At the age of 12, child activist Craig Kielburger, began his extraordinary fight against child labour. He went to India to find out about the realities of children who are forced to work in the carpet trade. He confronted the Canadian Prime Minister and then he toured the world, speaking out wherever he could. The film explores the complex issue of working children, and looks at “Free The Children” – the movement Craig and his school friends founded. Shot in India, Brazil & the Philippines.
Director: Judy Jackson.
Stars: Craig Kielburger.
Important context for this film: Kielburger went on to found WE Charity, a notorious grift that would siphon tens of million dollars in public and private funding for spurious development projects in Africa. WE would be at the heart of a 2020 scandal that resulted in the fall of Finance Minister Bill Morneau when the Trudeau government turned over coordination of a nationwide volunteer effort to the charity during COVID lockdowns–with no oversight or competition for the contract, and despite clear conflicts of interest. This doc is an interesting look at the (possibly earnest) origins of someone whose overall influence on the nonprofit world has proven profoundly poisonous.