Questioned for regarding ten days by our Bureau of Inquiry on his promise to raise $10 million in seven years for the Montreal Children’s Hospital, PK Subban admitted Thursday that he had not fulfilled his commitment.
The former star defender of the Montreal Canadiens said in a press release published Thursday at 2 p.m. that $6.3 million had been collected to date, more than seven years following his promise made in September 2015.
He blames the COVID-19 pandemic for explaining this discrepancy.
“Due to the impact of the pandemic on fundraising events, PK Subban has extended this commitment to 10 years and plans to continue its long-term partnership,” said PK Subban.
This means that the athlete is giving himself until 2025 to collect the promised sum.
The defender’s announcement was made to 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, on the athlete’s official website, we can read this: “In September 2015, PK Subban donated $10 million to the Montreal Children’s Hospital”.
However, such an assertion is false, because the greatest portion of the money does not come from the athlete himself, but from the public who give to his foundation.
Martin Chevalier / JdeM
According to research carried out in recent weeks by our Bureau of Investigation, available public records (official press releases, annual reports and tax returns) show $3.28 million remitted to the Foundation since 2015.
Subban says today that $6.3 million was handed over, but gives no details on where the funds came from.
He refuses to say how much he personally gave as part of this agreement. One thing is certain, according to the annual reports of the Hospital Foundation that we consulted, his name is not in the category of those who have given cumulatively more than a million since 1995.
For its part, at the end of August 2021, the PK Subban Foundation declared to the Canada Revenue Agency that it had donated a total of $880,000 to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, since its official incorporation in November 2016.
As of that date, nearly $2.2 million eligible for donations slept in its coffers. This information is public and is the most recent available.