In 2020, the Canadian media and certain politicians launched a proxy war against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They did this by attacking WE Charity, a children's charity that had made many significant impacts around the globe for over 25 years.
The result was the destruction of the children's charity in Canada, harming hundreds of thousands of Canadian youth and countless beneficiaries of the charity’s work in the developing world.
This site, along with the #1 national bestselling book What WE Lost and the podcast narrated by Martin Luther King III, sets the record straight on what happened to WE Charity in Canada. Drawing on facts, expert analysis, reliable media accounts and personal stories from donors and supporters, this site provides Canadians with the facts that much of the media chose to ignore.
Andy Stillman, a notable philanthropist and active supporter of WE Charity has funded this site to set the record straight.
Read his letter to CanadiansWhether to promote themselves or attack Justin Trudeau and his government, these politicians and pundits destroyed WE Charity in Canada to further their own agendas. Each of these stories shares the aftermath of WE Charity's closure in Canada. It's a greater loss than any media outlet or pundit has reported. As allies of WE Charity, it is our duty to share these stories with Canada so people know what was lost.
Whether teaming up with members of the opposition party or accusing a man with a brain aneurysm of faking his illness, few sunk lower in their attacks than Charlie Angus during the CSSG saga.
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Justin Trudeau’s costly and misguided decision not to recuse himself from the CSSG approval process, and how he completely abandoned WE Charity during the controversy that followed.
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Certain members of Parliament played an outsized role in fueling misperceptions about the charity and its operations—chief among them Conservative Pierre Poilievre.
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Kate Bahen and Charity Intelligence have direct financial ties to the Conservative Party which were never disclosed. Bahen used her uninformed and baseless attacks on WE Charity to boost her own profile and pad Charity Intelligence’s finances.
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From harassing charity donors and pressuring them to agree to invented story lines, the unethical journalism practiced by CBC and producer Harvey Cashore is documented in What WE Lost.
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Mark Kelley has demonstrated a pattern of creating false narratives and trying to coach people he interviews into following his own invented scripts. Both he and Harvey Cashore have been sued several times due to their unethical journalism.
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Hundreds of thousands of young Canadians lost access to critical programming, including mental health support. In addition, millions of children from the developing world lost access to essential humanitarian programs.
WE Charity provided free resources, from teacher modules and professional development sessions that help build educator capacity to lesson plans and activities for students, all integrating trauma-informed practices, social and emotional learning and well-being.
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WE Charity's five-pillar development model is an effective, sustainable and cost-effective approach that breaks the cycle of poverty in rural, marginalized communities worldwide.
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With WE Day, WE Charity celebrated youth for making a difference in their local and global communities and inspired them to continue their efforts. These amazing shows inspired kids all around the world to make a difference in causes they care about.
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Several journalists at the CBC decided to do an "expose" on WE Charity's work in Kenya to try and find a smoking gun - instead, they knowingly published false information and caused tremendous harm to WE Charity's ongoing work in the United States. WE Charity US has taken legal action against the CBC for the false reporting of some of their journalists and recently won a substantive judgement to keep the lawsuit in the US courts.
CBC falsely claimed that WE Charity built only 360 schoolrooms in Kenya. They said the number “360” was WE Charity’s own count. From the outset of its reporting, CBC knew that WE Charity built far more than 360 schoolrooms in Kenya but lied about the figure because the real number contradicted their false story about missing schoolrooms.
The CBC falsely claimed that WE Charity “inflated” the number of schools it funded in Kenya by including latrines in its count of 852 schoolrooms. From the outset of its reporting, the CBC knew this allegation was false but lied because its entire donor deception story was premised on WE Charity’s full count of 852 schoolrooms being wrong.
The CBC falsely claimed that WE Charity was engaged in a cover-up to “block the scrutiny” by the CBC’s investigation. CBC's false claims of obstruction were essential to its preconceived narrative because it gave them an excuse not to visit or verify the 852 schools and schoolrooms WE Charity funded.
Two Villages tells the story of the parallel existences of Chemengwa and its counterpart across the flowing Mara River. On one riverbank, a village blooms, nourished by the benevolence of a Canadian-based NGO. Two Villages has won multiple best short documentary film awards from many film festivals and soon will be released on Amazon Prime.
Unbreakable Hope in The Maasai Mara is a new documentary by photographer and member of the Order of Canada, V.Tony Hauser, C.M. It explores the impact of educational and healthcare initiatives that changed – and continue to change – the challenging lives of tribal peoples in the Maasai Mara of Kenya. Unbreakable Hope will soon be released on Amazon Prime.
It tells the story of a manufactured scandal designed for partisan purposes. Of a media landscape defined more by clicks and likes than facts and truth. Of self-appointed experts scrambling for the spotlight. It’s a story people think they know – but they don’t.
"If you have bought into the negative narrative about WE Charity, I challenge you to read this book… It is a sober, fact-based account of how and what occurred to pulverize one of this country’s foremost charities."
"Reading What WE Lost was an incredibly educational experience—it should be part of civics classes everywhere. While it was painful to absorb the stories of loss in each chapter and to come to terms with the societal costs that resulted from so much misinformation, thanks to Tawfiq Rangwala’s extraordinary work, the truth is revealed."
"Rangwala goes through these events [the Canada Student Service Grant] in detail and refutes most of the charges convincingly."
“My father believed in both fighting for justice and in the power of youth to be agents for positive social change. So I was saddened by the way in which political partisanship and unchecked media tore down WE Charity, which embodies those ideals. Tawfiq Rangwala tells the untold story behind the controversy that engulfed WE in a moving and powerful way. This beautifully written book serves as a cautionary tale for all those who care about fair play and will open your eyes to a profound injustice that should not happen again.”
"Tawfiq Rangwala has written a well-researched, solid account of the destruction of the WE movement in Canada. It’s remarkably clearly written. Rangwala is a lawyer who could have gone too deeply into the weeds of corporate and legal jargon, but What WE Lost is compelling and very readable... It is the only complete analysis of what happened to WE and its founders."
Martin Luther King III, who has dedicated his life to fighting injustice, stepped in to set the record straight by narrating the podcast What WE Lost.
Go behind the scenes and listen to the real story that Canadians never got to hear. A story of a manufactured scandal designed for partisan gain and of a media landscape defined more by clicks and likes than facts and truth. For the first time, Martin Luther King III recounts the real story that was never reported.
Here are just a few.
"I have been writing letters to newspapers since this non-story broke and have been outraged and heartbroken by the unfortunate attacks on WE and the reputations of Craig and Marc Kielburger. My sons both went on WE trips to Africa and one of them volunteered and then worked for WE as a result of the impact his trip had on him..."
"I have never doubted for one minute the integrity of the We companies, its founders or its employees. We were on a Me to We trip to Kenya in 2014 and saw with our own eyes the work that had been done. We also attended a We Day and were so impressed by both the speakers and the enthusiasm of all the youth in the crowd."
"Thanks for sharing and succinctly explaining the worthiness of the WE Charity. It’s unfortunate that some politicians have become so petty, partisan and vicious; so eager for power that they have lost sight of their responsibility to the Canadian citizen to represent justice, integrity and truth!!"
Experts and people knowledgable on WE Charity share what happened and why.
