Description: Much of the summer news featured the controversy of the federal government’s decision to award a sole-source contract for $43.5 million to the WE charitable group to deliver a student grant program. The backlash over the controversy has cost WE major sponsors such as Telus, RBC, and Virgin Atlantic. All this financial hit has prompted WE to announce that it will be winding down its operations and delivering the proceeds of asset sales to an endowment fund to support ongoing operations.

Date:  September 9, 2020

Source:  cbc.ca

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/we-charity-winding-down-operations-1.5717899

Discussion points:

1) Have you ever attended a WE Day event? If so, what are your memories of it?

2) What was your opinion of the controversy that arose over possible conflicts of interest in the granting of the contract to WE?

3) Page 1-4 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making, talks about standards of ethical behaviour. What ethical standards may the government officials involved in granting the contract to WE have broken?