Questioned for about ten days by our Bureau of Inquiry about his promise to raise $10 million over seven years for the benefit of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, PK Subban admitted Thursday that he had failed to fulfill this commitment.
The announcement was made with great fanfare in September 2015. According to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, it was “the largest philanthropic commitment ever made by a professional athlete in Canada”.
Still to this day, seven and a half years later, we can read this on the athlete’s official website: “In September 2015, PK Subban donated $10 million to the Montreal Children’s Hospital. »
However, the former star defender of the Montreal Canadiens indicated Thursday in a press release that $ 6.3 million have been paid. The majority of this sum comes from the public, not from the defender himself.
Matter of trust
No one doubts PK Subban’s dedication. He has indeed participated in several fundraising campaigns and meetings with young patients.
Photo Martin Chevalier
Although he failed to raise $10 million, PK Subban has been very involved in helping sick children, and his commitment was highlighted at the Bell Center last week.
But several experts note a lack of transparency in the way the promise was presented publicly.
“PK Subban is someone who signed a $72 million contract over 8 years. With the wealth gap, when we see promises of donations like that, it’s important that we can trust that these things will happen,” said Brigitte Alepin, tax expert and professor at the University of Quebec in Outaouais, after carefully examining the case.
PK Subban blames the COVID-19 pandemic for explaining this discrepancy, and gives himself until 2025 to raise the promised sum. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together so far, and it’s not over,” the athlete said in a statement.
Transparency
In the past few days, neither Subban nor the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation would say how much he personally donated. Certainly, in the annual reports of the Hospital Foundation, his name is not in the category of those who have given cumulatively more than $1 million since 1995.
It is also impossible to know how much public money has passed through the PK Subban Foundation, and how much has been given directly by donors to the Hospital Foundation.
“To function in the public arena, you need to have standards of transparency. That of the Montreal Children’s Hospital lacks transparency, which is a cardinal sin for a foundation. There is food for thought, ”believes Christian Desîlets, professor of social advertising at Laval University and specialist in social causes.
$10M, REALLY?
This claim on the PK Subban Foundation website is dubious because:
- The money was not donated in 2015. To date, $6.3M has been donated.
- PK Subban donated less than a million. Most of the money comes from the public.