Chapter Five - The Bottom Line

September 13, 2021·46 min·3 clips

Reid Cowan holds up a photo of his four-year-old son Wesley at a parliamentary committee and says his donations to WE Charity were made in Wesley's name after the boy died falling from a swing set.

The hearing begins personally. Reid Cowan, described as an American journalist, donor, and fundraiser, speaks for Wesley Cowan while holding up the boy's picture. The room does not stay there for long. Testimony about a child and a charity turns into a wider accounting of WE, Free the Children, and political access. The host keeps the scandal plain: WE gets a huge Trudeau government contract without competing against other charities, Trudeau later says he made a mistake, and then Trudeau shuts down the government to block several investigations. That is the point where the episode cracks the door open on everything sitting underneath. Reporters start digging. Newspapers that had once partnered with WE begin investigating the organization, and allegations and revelations start surfacing. The trail runs straight into property. The National Post looks at WE Charity's real estate holdings, including about $50 million in prime commercial real estate after large staff layoffs. Then comes the figure that really sticks: at least $25 million in real estate accumulated by Craig and Mark's retired schoolteacher parents by 2018. Numbered companies, family members, personal holdings, and charity assets sit uncomfortably close together. One interviewer asks why a charity would have what looks like a labyrinth beneath it, and why so much property seems to trade hands. The episode lets that question hang.

As heard by us

A steady public affairs chapter that turns a charity scandal into a clear chain of receipts.

This chapter settles on the point where the WE Charity story stops looking like a tidy public controversy and starts looking political in a very real way. Reid Cowan at the committee hearing, the government contract, and the strain in the public image do the work here.

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Why you'd press play

You want the WE affair traced from testimony to the money trail.

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