This morning Trudeau announced that the Federal government and WE had mutually agreed to part ways on the $900 million grant program.

It is a smart move for both. WE doesn’t need all of the negative publicity surrounding what had become a growing scandal about Liberal/Trudeau cronyism. Trudeau needed to cut his political loses on this file and move on.

Day by day more came out, fanning negative media coverage. Even today more was coming out.

I hope the three blogs I wrote outlining how to investigate this issue helped newer reporters to get organized and start digging.

As for the Conservatives, those blogs are there for them to read the next time Trudeau hands them an issue on a silver platter.

It appears the Trudeau-WE Charity story has legs.

Anyone with a background in politics could see there was an issue here and a lot of unanswered questions. The big surprise, unless they were blinded by their own arrogance was that PMO and the PM didn’t see they were going to get hit hard on this issue.

I asked in a previous blog who made the initial contact. This is a key point in Trudeau’s story which is rapidly disintegrating.

If the PM and staff in the PMO were not involved, it would have been someone in the department to make the first contact with WE to see if there was any interest in taking on this challenge. After-all this is a major undertaking that is usually done by the civil service such as with the CREB program.

The media are now reporting that one of the founders of WE (Marc Kielburger) is on video saying PMO called him first. There would be no reason for this to happen if the PM or his staff in the PMO were not directly involved.

That comment undoubtedly sent PMO into damage control mode. And later it was reported he misspoke. Walking back your comment using that term in politics is like waving a red flag at a bull.

Some additional questions come to mind.

Trudeau wants to “pay” people to volunteer. That is the direct opposite of what volunteer means.

This leads to an interesting question. Was this a political plan hatched in PMO and did the department refuse to support it?

It has the potential to be an administrative nightmare. Is that why according to Trudeau WE is the only organization capable of doing this? Did the department recommend not going forward with this scheme to pay volunteers?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I was asked by someone if I knew or realized that the WE Charity did great work internationally? Yes, I do and what does that have to do with administrating $912 million here at home? Sophie does a podcast for WE and the family has appeared on stage at WE functions several times.

WE wouldn’t be the first organization that does good international work to come under the microscope from dealing with Justin Trudeau. Just ask the Aga Khan.

It is quite legitimate to ask the PM, his ministers, Ottawa bureaucrats and WE questions about what looks like a sole source contract.

1. Charity Intelligence Canada gives WE a poor rating for financial openness and reports WE spends about 9% of its budget for administration and advertising. What financial reporting will be involved with this program now? Will MPs have the right to look at WE spending and administration costs for this program or it exempt now from such scrutiny by elected officials on behalf of Canadian taxpayers?
2. Who made the first move IE did Trudeau, or his staff approach WE first?
3. Why did the civil service feel they could not do the job? This was a very strange decision considering that the public service is there to administer programs on behalf of the taxpayer.
4. Did the WE recommendation originate in the bureaucracy, PMO, minister’s office or come from WE?
5. Who in the bureaucracy supported this decision?
6. On what date was the minister’s office first informed about the WE contract?
7. It would be interesting to know on what date the first briefing notes were prepared for the minister and for the PM as this will help point to the decision-maker and who came up with the idea.
8. Is WE and this contract now exempt from Access To Information requests?
9. Where are the spokespersons for the public service? They are usually opposed to out-sourcing federal programs?

It is a good thing for the Liberals that Trudeau with the help of the NDP was able to shut down Parliament, otherwise there would be plenty of negative headlines- something the Prime Minister doesn’t want as we begin to come out of the pandemic.

Well, the Prime Minister feels that no other organization other than WE CHARITY (which his wife Sophie is an ambassador for and supports) was capable of looking after the Canada Student Service Grant

“The WE organization is the only organization in Canada that has the scale and the ability to deliver volunteer opportunities for young people right across the country at all levels of organizations.” (CBC, 26 June 2020)

Maybe he is right but do we or should we believe him without knowing all of the facts. The answer is NO!

The talk point Trudeau is using they are the “only organization” is the standard talk point all governments regardless of party, use when sole sourcing a contract, often to a friendly corporation.

Other than the PM’s word there is no proof that what he is saying is true. It is time for the media (investigative reporters) to earn their salaries and opposition research staff to start digging for that proof or lack of it.

1. ALWAYS follow the money. In this case the timeline. When was the decision made?
2. Make a list of other organizations that you think might have been able to do the job and ask them if they could deliver the program- for instance the YMCA-YWCA which has locations across the country. Ask them if they were even contacted by bureaucrats or PMO to see if they could do the job.
3. ATIP the hell out of the government
4. Ask for all the briefing notes- if they say it is a cabinet confidence, ask for the draft briefing notes.
5. Ask for all emails between everyone PCO, PMO, Minister’s office (political staff) and bureaucrats and don’t forget to include any sticky notes attached to files. Emails from one bureaucrat at the desk level send up the line to superiors often reveals far more than governments want you to know. Most briefing notes require multiple sign offs as no single bureaucrat will stick his/her neck out on this type of file. They like group consensus to cover everyone off.
6. Ask for copies of all text messages- yes they are often saved on a government server.
7. Ask for details of the contract with WE. The standard response is… it is protected information because it involves a private entity- at that point go after WE to release the details. If what the PM is saying is legit, they have nothing to hide.
8. Call for an emergency meeting of the House Committee looking after this file- maybe Public Accounts chaired by the Conservatives Dean Allison is a good place to start. In previous years the Conservatives used that committee very successfully to uncover such things as the Sponsorship scandal and the transitional jobs funding scandal of the 1990s under Liberal minister Jane Stewart
9. Put bureaucrats under oath when they testify and let the fun begin.
10. Call WE before the committee as well. Use your subpoena power if necessary

This is what opposition parties live for… time to start digging folks- the truth always comes out.

The Conservatives have a knack these days in setting themselves up to fail in the next election.

Step #1: Insult the thousands of young voters and many adults who applied for the $2000 emergency funding from the government. For Scheer to imply that somehow college kids or adults laid off would decide to stay home instead of working is ludicrous. In most case this amount barely covers their rent payment, never mind college tuition and living costs. Also, it is just damn insulting.

Keep in mind Scheer is still getting his pay cheque on time and he is not out of work like so many thousands of Canadians. Mind you, many Conservatives wish he were.

Step #2. Support keeping assault style weapons in the hands of Canadians. No target shooter or hunter needs one of these. Are they fun to shoot? Yes. Do you need to own one to enjoy target shooting? No and I speak from experience.

Can you successfully hunt with a bolt action rifle? Of course, you can. You can also hunt with a bow or black powder musket for that matter. The Conservative argument to focus on the importation of illegal firearms instead of banning assault rifles has validity, but you still do not need to own an assault rifle. This is a great position for them to take in the country- but in our cities where there are so many more ridings, it is a losing proposition.

Step #3. Backing pipelines and big oil. With so many Conservative ridings in Alberta and Saskatchewan it is understandable that they want to protect the oil industry and the thousands of jobs tied to that industry. They are all in on this one even though many areas for example, the Province of Quebec are opposed to pipelines. The world will move away from oil, it already is beginning too, but the Conservatives have left themselves no room on this one.

Step #4 Have a snoozer of a leadership race that has gone on way to long and dragging it out until August just makes their leadership woes that much worse and more obvious. It was crazy to leave Scheer as the leader when a minority government was elected. They should have appointed one of several very competent MPs as interim leader.

Step 5) Not kicking Derek Sloan out of caucus and the leadership race for his comments about Dr. Tam. Scheer waited far too long to comment on this issue and with Sloan digging himself deeper and deeper into his hole every day, Scheer had plenty of time to act. That is a Liberal attack ad in the making.

If you were Trudeau’s advisors and saw his approval ratings right now what would you be telling him to do? How about advising him to find an excuse to call a snap election while Scheer is still the leader. For those who think the public will be outraged and that the media will go after Trudeau and harm his re-election chances- you can forget that thought. Where it has been done before (including by the Conservatives the outrage lasted about a week and then voters moved on to other issues.

Today is Vimy Ridge Day, a day to remember the sacrifices made by Canadians and Canada in World War One.

For most Canadians it is just another day, many would have a hard time telling you what it was about and I daresay few know the horrific number of young men, some 5600, many of them teenagers that lost their lives.

Today we are involved in a different kind of war, we are fighting a pandemic and its tragic consequences for those that become ill with COVID-19- especially our seniors.

As I write this there have been 472 deaths from COVID-19. Tragic for everyone concerned, especially family members. Some government projections say that 11,000- 22,000 could die before this disease runs its course. Our nation is in shock at these numbers and only now starting to get a handle on things and truly mobilize to fight this disease.

Vimy Ridge Day gives us a chance to remember the sacrifices made by an earlier generation for our country. One can only imagine the impact on Canadian families in 1916 when Canada had a much smaller population of approximately 8 million people.

There were many more battles besides Vimy Ridge and many more casualties. The Battle for Hill 70 which took place a few months later saw 9200 Canadians killed. In total 61,000 Canadians would die in World War One between 1914 and 1918.

For all of the present generation who are moaning and groaning about having to stay 6 feet apart or having to stay in your homes watching TV- it is time to grow up and think about the sacrifices made by thousands of Canadian families before you. They buckled down and got through it and so will you.

The latest Conservative attack on the Liberals over refunding GST dollars collected from a business back to them during COVID-19 is valid.

Anyone who runs a small business knows how costly paying the GST is to their operations.

Whether or not it is as easy to do as the Conservatives are suggesting is another thing. However, if they can get the Emergency dollars out to individuals within 3 days (with direct deposit) hopefully they will also be able to do the same for small business operators if they were to refund GST to them.

Many restaurants, retail stores and others operate on a shoestring budget with very small profit margins. A GST refund could keep these operations from going under and allow them to reopen once COVID-19 ends.

If as the Liberals say this is supposed to be a Team Canada approach with everyone co-operating, here is a perfect opportunity for them to listen to an opposition party.

Welcome back to the Atory01 Blog. This is not a new blog, it was first published back in 2009 and active until recently when there were technical problems with the site it was on. I have taken the opportunity to switch sites to WordPress. As we go forward I hope you enjoy this blog.