WE Charitys rise to prominence and unexpected fall

Published: Sept. 14, 2020, 4:10 a.m.

b'Back in 1995, a 12-year-old in Thornhill, Ontario, was so moved by a newspaper story about the death of a boy in Pakistan who fought against child labour, that he created a charity called Free the Children. Craig Kielburger, along with his brother Mark, went on to create a mass movement of youth activism. But 25 years later, and following a political controversy related to a student volunteer grant program, the Kielburgers announced they were stepping down and closing the Canadian arm of WE Charity. Today, Marie-Danielle Smith and Jason Markusoff of Maclean\\u2019s magazine report on the stratospheric rise \\u2013 and the unexpected fall \\u2013 of WE.'