Kielburgers issue new demands before testifying

Marc and Craig Kielburger's appearance before the federal ethics committee next week remains uncertain after the WE Charity co-founders laid out a list of conditions before testifying.

On Monday, the brothers reversed their initial refusal to testify and requested to come before the committee after it voted unanimously to summon the pair.

William McDowell, the Kielburgers' lawyer, now says that police could draw on the information disclosed in the hearings, even though it falls under parliamentary privilege.

"While it may be true, in a limited sense, that 'Parliamentary privilege ensures that anything said in Parliament cannot be used in any other proceeding,' you will appreciate that law enforcement agencies and others are free to use the information disclosed in committee hearings," McDowell wrote in a letter to Conservative committee chair Chris Warkentin. The letter was posted by a WE Charity Twitter account Wednesday evening.

NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus has asked the RCMP and the Canada Revenue Agency to investigate the Toronto-based organization's operations.

This is an excellent analysis from the former senior legal counsel of the Parliament of Canada of the dangerous precedents being set by the Kielburger brothers over their haggling about whether or not they will accept a legal summons to appear.https://t.co/IkYy9JmE1y

— Charlie Angus NDP (@CharlieAngusNDP) March 11, 2021

McDowell is demanding that lawyers be able to appear on camera, make an opening statement and intervene to object to questions put to the Kielburgers during testimony.

"To be clear, it is not my intention to provide substantive answers to the questions, but rather to intervene as necessary to protect our clients' rights," he said.

Angus said he expects the brothers to testify regardless of whether their latest demands are met, in accordance with parliamentary precedent.

"I'm not really sure what's behind these theatrics from the Kielburger brothers. The issue is, there is an outstanding legal summons compelling them to testify. That's an extraordinary step that we've had to take in order to get answers," Angus said in an interview.

"There's almost no precedent in the history of Parliament for someone refusing a legal summons … and the heads of a Canadian charity doing that would be certainly dramatic."

In that situation, the case could go to the House of Commons, which could order witnesses to appear. Witnesses who still refuse could be declared guilty of contempt.

"My advice to them is just calm down, take a deep breath, show up and answer the questions and do the right thing," Angus said.

Both the Commons ethics committee and procedure and House affairs committee have invited the Kielburger brothers to testify as part of their ongoing scrutiny of a federal agreement to have WE manage a now-cancelled student services grant program, despite the organization's close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family.

Ethics commissioner Mario Dion is investigating the involvement of Trudeau and former finance minister Bill Morneau, who also has family ties to WE, in awarding the $43.5-million contract. Both have apologized for not recusing themselves from the decision.