What We Lost: Inside the Attack on Canada's Largest Children's Charity | Podcast on RSS.com

What We Lost: Inside the Attack on Canada's Largest Children's Charity

What We Lost: Inside the Attack on Canada's Largest Children's Charity

by Tawfiq Rangwala

Books Government Politics

Season 1

Introduction to What WE Lost Podcast

As a past member of WE Charity’s board of directors, Tawfiq Rangwala had a front row seat to the CSSG controversy as it unfolded. He resigned from the board and decided to write a book about what he witnessed first hand, Read by Martin Luther King III, this podcast showcases Tawfiq's decision to write What WE Lost and about what really happened in what became known as the "WE Charity scandal". Martin Luther King III reads the What WE Lost podcast.

Bad Omens

At the start of 2020, just months before the Canada Student Services Grant controversy dominated headlines, WE was riding high, gearing up to celebrate its' 25th anniversary and planning for the next 25 years. But with a global pandemic declared in March, the organization had to make some quick and difficult decisions. Read by Martin Luther King III, this is the What WE Lost podcast episode 2. Lets look at the truth behind those decisions and how they set up the organization for long term stability.

Good Enough is Not Good Enough

“Whatever the criticism, one thing is clear: the attack on WE was really, in many ways, an attack on the character and credibility of its co-founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger.” Martin Luther King III reads The What WE Lost podcast. Listen as Tawfiq Rangwala takes a look back at the Kielburger brothers while also demystifying some of the bigger criticisms of the organization – from ME to WE to its culture to real estate policy – to dispel some of the myths at the centre of the CSSG controversy.

A Call to Serve

Martin Luther King III goes further into the controversy in this episode of the What WE Lost Podcast. The CSSG program was not a 'government bail out' for the organization as politicians like Charlie Angus and Pierre Poilievre would have you believe. Instead, it started with government bureaucrats looking for a solution and believing WE Charity, with its 25-year track record, was the solution. Listen to Martin Luther King III narrate the What WE Lost podcast, starting with the call from Rachel Wernick that changed everything.

Mission Creep

It was supposed to be a $40-million program supporting 20,000 students, but at the urging of government bureaucrats, the CSSG ballooned in size to support 100,000 students with a maximum price tag of $543 million. How did it balloon in size in a matter of weeks? Why did WE Charity Foundation really sign the contribution agreement? What government misstep almost made WE Charity pull out of the program before it even launched? Martin Luther King III goes further into what really happened in the What WE Lost podcast. This is the insider’s story you won’t hear from politicians like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre.

The Storm After the Calm

In this episode, Martin Luther King III narrates how conservative Pierre Poilievre and the NDP’s Charlie Angus appear to have very little in common at first glance. But that did not stop them from playing an outsized role in fuelling misperceptions about the charity and its operations. Instead of celebrating the success of the CCSG launch – with 35,000 youth applicants – media were immediately critical of the CSSG program from the onset. Martin Luther King III continues to narrate the What WE Lost podcast. This is the real story behind some of the most critical headlines.

Piling On

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre and NDP MP Charlie Angus were two of the loudest voices to leverage WE Charity in attempt to take down the Trudeau government. But inside the echo chamber, they had some help from pundits like Charity Intelligence’s Kate Bahen, lawyer Mark Blumberg and Canadaland publisher Jesse Brown. Martin Luther King III continues narrating the What WE Lost podcast. The true story of their possible motives and the ripple effect of their attacks on a children’s charity.

Open Floodgates

At the height of the CSSG controversy, media eagerly fed on the opinions of politicians like Charlie Angus and Pierre Poilievre or pundits like Kate Bahen and Jesse Brown, while at the same time failing to seek out the perspectives of those with firsthand experience of the organization, like students and teachers. In this episode, we get to the truth about WE’s corporate partnerships and WE Day, and how both benefited millions of youth and educators around the world.

BIPOC Reckoning

COVID was not the only force causing global upheaval across the spring and summer of 2020. In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer, and ignited Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Like many other organizations around the world, WE Charity was forced to re-examine its own conduct and policies. Tawfiq Rangwala takes you inside the process he helped lead as a former board member.

High and Dry

By mid-July, during testimony before a parliamentary committee, politicians and bureaucrats all confirmed what WE Charity had been saying from the beginning – the CSSG was not initiated by the charity but by the government. There was no scheme to bail out the organization. But what should have been a dignified and sober-minded pursuit of the truth on behalf of the Canadian people quickly devolved into a partisan circus, with politicians like Charlie Angus and Pierre Poilievre taking the lead.

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