Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman are a billionaire Canadian couple. While Reisman is the founder and CEO Indigo Books, Schwartz is the founder and former CEO of Onex Corporation (the parent company of WestJet and hundreds of other subsidiaries). Together they have founded multiple charities, most notably The Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation and the HESEG Foundation.
The Schwartz & Reisman Foundation
Based on CRA data, The Schwartz & Reisman Foundation has donated over $441 million dollars to other charities since 1997. Nearly 45% of these funds have gone to one organization: the HESEG Foundation. But that’s not all. Another 20% of these funds are given to organizations that funnel money to Israel through the Canada to Israel Charity Pipeline. Since 2014, The Schwartz & Reisman Foundation has also sent over $6 million directly to an Israeli organization.
In other words, Schwartz & Reisman are funneling their wealth to Israel, most notably through the HESEG Foundation.
The HESEG Foundation
The HESEG Foundation / HESEG Israel assists non-Israelis in joining the Israeli military [1]. This occurs despite the CRA explicitly stating assistance of foreign military is not a charitable activity. Since 2008, the HESEG Foundation has received a total of over $196 million. 99.55% of this was from The Schwartz & Reisman Foundation. In that same period, the HESEG Foundation sent $127,908,593 to Israel [2]. This amount includes $94,554,044 worth of expenses for research grants and scholarships. Based on the work of HESEG, it is fair to consider that these funds were used for “lone soldier” scholarships.
There is a notable discrepancy between the amount other charities reported sending the HESEG Foundation and the revenue reported as received by HESEG. Between 2008 and 2024, other charities reported sending HESEG over $196 million, however HESEG reports only receiving just over $125 million from other charities. This raises the question — what happened to the missing $71 million? It does not appear to be accounted for in the charity’s expenses (which total only $147 million) [3].
As the genocide and destruction in Gaza caused by the Israeli military continues, it’s imperative that Canadian taxpayers are not subsidizing that violence in violation of CRA laws.
Take Action
Follow and support the work of Boycott Indigo Books. Check out their work online at boycottindigobooks.com. You can:
- Take the pledge and Boycott Indigo
- Support local bookstores
- Email the CRA to tell them to investigate and revoke the Schwartz/Reisman charities
Footnotes
[1] The HESEG Foundation (Canada) and HESEG Israel (Keren HESEG) appear to be in fact the same organization, based on shared board members and website.
[2] Notably, the HESEG Foundation only reports $8,014,984 of the total $127,908,593 to Israel as going to HESEG Israel. This is because essentially all of the HESEG Foundation’s activities are in Israel. All expenses reported to the CRA on Line 4950 (professional/consulting fees, travel costs, and charitable activities) are sent to Israel as reported on Line 200 (out of country to Israel).
[3] Based on data from other charities T1236, it appears that the HESEG Foundation did not receive funds in 2014 from other charities. However, HESEG reported receiving $7,150,000 from other charities in 2014. Therefore this discrepancy could be even larger than noted here. It also could be smaller. In 2015, CRA data shows that The Schwartz & Reisman Foundation gave HESEG over $80 million dollars. This is a significantly higher amount than in previous and future years (see Table “Funds sent to the HESEG Foundation from The Schwartz & Reisman Foundation” below).
Learn More
You can read through our previous posts / analyses below or take a look at some more in-depth data for the current analysis.
