How Trudeau can – and should – clean up the mess he created for Canada's charities -

By Shachi Kurl, Executive Director

Sept. 18, 2020 – A pretty good pro-tip for life, political or otherwise, is that if you make a mess, you should be the one to mop it up.

With all eyes on this coming week’s speech from the throne, the prime minister has an opportunity to stay true to his promise to focus on the COVID-19 response while also cleaning up the wreckage strewn from the self-created political hurricane that is the WE Charity scandal.

It didn’t only damage the government politically, or WE existentially. New research released this week by the Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with Cardus, Charitable Impact, Imagine Canada, Philanthropic Foundations Canada, United Way and Canada Helps, shows that the affair has left a distinctly bitter aftertaste in the mouths of Canadians donors.

A majority of the 85 per cent in this country who currently contribute say it has raised questions about the governance, transparency and management of all charities. Significant segments say it has shaken their confidence in the organizations to which they have given in the past. Many say it’s changed how they feel about giving altogether.

For the rest of this piece, please view it on the Ottawa Citizen’s site where it was initially published.