Located in Squamish, B.C., Quest University Canada (“Quest”) is one of the few private, secular universities in Canada. Since opening in 2007, Quest has welcomed about 500 students annually from 40 countries around the world. For a pricey $35,000 per year, Quest offers an under-graduate education in Liberal Arts. In the Macleans Survey of Student Engagement, Quest has repeatedly come out on top. But now, Quest is in deep trouble.
In January of 2020, Quest went into creditor protection. At the end of October after months of trying to solve its financial woes, Quest's Board of Governors sought court approval to sell the entire university in large part so it can pay a $23.6 million debt to Vanchorverve Foundation (“Vanchorverve”), a registered charity run by Blake Bromley, a Vancouver lawyer.
Blake Bromley is one of Quest’s co-founders and has been involved in its financing since Quest began. Bromley has claimed to have registered 650 charities that tax-receipted more than $2 billion. In March of 2020, Bromley retired.
From my detailed research over four years, I have found 50 registered charities that have handled tax-receipted donations relevant to the funding of Quest University. All these charities are run by Blake Bromley and his associates so I refer to these as "The Bromley Charities."
Under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”), Quest’s case is being heard by Madam Justice Shelly Fitzpatrick. The problem is, despite ten months of proceedings, crucial information about the origins and the early history of Quest’s loans has not been heard in court. This information, filed in an affidavit on November 9, 2020, stems from tax returns and financial statements that were obtained from the Canada Revenue Agency on October 15, 2020 pursuant to a freedom of information request filed on July 8, 2020. These documents confirmed long-standing concerns, explained ahead.
Karen Elliott, Mayor of The District of Squamish, has grave concerns and wants more due diligence with regards to Quest's proposed sale, she has told the local newspaper.
Quest's Birthright
According to agreements with Squamish (an MOU and a Covenant) more than 20 years ago, Quest should have benefitted from the development of 240 acres of land that was purchased for $1.7 million and re-zoned specifically for the university. That was Quest’s birthright but Quest didn't get it. Now, on that very same land there are 350 residential lots and homes worth nearly $400 million and yet Quest is in foreclosure, deprived of it birthright in terms of land and millions of dollars in tax-receipted donations.
Indeed, the MOU between Squamish and one of The Bromley Charities states, “Any net revenue derived from the sale or development of the Market Housing Areas shall be expended to develop and maintain the Campus Site as well as develop and enhance the curriculum, develop and market the University and provide endowment and other funding for students, faculty and programs of the University within the boundaries of the District.” (Point 15)
When the MOU was signed, The Squamish Chief reported, “A campus covering 121,000 square metres funded by the creation of 960 residential housing units is the Howe Sound Educational Foundation’s plan for district lot 512.” But as anyone can see, that plan was not followed.
Not only Quest didn’t receive the donations and economic benefits that were its due, but furthermore, Quest ended up saddled with loans from a daisy chain of The Bromley Charities. First Global Charity Fund, then Foundation For Public Good, then CHIMP Foundation, and finally Vanchorverve. These charities were obligated to make gifts, not loans. The loans were secured by a mortgage on Quest’s main campus. Since that mortgage is now in default, The Bromley Charities can now profit from Quest’s demise to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
Over the same years that amounts owing to The Bromley Charities brought Quest to its knees, these same charities and related entities have benefitted substantially from land sales, lease payments, the sale of a student residence, fees, commission, royalty income, naming rights to Quest, interest on loans, and more. On a gross basis, these benefits look to total well beyond $100 million over roughly 15 years.
Cinnamon, Jang and Willoughby, a Vancouver-based forensic accounting firm, is reviewing this matter, paid for with $26,000 raised via GoFundMe.
The Bromley Charities
It was because of the strange names of some of The Bromley Charities that they first caught my eye. For example, “Trust Me Foundation,” and “Maple Syrup Mafia Foundation,” the latter of which funded another charity called “The Next Big Thing.” Some of the Bromley Charities do nothing but transfer large sums, eg. $30 million, from one Bromley Charity to the next.
Another reason The Bromley Charities caught my attention is because one of them, now closed, funded travel for Mr. Bromley to meet with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in New York around the same time that it began to scale up its funding of environmental activism in Canada, nearly 20 years ago. Since then, there have been many interactions and connections between key people involved with The Bromley Charities and Tides Canada (now called MakeWay).
As for Quest University, ten of The Bromley Charities were intimately involved in funding its start-up. These ten reported a total of $425 million in tax-receipted donations. If only Quest had received all that cash, it almost certainly would not have ended up in creditor protection. To put this figure into perspective, consider that $425 million exceeds the initial costs of the Quest’s land and campus construction by more than ten-fold.
Quest owes its existence in part to Blake Bromley and The Bromley Charities but it has been an acrimonious relationship and, as we'll see ahead, The Bromley Charities have benefited substantially from Quest while at the same time, pushing it into foreclosure.
Blake Bromley once wrote a letter to a potential donor stating that he had raised "$70 million of cash funding" for Quest. But Quest never received anywhere near that, tax returns show. Had Quest truly received $70 million from The Bromley Charities, it would probably not have ended up in creditor protection and, ultimately, for sale.
Next, I’ll give three examples of how The Bromley Charities have deprived Quest of its birthright in terms of land and millions of dollars in tax-receipted donations.
First, consider that Quest University Canada Foundation tax-receipted $46.6 million in donations but gave the university merely $70,000 of that. In 2015, this charity closed and re-opened under a different registration number. (The original # was 854947926, the new # is 854947926). And what happened to the money that wasn't given to the university? It was given instead to one of The Bromley Charities. Sea to Sky Foundation got a whopping $45,175,000.
Another Bromley Charity, QUC Residents Housing Foundation, received $3.2 million but gave the university no funding at all. And who got the money that the university didn't? You guessed it: other Bromley Charities, Fortius Foundation and Pacific Light Foundation. And the latest news? In April of 2020, QUC Residents Housing Foundation renamed itself. Now its called “Building Benevolence in a COVID World Foundation."
Next, as a second example of how The Bromley Charities have treated Quest University, consider that The Bromley Charities reported non-cash, tax-receipted donations for hundreds of millions of dollars that was subsequently written off the books. Examples of this are Global Charity Fund (which reported $70 million as tax-receipted non-cash donations) and the Stewart and Marilyn Blusson Foundation ("Blusson Foundation").
Stewart Blusson
The story told is that Quest got $100 million from Stewart Blusson, a Canadian geologist and pioneer in diamond mining. Mr. Blusson received the Order of Canada, in part, for his contributions to Quest. However, financial statements and tax returns clearly show that Quest could not have received anywhere near $100 million from Mr. Blusson. Quest did receive a "loan" of $65 million from him but according to financial statements, that loan was never touched, never drawn upon before it was "forgiven" in 2014.
As an example of how Stewart & Marilyn Blusson Foundation reported tax-receipted donations and then immediately wrote them off the books, consider what happened in 2007, the year that Quest opened. That year, Blusson Foundation reported precisely $10,535,900 in tax-receipted donations and the very same year, the Blusson Foundation wrote off the exact same amount as impairment on investment.
In total, the Blusson Foundation reported $123 million in tax-receipted donations yet only $342,200 was ever gifted to legitimate charities. A further $15 million was “gifted” to Sea to Sky Foundation, a Bromley Charity. However, land titles and mortgages show that $15 million bomeranged back to Blusson Foundation in the form of 60 acres of land known as “Parcel A.” That land was sold or transferred from Quest University back to Stewart & Marilyn Blusson Foundation at a market value of $15 million but as it appears, the $15 million was never paid to Quest nor was the land given back. Instead, Blusson Foundation passed along Parcel A to Global Charity Fund, a Bromley Charity, which used it to secure a $20 million mortgage to cover a liability of Stewart Blusson’s diamond mining business. That mortgage was doubled to $40 million in November of 2019 - just three days before Quest’s loan came due on November 1, 2019. If only that land, Parcel A, had been used to the benefit of Quest rather than the diamond business, perhaps Quest wouldn't have had to enter into creditor protection at all.
To sum up, Stewart Blusson is credited with having donated $100 million to Quest but there is no evidence that he actually did. In fact, no evidence has been found that he gave even as much as one dollar. Mr. Blusson has been asked numerous times to explain what happened via telephone and e-mail. He doesn't reply.
Of the ten Bromley Charities originally involved with Quest, only three are currently operating. Three were shut down by the CRA, three closed voluntarily and one announced last year that it intends to close. The Stewart and Marilyn Blusson Foundation is still active, though with only four dollars remaining, it appears to have wound down.
Quest’s story brings into question the oversight of charities by the Canada Revenue Agency. Why do some charities get away with tax-receipting hundreds of millions of dollars that are bogus, and then just quietly shut down?
The Legitimacy of Quest's Original Loan
Quest ended up in creditor protection because of debt to The Bromley Charities. If that debt is legitimate, it stands to reason that it should be paid. But for the reasons explained in detail in my affidavit and in my letter to Blake Bromley, Quest's loans from the Bromley Charities should have been gifts, not loans. It follows that the “debt” that got Quest into creditor protection lacks legitimacy. Furthermore, it follows that Quest should not be sold to pay a debt isn’t legit.
To reassess the legitimacy of Quest's loans, the place to start is with Global Charity Fund. In 2011, Global Charity reported $70 million in tax-receipted non-cash donations. That same year and the following year, Global Charity made two gifts to Quest University for a total of $950 000. After that, Global Charity made loans to Quest instead of gift and within two years, Global Charity’s assets were disposed of and it ceased to operate as a registered charity.
Global Charity also gifted $2.5 million to QUC Residents Housing Foundation which never funded Quest. Thus, it appears to have been a “decoy” charity in the sense that it gave a false impression that Global Charity Fund supported Quest.
Over roughly the same years that Global Charity Fund gifted $950,000 to Quest, Global Charity received the exact same amount from another Bromley Charity, Almoner Foundation. If Global Charity truly had received $70 million, there would have been no need for $950,000 from Almoner.
For these reasons, in hindsight it appears that the reason that Global Charity discontinued gifts to Quest because is because it didn’t actually have money. The $70 million was bogus.
In the CRA’s digital database, the amount of non-cash tax-receipted donations reported by Global Charity Fund in 2011 is reported as $70,000 not $70,000,000. If this amount had been recorded correctly, it would have been the largest annual amount of non-cash donations in the history of Canada up until 2011.
This “missing zeros” data entry error is not a one-off. Twelve tax returns with 15 errors have been found in the CRA’s on-line database with regards to The Bromley Charities. In all 15 cases, the error is the same: the last three zeros are missing and in all 15 cases, the amounts reported are with regards to charities that made gifts related to the start-up of Quest.
Sale to Primacorp Ventures Inc.
On November 3, Quest began seeking court approval to sell the entire university to Primacorp Ventures Inc. ("Primacorp") whose principal is Peter Chung. The lawyers and the court-appointed monitor at PwC moved fast. On November 12 & 13, Quest's case was heard in court and on November 16, Madam Judge Shelley Fitzpatrick approved Quest's sale to Primacorp.
The proposed sale involves payment of $25 million to one of The Bromley Charities, Vanchorverve Foundation. In my view, this would be perverse. That the CCAA court could legitimize this payment without considering all the facts (which appear not to have been provided to the court) is a travesty.
As for how Primacorp proposes to finance its purchase of Quest, the proposed sale agreement provides little information. A key section is entirely blacked out. For all we know, Primacorp Ventures Inc. may be in collaboration with The Bromley Charities.
Peter Chung, the principal of Primacorp Ventures Inc. has a long history with faith-based charities that are funded by The Bromley Charities and other sources. This information was removed from Primacorp's web-site at some point in the past year.
In October, as part of a long series of letters to Blake Bromley, I pleaded with him to discontinue foreclosure against Quest and give the university its due. For starters, 72 acres for which title is currently held by The Bromley Charities should be returned to Quest. This land, known as Parcel A and Lot 12, has an assessed value of $33.8 million.
When all the economic benefits are considered, it looks as if The Bromley Charities owe Quest millions of dollars, not the other way around. Before approving the sale of Quest, the CCAA court had an obligation to find out who in truth owes what to whom. But so much for that.
On November 16, 2020, Madam Justice Fitzpatrick approved Quest's plan to sell itself to Primacorp.
