It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, November 18, 2021
Schools close as smog-laden India capital considers lockdown
A motorcyclist drives on the wrong side of the road amidst morning haze and toxic smog in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. Schools were closed indefinitely and some coal-based power plants shut down as the Indian capital and neighboring states invoked harsh measures Wednesday to combat air pollution after an order from the federal environment ministry panel. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Sheikh Saaliq And Shonal Ganguly, The Associated Press Published Wednesday, November 17, 2021
NEW DELHI (AP) -- Schools were closed indefinitely and some coal-based power plants shut down as the smog-shrouded Indian capital and neighboring states invoked harsh measures Wednesday amid considerations of a lockdown in New Delhi to combat worsening air pollution.
India's top court is deliberating on the lockdown - a first of its kind in the country to stem pollution and not to control coronavirus infections.
It's not clear how far it would go, but the New Delhi government has already shown its willingness to impose an emergency weekend lockdown, similar to the one implemented during the pandemic. It's now waiting for the Supreme Court's decision, which could come as early as Nov. 24.
The government is discussing whether it would keep the industries open, and some experts say a lockdown would achieve very little in controlling pollution but rather would cause disruptions in the economy and impact the livelihoods of millions of people.
“This is not the solution that we are looking for, because this is hugely disruptive. And we also have to keep in mind that the economy is already under pressure, poor people are at risk,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Center for Science and Environment, a research and advocacy organization in New Delhi.
Even then, soaring pollution levels in the capital prompted a federal environment ministry panel to issue strict guidelines on Tuesday night to stem the pollution and to show residents that the government was taking action to control an environmental crisis that has been plaguing the capital for years.
Besides the closure of schools, the Commission for Air Quality Management ordered a stop to construction activities until Nov. 21 and banned trucks carrying non-essential goods. The panel also directed the states to “encourage” work from home for half of the employees in all private offices.
Despite some improvement in New Delhi air over the past two days, readings of dangerous particles Wednesday were still as high as seven times the safe level, climbing above 300 micrograms per cubic meter in some parts of the city.
The World Health Organization designates the safe level for the tiny, poisonous particles at 25.
Forecasters warned air quality would worsen before the arrival of cold winds next week that will blow away the smog.
Earlier this month, air quality levels fell to the “severe” category in the capital and residents faced bouts of severe, multiday pollution. It prompted a stern warning last week from India's Supreme Court, which ordered state and federal governments to take “imminent and emergency” measures to tackle what it called a crisis.
Among the many Indian cities gasping for breath, New Delhi tops the list every year. The crisis deepens particularly in the winter when the burning of crop residues in neighboring states coincides with cooler temperatures that trap deadly smoke. That smoke travels to New Delhi, leading to a surge in pollution in the city of more than 20 million people.
Emissions from industries with no pollution control technology, pollutants from firecrackers linked to festivals, and construction dust also sharply increase in winter months.
Several studies have estimated that more than a million Indians die every year because of air pollution-related diseases.
The capital has often experimented with limiting the number of cars on the road to lower vehicular emissions, using large anti-smog guns and halting construction activity. But the steps have had little effect.
Residents say the government isn't doing enough.
Suresh Chand Jain, a New Delhi shop owner, said authorities should introduce stricter regulations aimed at limiting car use and controlling the burning of crop residues in neighboring states, emissions of which contribute hugely to the capital's bad air quality.
“Shutting down the city will not end the pollution,” said Jain.
Experts say such emergency measures are not helpful in the long run.
“These are done only to ensure that you don't worsen the situation, that you shave off the peak. But it is not a silver bullet that is going to just clean the air immediately,” said Roychowdhury.
SOCCER
Canadian men's team turning heads on historic World Cup qualifying run Is Canada a lock to qualify for World Cup with win over Mexico? James Sharman joins Sportsnet Central to discuss Canada's impressive win against Mexico, what it means at this point in qualification, how the weather was a factor and if Mexico is in the hot seat after two straight losses.
Former Canada coach Stephen Hart startled a few friends recently with his assessment of the current Canadian men's team.
"I had said a few nights before with a group of friends that I thought Canada was the best team in CONCACAF, in terms of depth, in attack, in midfield,'' Hart said. "They kind of looked at me with a funny look. But I honestly thought that.''
On Tuesday, before a loud, proud and cold crowd of 44,212 at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, John Herdman's team proved Hart right.
Canada's 2-1 win over Mexico, coupled with the Americans' 1-1 tie earlier in the day in Jamaica and Canada's 1-0 victory over Costa Rica four days earlier in Edmonton, moved the unbeaten Canadians (4-0-4) into first place in the final round of World Cup qualifying in CONCACAF with six games remaining.
Come March, the top three countries will represent North and Central America and the Caribbean in Qatar next year. The fourth-place team will take part in an intercontinental playoff to see who joins them.
Canada's overall record in Qatar 2022 qualifying improved to 10-0-4 with a 44-6 edge in goals. And like the Olympic champion Canadian women, the men — ranked 48th in the world and on the climb — are turning heads and inspiring support.
Tuesday's triumph was Canada's first over Mexico since the 2000 Gold Cup quarterfinals. The Canadian men have now taken four of a possible six points against ninth-ranked Mexico in this qualifying round, having held the CONCACAF powerhouse to a 1-1 tie last month in the hostile ground of Mexico City's Azteca Stadium.
"After the game in Azteca, that's what made me think this team has such a good balance,'' said Hart, how coach of the Canadian Premier League's HFX Wanderers FC. "Of course I was elated they won the game (Tuesday) but they won the game in a fairly comfortable manner, in my view of it.''
Added former Canadian international Nick Dasovic: "You're not top of CONCACAF after eight games if you're not quality. You can get luck at some stages but this team is the real deal. The depth is amazing.
"I mean you'd have to say the '86 (World Cup) team was the best (Canadian men's) team up to now. I mean, obviously I didn't play in that one. I was a kid (18) at the time. But this is by far the best group of players we've had assembled without any shadow of a doubt for this national program.
"And they're all buying in. They're all playing for the jersey. They're all playing for the country. It's pretty amazing.''
Still, there is work to be done, as Herdman told his team Tuesday after it celebrated going atop the standings and (according to www.transfermarkt.com) leading all teams in world football with 55 goals this calendar year. Not to mention captain Atiba Hutchinson's record-setting 90th cap and Cyle Larin tying Dwayne De Rosario for the most international "A'' goals (22) among Canadian men.
"There was a lot of celebration'' Herdman told The Canadian Press on Wednesday. "But at the end of it, I had some sobering words — that we've got 10 weeks to stay focused, to do the right things. Because we've got six more battles. And there will be battles. This isn't over.
"You've seen how tight it is at the top. Only three are going to go through. And it's going to go right to the wire. So we have to stay ready — and humble. And the lads, you could see their eyes focus back in. They know we've got some big steps ahead to take.''
An emotionally drained Herdman — "I was absolutely knackered'' — boarded a plane Wednesday morning to return to B.C. But he was still beaming.
"I just saw Milan (Borjan) in the (hotel) lobby and he just said 'I could wake up in Canada every day,''' Herdman said of his starting goalkeeper, who is an icon in Serbia where he plays for Red Star Belgrade. "The feeling's unreal for these guys. Kids are asking for autographs. And he said 'Never has this happened before.'
"And that's all I ever wanted. I just wanted to feel the love and get the country believing that we're a football country.'' One can argue the Canadian men did it in the most Canadian of settings, with defender Sam Adekugbe memorably throwing himself into a snowbank during the celebrations that followed Larin's opening goal. Only two points separate Canada (4-0-4, 16 points) and fourth-place Panama (4-2-2, 14 points). The U.S. (4-1-3, 15 points) stands second and Mexico (4-2-2, 14 points) third. But perhaps most importantly, the top four are beginning to get separation on fifth-place Costa Rica (2-3-3, nine points).
Canada has a home game against the 13th-ranked U.S. sandwiched around visits to No. 68 Honduras and No. 65 El Salvador in late January, early February before finishing in March with games at No. 45 Costa Rica and No. 69 Panama with a home match against No. 59 Jamaica in-between.
Whatever happens, the Canadian men — like their female counterparts — are growing the sport.
"I think the country now has seen what football can do, what football is about for this country,'' said Pa-Modou Kah, a former Norwegian international who coaches Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League.
With Hutchinson and other players not available for all qualifying matches, the load fell on other players both on and off the field. Herdman credits Borjan, Jonathan Osorio, Maxime Crepeau, Mark-Anthony Kaye, Samuel Piette, Doneil Henry, Richie Laryea and Junior Hoilett as the leadership group that helped change the Canadian men's outlook.
"You can 100 per cent see that everybody's bought in,'' said Dasovic, a Canada Soccer Hall of Famer who won 63 caps between 1992 and 2004.
Henry sent a clear message that it was going to be a difficult night for the visitors, sending Napoli winger Hirving Lozano flying through the air in a crunching aerial challenge less than a minute into Tuesday's game.
With Canada Soccer — with the help of Mother Nature — having done what it could to make the Mexicans uncomfortable, Herdman told his players the game would come down to who could bring the intensity for the full 90 minutes.
"I thought Doneil set the tone for what was going to happen. It became a war on the benches (which both received yellow cards). It became a war on the field,'' said Herdman. "And the fans came with us.''
The Canadians' recent performances, coupled with the club success of players like Davies (Bayern Munich), Jonathan David (Lille) and Hutchinson and Larin (Besiktas), have also made wearing the Maple Leaf attractive.
Stephen Eustaquio, Steven Vitoria and Ike Ugbo were among those in Herdman's matchday squad Tuesday that chose to wear the Maple Leaf over another crest.
"Players want to jump on this ship. They want to get involved with this country,'' said Dasovic.
Herdman and Canada Soccer have also revamped the way the national teams are treated.
"When I played — most of my career as a national team player — it was what it was,'' said Dasovic, who is coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps under-19 side. "You weren't getting charter flights, you weren't getting first-class. It happened once in a blue moon when they got us some passes. Things like that.
"You knew you were going to be sitting in seat 32B or you're going to be trapped against the washroom or whatever.''
'Change it': FIFA encouraged by Edmonton's World Cup bid, but artificial turf has to go
Team Canada's Alphonso Davies (19) makes a move on Costa Rica's Joel Nathaniel Campbell Samuels (12) during first half World Cup qualifier soccer action in Edmonton on Friday, November 12, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
EDMONTON -
International soccer’s governing body expressed encouragement on Wednesday at Edmonton’s 2026 FIFA World Cup bid, but also noted that Commonwealth Stadium’s artificial pitch would have to go.
Colin Smith, FIFA’s chief competitions and events officer, was in Edmonton to witness the Canadian men’s national team’s victories over Costa Rica last week and Mexico on Tuesday night.
He said the fan support and the city’s event experience were obvious.
“The air was chilly. The atmosphere was warm,” he said. "To see the fans' support on what was a chilly evening was great to see.”
Smith spoke positively to reporters about the city’s bid and presentation earlier in the day, but noted the artificial turf at Commonwealth stadium wasn’t up to World Cup standards.
“Change it,” he said, when asked how the stadium’s pitch could be improved. "We play the World Cup obviously on natural grass.”
"It's about providing the ultimate stage to the ultimate players to play at the highest level.”
FIFA has previously said that it will make a hosting announcement in late 2021 but now says it will finalize the selection process in the first half of next year following a “thorough assessment.”
Today marks the start of the third round of potential venue inspections by Smith and other officials followed by visits to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Los Angeles and Toronto over the next five days.
He said that inspections focus on factors including transportation, accommodation, stadiums, and training sites.
"What we look at are the technical requirements we need to have a successful World Cup."
The tournament is expected to feature an expanded field of 48 teams with games spread across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The two Canadian venues under consideration are Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium and Toronto's BMO Field.
Montreal’s Olympic Stadium had been part of the bid, but the city withdrew from contention in July.
The City of Edmonton launched a survey in August of 2020 to measure how Edmontonians felt about hosting part of the tournament.
Survey results showed 77 per cent of people in the Edmonton region supported a bid, the city said, up from 74 per cent in 2018.
Vancouver withdrew as a potential host city in March 2018, citing concerns over cost and financial transparency.
FIFA will select up to 16 venues to host tournament matches.
OUCH
It’s not the policies – Erin O’Toole lacks charisma and appeal as a political leader
Erin O’Toole never came across as an inspiring, in-charge leader.
ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS
This column is keeping a close eye on events in Ottawa. There’s a continuing drama there. It’s got a repetitive plot line, but while some players in the narrative change, the central figure remains the same. That’s Erin O’Toole.
Keeping a close eye means watching CBC News Network, in particular Power & Politics, CTV News Channel and such. It’s a no-fun assignment, but it does make a person an expert on household aids for the elderly and infirm. What’s being discussed often these past few weeks are attempts to undermine O’Toole’s leadership of the Conservative Party. Cabals have formed and been muted, and there’s been more than one attempt to launch a petition aimed at forcing a referendum on O’Toole’s leadership soon, rather than wait for a confidence vote in 2023.
These recalcitrant rebels accuse O’Toole of abandoning core Conservative principles and shifting the party’s policies to the centre leading up to the Sept. 20 federal election.
They’re missing the point – O’Toole’s weakness is his lack of charisma. In TV appearances and TV election ads, from his body language to his tone, even to his clothes and demeanour, O’Toole never came across as an inspiring, in-charge leader.
Winning in political campaigns is less about policy than it is about being a forceful presence in front of the cameras and in front of crowds of people. It can take ages to digest policy platforms, and few voters have the time to do it, but it takes only an instant to get the measure of a politician on TV, especially if they’re being asked questions. That’s just one area where O’Toole failed.
The backroom people who prep a leader for an election campaign have a bag of tricks they use. In O’Toole’s case he looked trimmer than before, wore a casual suit, often without a necktie, or no suit, and wore sneakers a lot. The idea was to make him suburban dad-like, relaxed and man-of-the-people. On the cover of “Canada’s Recovery Plan” O’Toole posed in a T-shirt with muscled arms folded, trying to suggest a Mike Holmes type. Nice try, but Mike Holmes has presence and charisma. O’Toole does not. Also, Mike Holmes’s brand has diminished a bit since he began hawking other companies that repair your bathroom or basement or something.
Humour and positivity matter, too. The audience projects hope onto such people, reassured and charmed by the confidence. And there’s automatic admiration of the unruffled, relaxed and self-deprecating manner of some politicians. O’Toole doesn’t do self-deprecation. (Maybe the sneakers were meant to signal that. Who knows? He was a perambulating confusion of media images.) Often politicians can seem self-conscious when they complain or rant, and O’Toole complained about the Liberals but he didn’t rant a lot. Maybe he was warned not to seem unhinged and angry. Finally, the most successful politicians are the rare ones who seems fully at peace with themselves and comfortable in their own skin. Watch O’Toole closely on TV and you don’t get that air of ease and confidence.
The attributes just listed, whether accrued naturally or taught, are excellent tools to help stand out in a media-saturated age, but to be successful, they must be used to deliver a discernible message. You can be grinning, cheery and utterly at ease on TV, but your message must be clear.
That’s where O’Toole’s already confusing media campaign went awry and it’s where those recalcitrant rebels might be a little bit right – the messaging on some issues was muddled. The most recent rebel against O’Toole’s leadership, Senator Denise Batters, made a video to state her complaints about O’Toole and she said, “On carbon tax, on guns, on conscience rights, he flip-flopped on our policies within the same week, the same day and even within the same sentence.”
Ouch. It’s exaggerating a bit, but is fundamentally correct. Policy positions shifted mid-campaign and changed from O’Toole’s 2020 leadership platform, making O’Toole’s answers to some questions hesitant and unclear. This was not restricted to the issues of guns and vaccinations. In the platform he used to become Conservative leader, he’d promised to defund the CBC: “I’ll defund CBC television and save taxpayers billions. Here’s how I’ll get it done: End all funding to CBC Digital; cut funding for CBC English TV and News Network by 50 per cent, with the goal to fully privatize CBC by the end of my first mandate; maintain funding for CBC Radio and Radio-Canada.” During the federal election, there was an excruciating moment on CPAC when his new plan was explained as “a review assessing the viability of refocusing” the CBC. That’s what’s known as gibberish.
When you lack charisma, change positions and talk gibberish you are not an electable leader. That’s the glaring subtext of the drama unfolding in Ottawa. Never mind the Mike Holmes look; O’Toole doesn’t have the tools, in media-savviness or pizzazz, to be elected prime minister.
IT'S THE POLICIES TOO
NP Comment John Robson: Perhaps Erin O'Toole and Jason Kenney could try being conservatives
Programmatic conservatism has three legs: traditional social values, strong national defence and free market economics
Author of the article: John Robson Publishing date:Nov 16, 2021 •
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole listens to a question from a reporter during a news conference following a caucus meeting in Ottawa on Oct. 5, 2021.
PHOTO BY THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE The front page of Tuesday’s National Post highlighted the obvious troubles of Jason Kenney and Erin O’Toole , namely dismal polling numbers and party revolts. But the cause deserves attention too: Both deliberately jettisoned any semblance of principle in pursuit of partisan gain and for some reason aren’t popular with conservatives or voters. Weird, huh?
Kenney did win an Alberta election after uniting various conservative fragments. It’s easier than, say, doing it federally. But since it was all about the brass ring, give some credit for having grasped it briefly. Then consider columnist Don Braid’s claim that Monday “should have been one of Premier Jason Kenney’s best days in office” because he’d gotten hold of free money from Ottawa to shower on voters willing to let the state raise their kids for them.
Incorrect. Such social engineering might be wise. It might be popular. But it’s not conservative in any way shape or form. And if you say so much the worse for conservatism, you can join the NDP, or the Liberals who appear to be having Canada’s first NDP prime minister and loving it. But if you’re going to present as conservative, you need some conservatism or the base will turn on you and so will the public.
G.K. Chesterton warned about platitudes “in peril of becoming one of those things that are accepted ‘in principle’ by all unprincipled men.” In Canada one such is that conservatism is yucky. It may have a certain ignoble utility in rallying the rubes if they form part of your deplorable base, but it is both socially disreputable and intellectually laughable.
Kenney and O’Toole radiate that attitude. And it’s not working for them, and can’t.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.
PHOTO BY DAVID BLOOM/POSTMEDIA
We expect a New York Times “news” story to say “Biden signs infrastructure bill, promoting benefits for Americans. Billions of dollars will now pour into American communities” and not ask whether borrowed money is real wealth, every dollar spent on handouts doesn’t ultimately have to be raised in taxes, government is doing too much for (or to) the people that they should be doing for themselves and so on. But if conservative parties do not ask such questions, their supporters and voters will rightly ask what they are even for.
Programmatic conservatism has three legs: traditional social values, strong national defence and free market economics. Normally the unprincipled types pre-emptively chuck the first and pay lip service to the second but spend all the money on social programs, which dooms their efforts to rally at the third and last ditch. And it is an even worse idea than it sounds, because conservatism has a metaphysical foundation they too often casually forget rather than deliberately reject.
Fundamentally, the reason conservatives believe in the policies they believe in is that they are convinced there is something to believe in. There really is Truth, epistemological and moral. They don’t and can’t think winning is everything. So they’re far less comfortable than the relativist parties with abandoning principle even for immediate gain, let alone humiliating defeat, including by substituting organizational ruthlessness for conviction.
As for the general public, I think partisan conservatives frustrated that their beliefs seem to be a hard sell underestimate their inherent advantages. The late great political scientist Robert Conquest formulated a series of Laws of Politics that regrettably lack canonical form because he expounded them in conversation not a formal treatise. But one has been given as “Generally speaking, everybody is reactionary on subjects he knows about” or “Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.” Conquest did not mean they’re the progressive parody of conservatism, ignorant, bigoted and frozen with fear. Rather, they have a common-sense preference in their professional and personal lives for the tried and true over the speculative and uninformed. They know that to scoff at faith and honour is fatal to a community, that lying is wrong and so is infidelity, and I don’t just mean sexual, and that if you don’t work you die.
They may not like being reminded of these things. So it’s tempting to take the easy way out and try to bribe them instead, if you are unprincipled. But unfortunately for such politicians, especially under a conservative banner, most normal human beings admire honourable conduct and dislike weasels. So in practice conservatives willing to stay the course gain more than they lose, unlike their more “worldly” rivals. And where shall we find such people?
Not on that front page. Instead, another of Conquest’s laws is “The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies” or, even more bluntly, “Every organization appears to be headed by secret agents of its opponents.”
Hey, Jason Kenney and Erin O’Toole, we found your real problem.
NOT ALL HACKERS ARE RUSSIAN
Ontario teen arrested after allegedly stealing $46 million in cryptocurrency from one person in the U.S.
Hamilton police told CTV News Toronto this is the largest cryptocurrency scam involving one person in Canadian history
CTV News Toronto Multi-Platform Writer Wednesday, November 17, 2021
. (Pexels)
TORONTO -- An Ontario teenager has been arrested after allegedly stealing $46 million from one person in a massive cryptocurrency scam in the United States.
Hamilton police announced the arrest on Wednesday after a joint investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force that began in March 2020.
According to police, the victim had been targeted by a SIM swap attack, a method of manipulating cellular network carriers so scammers can intercept two-factor authentication requests.
"The joint investigation revealed that some of the stolen cryptocurrency was used to purchase an online username that was considered to be rare in the gaming community,” police said in a statement. "This transaction led investigators to uncover the account holder of the rare username."
A Hamilton youth was arrested in mid-2020 in connection with the incident for theft over $5,000 and possession of property or proceeds of property obtained by crime.
The age of the suspect has not been released by investigators.
“Because of the YCJA [Youth Criminal Justice Act] and just because it’s part of our investigation, we made the decision not to disclose the age of the accused,” Det. Const. Kenneth Kirkpatrick told CTV News Toronto.
Investigators said this is the largest cryptocurrency scam involving one person in Canadian history.
As the case makes its way through the courts, Hamilton police are asking the public to be vigilant in the security of their funds, whether they are held in crypto or centralized currency.
“If you have 15 accounts all with the same password, you’re definitely not secure,” Kirkpatrick said. “So having different passwords for each different account, that’s very important.”
Kirkpatrick went on to say that multi-factor authentication is key to protecting your personal information and money.
“Often, all these accounts have the ability to add a second factor, or even third-factor authentication…In today’s day and age, you need to kind of go one step further,” he said.
CTV News Toronto has contacted the FBI and United States Secret Electronic Crimes Task Force for more information and is awaiting a response.
Canada·THE FIFTH ESTATE
WE Charity misled donors about building schools in Kenya, records show
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Multiple donors were sent photos of same schoolhouses
Marc and Craig Kielburger's WE Charity routinely misled school-aged children and wealthy philanthropists across North America for years as it solicited millions for schoolhouses in Kenya and other projects in its Adopt-A-Village program, an investigation by CBC's The Fifth Estate has found.
Slick marketing videos, congratulatory social media posts and crowdfunding websites across the internet tell the story of two brothers on a mission to change the world, but under closer scrutiny those digital crumbs lead down a trail of contradictions and deception.
"I don't know how they thought they could get away with it for so long," said a former WE employee. CBC agreed to conceal their identity because they were concerned about legal reprisals from the charity for speaking out.
Years after Rukshan de Silva and his high school classmates in Oakville, Ont., raised money for WE to build a one-room schoolhouse in Kenya, he travelled there to see the fruits of their labour.
Watch "Finding School No. 4: WE Charity's donor deception in Kenya" on The Fifth Estate Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV and stream on CBC Gem.
What he didn't know during his 2013 visit was that four small blue letters displayed prominently above the schoolhouse doorway were a clue that he and the students from Iroquois Ridge High School had been deceived.
In fact, the letters were a dedication to another group which, online records show, indicated that they, too, had fully funded the schoolhouse.
WE Charity, then known as Free the Children, had collected donations to build two schools. Instead, they built one and told both donors they had paid for it.
"We were told that would be Iroquois Ridge's school that we had funded," de Silva said.
The charity was present in classrooms across North America, in part through its Brick by Brick program. School-aged children were recruited to collect small donations from friends and acquaintances — $20 bricks, 500 of which would build a school in an impoverished country.
Now, a months-long Fifth Estate investigation into WE Charity's Kenyan operations reveals that far fewer schools were built than were funded by donors, a fact that leaked internal WE documents show was co-ordinated at the highest levels of the organization.
There was "a strategic decision by senior leaders" to deliberately overfund projects, a former WE employee said.
The deception resulted in multiple donor groups paying for the same schoolhouses many times over.
The "claims that multiple donors funded the same school" is "false," WE said a letter to The Fifth Estate.
"Donors understand that the funds [they give] are not simply going to be used to construct buildings. Donors are told that their donations will be pooled with others to do the most good in a given region or village," they said in another letter.
"We have always tried our best to be very clear with our donors," said Carol Moraa, a senior WE executive based in Kenya.
WATCH | How multiple donors received photos of the same schoolhouse in Kenya:
Multiple donors were sent photos of the same schoolhouse
12 hours ago
0:26
The Fifth Estate's Mark Kelley explains the duplicate photos our team found online. 0:26
In March 2021, the Kielburgers appeared before a parliamentary ethics committee. They were questioned about Reed Cowan, an American broadcaster and WE fundraiser.
Cowan had told the committee that a plaque bearing the name of his deceased son was removed from a school he had fully funded and replaced with a commemoration to another donor.
"We're heartbroken about what happened," Marc Kielburger told members of Parliament.
"It should never have happened. We made a mistake," said Craig Kielburger.
Cowan went on to ask for $20 million in damages from the charity in exchange for his silence on the issue of donor financing. The charity has called his demands "an attempt to extort."
The internal WE Charity records, coupled with internet archives, newspaper articles and social media posts, show that de Silva and Cowan were not the only donors deceived.
Such activities were common practice and part of a multi-faceted strategy that brought in funding for more than 900 primary schoolhouses in Kenya, where WE records show only 360 have actually been built since its work began in 2003.
The Fifth Estate's figure is not complete, as it would not have captured donations that were not made public.
School 24
When de Silva took a photograph of the schoolhouse he visited, his understanding was that the $25,000 raised by his classmates had paid for it, as well as supplies, teacher salaries and other community benefits.
Unknown to him was that those blue letters above the doorway, MPCF 24, stood for the Michael Pinball Clemons Foundation, a charitable group started by the former Toronto Argonauts star running back.
An MPCF webpage states school 24 was funded by the Rotary Club of Courtice, Ont., and a man who would go on to become the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Erin O'Toole.
"School #24 was supported by our community," O'Toole wrote on his Facebook page.
The webpage www.pinballfoundation.ca/schooldonors, which documented MPCF's school construction in Kenya, was available online as recently as Jan. 26, 2021, internet archives show. Since then, the page has been taken down.
The Fifth Estate found the information available at a new URL, www.pinballfoundation.ca /123214fdkfdf4, unlinked to the MPCF site, but still available through a unique keyword search on Google.
Michael Clemons and his foundation did not respond to emails and phone messages.
When The Fifth Estate travelled to Kenya this September and visited school 24, the MPCF emblem was gone.
In an email exchange, Moraa said WE hired a company to do repairs and "the company mistakenly painted over the MPCF numerical system."
However, recent footage taken by The Fifth Estate shows the emblem was removed, not painted over.
The Fifth Estate's research shows de Silva wasn't the only WE donor who had competing claims with the MPCF.
On its Facebook page, H.O.P.E Calgary, a charitable organization, posted a photograph of a schoolhouse built by WE in Kenya.
"Our schoolhouse is now complete and open to classes," it wrote in 2012.
Using the same photo on its website, MPCF counts the schoolhouse as one of 108 it had built in Kenya through WE.
One former employee told The Fifth Estate that if other donors asked about the MPCF logo on a schoolhouse, the "messaging" was that WE Charity would tell them it referred to the Kenyan Ministry of Education.
'Donors understand'
Clemons was among 70 high-profile WE donors who wrote a letter to CBC's editor in chief in which they disagreed that they "as donors, were misled about the projects in Kenya."
"It takes funding from multiple donors to ensure schools and school rooms are built," they wrote, echoing WE's position that donors understand their money is "not simply going to be used to construct buildings."
Based on statements from numerous donors found by The Fifth Estate, that does not appear to be the case, with those donors clearly believing their money would fully fund schoolhouse construction.
Teachers Life, a Canadian insurance provider, wrote in 2015 that it had raised $10,000 for the village of "Irkaat, Kenya, where our classroom will be built."
In the May 25, 2009, edition of Pearson News, the Lester B. Pearson school board in Quebec said it had "raised over $30,000, enough for three one-room schools."
"The schools in Kenya built through Free the Children with our funding are called Enelerai, Olongerin and Pimbiniet Primary Schools," it said.
Building a schoolhouse was not an accomplishment invented by donors. WE employees and prominent fundraisers have been telling donors for years that their donations would go to build schoolhouses.
For example, a 2014 tweet from a WE Charity account stated that $41,000 raised by the Royal Bank would be used to build four schools.
While setting up a fundraising campaign to commemorate his deceased infant son, North Carolinian and former teacher Watson Jordan reached out to a WE employee by email.
"Not sure how to confirm the system knows I am building a school," he wrote in an email shared with The Fifth Estate.
"Our system is aware that you are registered as fundraising for a school," the employee replied.
A video posted to a WE YouTube page in 2013 states "$20 provides one brick, 500 bricks builds a school."
Controlling the narrative
Among those who wrote letters to CBC leadership is entertainment executive Berry Meyerowitz. His note to CBC president Catherine Tait shows how close WE is with some of its supporters.
In the letter, he said: "The Fifth Estate is simply wrong in their narrative."
At the bottom of the email Meyerowitz sent was evidence of prior correspondence with Craig Kielburger. The subject: Draft for consideration. The body: identical to what Meyerowitz sent to CBC's president, aside from changes in the final paragraph.
When asked about the extent to which he collaborated with Kielburger on the email, Meyerowitz said: "I did not collaborate with Craig at all in writing my email. I sent it to him to ensure my facts and timeline was accurate, and for him to add links to share."
He added: "This was a personal email to the president of the CBC. Not part of any editorial effort."
In internal leaked documents, it is clear a donor's level of involvement with WE affected how projects they funded would progress. WE employees made notes about what construction could be delayed because a donor wasn't paying attention.
"[The donor] is not the kind of partner that expects reporting against each of the line items in the budget, so we should be OK to push this (all the funding is in the door)," one employee wrote.
Regarding another delayed project tied to billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group, a WE employee wrote: "I don't see this as being an issue with messaging, as they have not asked us the status of the project."
WATCH | WE Charity executive says the focus should be on its impact in communities:
WE Charity senior executive on their impact in Kenya
1 day ago
1:44
Carol Moraa says focus should be on WE's impact in the communities, not the infrastructure built. 1:44
Laurie Styron, executive director of CharityWatch, a group that monitors charities for governance and transparency issues, reviewed the leaked documents and said they troubled her.
"They're relying on the good grace of donors to just not ask too many questions? That's just wrong. It's a breach of trust," she said.
The documents show that schoolhouses were routinely double-, triple- and quadruple-matched to large donors, a practice confirmed to The Fifth Estate by former WE employees. In one example, eight major donors are stated to have funded the same schoolhouse.
When Jordan, the former teacher, received a letter from WE "in loving memory" of his infant son, it included a photo of schoolhouse No. 4 in Irkaat.
Internal documents show that the same schoolhouse was paid for at least four times over by some of WE's largest donors.
"I feel deceived,"Jordan said.
"Lying to people who've lost children about doing something good on their behalf," he said, "that doesn't seem like an awesome group of people to lie to."
On Wednesday afternoon, WE Charity released preliminary findings of a forensic accountant it hired to compare contributions made to WE designated for Kenya and spending in Kenya.
The preliminary findings said in part that all donations to Kenya between April 1, 2012, and August 31, 2020, total $74 million. At the same time, costs for projects in Kenya were $54.8 million, while costs for WE Canada, including administration, were $29 million. The total costs were "$83.8 million or $9.8 million more" than donations designated for Kenya.
Book by Edmonton author selected as one of Canada's best this year
Dr. Norma Dunning's book Tainna: The Unseen Ones won in the fiction category for 2021 English-language winners. (Source: Canada Council for the Arts)
The book brings together six short stories centred on modern-day Inuk characters.
Dunning is a writer, scholar, researcher, and professor at the University of Alberta.
The 14 winners are chosen from the top 70 finalists by peer assessment committees. There are seven categories in both English and French including fiction, drama, poetry, and non-fiction.
Each winner receives $25,000 and the publisher receives $3,000 to promote the winning book. Each of the finalists receives $1,000.
“This year's Governor General's Literary Awards confirm the irresistible evocative power of literature. The health and societal challenges we have undergone have highlighted the renewed importance of imagination, reflection and critical thinking," said Simon Brault, Director and CEO of Canada Council for the Arts.
Winners of the 2020 Governor General's Literary Awards were announced this year as well due to the pandemic. The Canada Council for the Arts expects to return to its regular announcement schedule in 2022.
A full list of this year's winners can be found online.
The Canada Council for the Arts has funded the awards since 1959.