Questioned for about 10 days by our investigative agency about his pledge to raise $10 million in seven years for Montreal Children’s Hospital, PK Subban admitted Thursday that he had failed to fulfill his pledge.
The former Montreal Canadiens star defenseman said in a press release issued at 2 p.m. Thursday that $6.3 million has been raised to date, more than seven years after his pledge in September 2015.
He blames the COVID-19 pandemic for explaining this discrepancy.
“Due to the impact of the pandemic on fundraising, PK Subban has extended this commitment to 10 years and plans to continue our long-term partnership,” said PK Subban.
This means that the athlete has until 2025 to collect the promised amount.
The defender’s 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”.
Today, the athlete’s official website reads: “In September 2015, PK Subban donated $10 million to Montreal Children’s Hospital.”
However, such a claim is false, as most of the money does not come from the athlete himself, but from the public donating to his foundation.
According to research conducted by our Bureau of Investigation over the past few weeks, available public records (official press releases, annual reports and tax returns) show that $3.28 million has been transferred to the foundation since 2015.
Subban says today that $6.3 million was handed over, but does not provide details on where the funds came from.
He refuses to say how much he personally gave under this agreement. One thing is for sure, according to the Hospital Foundation annual reports we consulted, his name is not among those who have given more than a million combined since 1995.
For its part, the PK Subban Foundation reported to the Canada Revenue Agency in late August 2021 that it had donated a total of $880,000 to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation since its official inception in November 2016.
At that point, he had almost $2.2 million in donations in his coffers. This information is public and the most current available.
Do you have any information about this story that you would like to share with us?
Do you have a scoop that might be of interest to our readers?