{"id":5470,"date":"2020-07-23T00:04:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T03:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=5470"},"modified":"2020-07-23T07:05:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T10:05:41","slug":"mr-richard-martineau-the-business-of-charity-la-business-de-la-charite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/07\/23\/mr-richard-martineau-the-business-of-charity-la-business-de-la-charite\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Richard Martineau: \u201cThe business of charity\u201d [\u201cLa business de la charit\u00e9\u201d]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once again, here is a sarcastic article by Mr. Richard\nMartineau (Journal de Montr\u00e9al<\/em>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.journaldemontreal.com\/2020\/07\/22\/la-business-de-la-charite<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This piece was published before the latest update from Ottawa about the WE Charity<\/em>\u2019s unfolding saga: (1). Mr. Trudeau will finally testify in front of the Ethics Committee and (2). Mr. Morneau (Canada’s Minister of Finance) wrote a cheque in payment to the WE Charity<\/em> of $41,366 today (before his testimony). He said that he \u201cforgot\u201d to pay this bill to cover some of the costs of a family vacation with the WE Charity <\/em>(https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/morneau-repays-we-charity-41-000-for-travel-expenses-1.1468963<\/a>). As reported by Mr. Lilley in the Toronto Sun<\/em>, \u201cit was also unclear if the expenses were related to a trip his wife and daughter took with WE to Kenya the summer of 2017, one the family took to Ecuador around Christmas 2017, or both<\/em>\u201d (https:\/\/torontosun.com\/opinion\/columnists\/lilley-we-fiasco-shows-trudeau-government-adrift<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, keeping this in mind, here is quick translation of Mr. Martineau\u2019s article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be\nsuccessful in business, you must be able to seize all the opportunities\navailable to you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guess what\npeople want before they know it themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anticipate\nthe waves, the fashions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GOOD\nCONSCIOUSNESS TO SELL!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is COVID starting to take its toll? Make masks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veggie fashion got the wind in its sails? Make fake meat with plants or turkey-shaped tofu blocks for Christmas!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is crime on the rise? Hire guard dogs and security systems!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have to guess what products and services people will be ready to buy in two or three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could be Internet series, electric taxis or the digital radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, there has been a boom in the charity industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will tell me: but what do charities sell?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simple: good conscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern man, you see, has a bad conscience. He watches TV, reads the newspapers, and feels guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To have money, to be healthy, to screw up the environment, to exploit the third world, to be sexist, racist, homophobic, grossophobic, transphobic, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are plenty of opportunities to feel guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before, when we had a bad conscience, we went to see the priest. One \u201cHail Mary\u201d and two \u201cOur Father\u201d, and suddenly we had our conscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The confessional was a kind of car wash for the soul. Ten minutes, and the job was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You came out cleansed, shining. Ready to sin again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today there are charities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You feel bad? Privileged? Guilty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A check, and you can finally sleep easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The squeegees even offer drive-thru, if you don’t have time to write a check for the United Way<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little\ntwo, a smile, and you feel like you’ve saved, if not the world, at least your\nsoul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THEY GOT IT!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course,\nthere are a lot of people of good faith in the charity. People with their\nhearts in the right place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are also opportunists. Who smelled the good deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of getting into green tea or CrossFit<\/em>, they got into the charity business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to WE<\/em>, our friend Justin’s favorite charity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember, “I give contracts to your mother, brother and wife, and you give me $43.5 million”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WE Charity<\/em> owns $50 million in real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifty million!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And wait, that’s not all, this “charitable” organization has two components: a non-profit component and a for-profit component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the National Post<\/em>, which keeps releasing juicy scoops on this organization, a lot of money goes between the nonprofit (that is, your donations) and the profit (their pockets).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is called “being in business”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of Justin’s friends got richer thanks to the marijuana legalization. The bosses of WE<\/em>, on the other hand, are riding the wave of compassion-show and the culture of apology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two great legacies of our PM.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again, here is a sarcastic article by Mr. Richard Martineau (Journal de Montr\u00e9al): https:\/\/www.journaldemontreal.com\/2020\/07\/22\/la-business-de-la-charite This piece was published before the latest update from Ottawa about the WE Charity\u2019s unfolding saga: (1). Mr. Trudeau will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5470"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5479,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5470\/revisions\/5479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}