On saviours and saviourism: lessons from the #WEscandal

Abstract

In 2020, the Canadian-based humanitarian organisation WE was the subject of a funding scandal in Canada that cast a critical light on its finances and mandate. The scandal tarnished the reputations of the organisation and its founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, who had been lauded as model global citizens for more than two decades. This paper uses the controversy as an example to distinguish between the increasingly disparaged trope of the white saviour and the continuing normalisation of saviourism as an orientation that naturalises philanthropic or charitable approaches to alleviating suffering as both just and effective.

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