a program and a delivery partner. Was the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) a proper thing in search of a delivery partner or was it a notion rounded into shape by one delivery partner to the exclusion of all others, a delivery partner with some serious financial ties to the finance minister and the family of the Prime Minister?
The evidence presented to the Finance Committee looking into the cancelled WE deal offers evidence in support of both chicken and egg. Federal bureaucrats and members of the government testified that other organizations were considered to deliver the CSSG. But recently released lobbying records demonstrate that only WE Charity was busy repeatedly 'interacting' with the federal government over the period when the CSSG was fleshed out and brought into existence.
The story of the ill-fated volunteer grant begins as very few things do in Ottawa: on a Sunday work call between the Prime Minister and his then finance minister. The two men were finalizing the details of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), to be announced the following day by Justin Trudeau, according to testimony at the House finance committee by Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford. At the end of the call Bill Morneau mentioned some areas where he thought the government response to COVID-19 was still falling short. One of those areas was students. The Prime Minister agreed and tasked his minister with working up some policy options.
The next day the minister's office and department swung into action. As Trudeau delivered his morning press conference announcing the CEWS, Michelle Kovacevic, an associate deputy minister at Finance, heard Trudeau promise more action for students. Kovacevic immediately reached out to counterparts at Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) to "hear about options" to do more for students. She also rang up the Minister's office to see if they were privy to more detail.
For its part, the minister's political office was busy hitting the phones, chatting with 12 organizations for "input" in their quest to work up options. One of those organizations was WE Charity. A summary of these conversations titled 'What We Heard' was prepared and shared with Kovacevic and other officials on April 9. At this time, the CSSG wasn't yet a twinkle in anyone's eye.
READ MORE: Bill Morneau, melting away
As the minions at Finance were busy answering Morneau's call, the braintrust at WE Charity were suffering a torrid time. The chair of the charity's board of directors, Michelle Douglas, had resigned on March 27 following a dispute with WE's founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, over matters of financial transparency. Hundreds of WE employees were being laid off due to the economic effects of the pandemic. A proud and popular charity was taking a massive hit, a fact that wasn't being shared with those calling on behalf of the government.
Instead, the WE team were busy flogging a youth social entrepreneurship proposal to Mary Ng, Trudeau's small business minister. Craig Kielburger mentioned the proposal to Ng on an introductory April 7 call, the same day Morneau's office was on the phone to Sofia Marquez at WE getting her input on possible federal programming. Kielburger would eventually send the proposal through to Ng on April 9, before also shipping it to the offices of Morneau, Trudeau, and Bardish Chagger, the Minister for Diversity, Inclusion, and Youth. If billions of dollars was hemorrhaging out of government, often daily, it was worth WE taking a shot. WE followed up its proposal with Morneau's office via Amit Singh, a Morneau policy advisor, on April 10.
cont at link