Troubling incident raises questions about foreign aid

[Anonymous]

In too instances Canadian taxpayers money is being used abroad for nefarious purposes.



By Candace Malcolm of Sun News Media



Canadian aid dollars went to purchasing equipment that was later stolen by an armed Islamist terror group in Syria, according to declassified documents obtained by Global News.



So much for the Liberal claim that Canadian foreign aid is sacrosanct.



During the recent federal election campaign, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer announced a proposal to cut Canada's foreign aid contributions by 25%. He was met with a familiar push-back from the mainstream media.



So-called experts and partisan fact-checkers were quick to quarrel with Scheer's assertion that some of the $6 billion Canada sends overseas to foreign governments and government-adjacent industries is poorly spent, wasted or goes to hostile regimes and causes counter to Canada's national interest.



Liberals in politics and the media condemned the Conservatives for preferring to spend money at home to help Canadians in need rather than sending our taxpayer dollars to unaccountable organizations often doing work that is futile and counter-productive.



As an aside, I wrote my graduate school dissertation on free market foreign aid initiatives and spent months combing through the literature and data on foreign aid. My conclusion, which aligns with others such as Zambian economist Dambiso Moyo (whose book Dead Aid should be required reading for anyone in the field) and NYU economist William Easterly, is that traditional bilateral and multilateral aid often harms the recipients more than it helps.



Supporters of foreign aid like to point to examples like South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore — countries that had struggling economies and were major aid-recipients 30 years ago and are now wealthy trading partners — as examples of why foreign aid works.



To state the obvious, it was free-market policies and the rule of law, not government hand-outs and wealth redistribution, that led to meaningful development in the Far East.



As is typical in the Canadian media landscape though, there were no voices providing this counter perspective. This week's news, however, supplies another data point to support Scheer's perspective on foreign aid.



An access to information request showed that in August 2018, Canadian foreign aid to Syria was stolen by an al-qaeda-linked terrorist organization.



As reported by Global News, "gunmen raided an office in northwest Syria and walked off with almost two dozen electronic devices that were part of Canada's humanitarian contribution to the region."



The gunmen were part of a radical Islamist militia, known as Hayat Tahrir al-sham (HTS), an arm of al-qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-nusra. They stole laptop computers, projectors, ipads, mobile phones and two-way radios — all useful equipment for terrorist groups to communicate, spread propaganda and plan their next gruesome attack.



Global News points out that since this group is a listed terrorist entity through the Department of Public Safety, Canadians face up to 10 years in prison for knowingly providing it with property.



The Criminal Code's law on financing of terrorism is far more explicit than that. Anyone who "directly or indirectly" provides property that goes towards supporting terrorist activity "is guilty of an indictable offence."



I have a feeling there's an exemption when it's our own government who unwillingly provides material support to our enemies.



This example is just the tip of the iceberg as to why Canadians should be wary of our tax dollars going overseas to support various unaccountable schemes under the auspices of foreign aid.

[Anonymous]

I avoid large charities because I can't be sure if the money is being spent the way they claim it is..



The same applies to federal foreign aid.

[Anonymous]

To hell with foreign aid.

[Anonymous]

To hell with foreign aid.

I like giving my money to corrupt assholes.

[Thiel]

In too instances Canadian taxpayers money is being used abroad for nefarious purposes.



By Candace Malcolm of Sun News Media



Canadian aid dollars went to purchasing equipment that was later stolen by an armed Islamist terror group in Syria, according to declassified documents obtained by Global News.



So much for the Liberal claim that Canadian foreign aid is sacrosanct.



During the recent federal election campaign, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer announced a proposal to cut Canada's foreign aid contributions by 25%. He was met with a familiar push-back from the mainstream media.



So-called experts and partisan fact-checkers were quick to quarrel with Scheer's assertion that some of the $6 billion Canada sends overseas to foreign governments and government-adjacent industries is poorly spent, wasted or goes to hostile regimes and causes counter to Canada's national interest.



Liberals in politics and the media condemned the Conservatives for preferring to spend money at home to help Canadians in need rather than sending our taxpayer dollars to unaccountable organizations often doing work that is futile and counter-productive.



As an aside, I wrote my graduate school dissertation on free market foreign aid initiatives and spent months combing through the literature and data on foreign aid. My conclusion, which aligns with others such as Zambian economist Dambiso Moyo (whose book Dead Aid should be required reading for anyone in the field) and NYU economist William Easterly, is that traditional bilateral and multilateral aid often harms the recipients more than it helps.



Supporters of foreign aid like to point to examples like South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore — countries that had struggling economies and were major aid-recipients 30 years ago and are now wealthy trading partners — as examples of why foreign aid works.



To state the obvious, it was free-market policies and the rule of law, not government hand-outs and wealth redistribution, that led to meaningful development in the Far East.



As is typical in the Canadian media landscape though, there were no voices providing this counter perspective. This week's news, however, supplies another data point to support Scheer's perspective on foreign aid.



An access to information request showed that in August 2018, Canadian foreign aid to Syria was stolen by an al-qaeda-linked terrorist organization.



As reported by Global News, "gunmen raided an office in northwest Syria and walked off with almost two dozen electronic devices that were part of Canada's humanitarian contribution to the region."



The gunmen were part of a radical Islamist militia, known as Hayat Tahrir al-sham (HTS), an arm of al-qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-nusra. They stole laptop computers, projectors, ipads, mobile phones and two-way radios — all useful equipment for terrorist groups to communicate, spread propaganda and plan their next gruesome attack.



Global News points out that since this group is a listed terrorist entity through the Department of Public Safety, Canadians face up to 10 years in prison for knowingly providing it with property.



The Criminal Code's law on financing of terrorism is far more explicit than that. Anyone who "directly or indirectly" provides property that goes towards supporting terrorist activity "is guilty of an indictable offence."



I have a feeling there's an exemption when it's our own government who unwillingly provides material support to our enemies.



This example is just the tip of the iceberg as to why Canadians should be wary of our tax dollars going overseas to support various unaccountable schemes under the auspices of foreign aid.

There is little transparency in foreign aid.

[Odinson]

Finnish foreign aid went to fund a brothel..



It was a hospital for women on paper..





Give money to the locals... They are so honest... What could possibly go wrong..





If something goes wrong... That could happen in a white country too..

[Anonymous]

Finnish foreign aid went to fund a brothel..



It was a hospital for women on paper..





Give money to the locals... They are so honest... What could possibly go wrong..





If something goes wrong... That could happen in a white country too..

That's terrible Odi.

[Anonymous]

Finnish foreign aid went to fund a brothel..



It was a hospital for women on paper..





Give money to the locals... They are so honest... What could possibly go wrong..





If something goes wrong... That could happen in a white country too..

That's terrible Odi.

That is how it is.

[Anonymous]

All Western and NE Asian countries are wasting money on foreign aid. Here is one example of how corrupt foreign aid is.



https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-billions-in-aid-money-for-afghanistan-wasted-us-agency-finds/">https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politic ... ncy-finds/">https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-billions-in-aid-money-for-afghanistan-wasted-us-agency-finds/

Billions in aid to Afghanistan wasted, including money from Canada, U.S. agency finds



Billions of dollars in Western foreign aid to Afghanistan, including from Canada, has been lost to widespread waste, lax oversight and endemic corruption, a U.S. watchdog agency says.



The U.S. Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report to Congress that aid money has gone to build medical clinics without electricity or water, schools without children and buildings that literally melted away in the rain. Also, corrupt local officials who were in charge of paying workers with some of the funds created what the audits called "ghost workers," civilian bureaucrats, police and soldiers who did not exist, then kept or diverted money recorded as being paid to them.



"There is a lot of corruption, [but] most of what we have identified are just head-smacking stupid programs and really poorly managed and no accountability. Nobody is really held accountable for wasting the money," Special Inspector-General John Sopko said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.



Unlike the United States, Canada does not independently audit the money it puts into Western trust funds for international aid.

[Gaon]

America alone spent $42 billion on foreign aid in 2017.

[Gaon]

The pope is right: Foreign aid can be worse than a waste



 the pope blamed foreign aid for corruption and destitution in Mozambique, a sub-Saharan country where he was preaching to thousands in an outdoor arena. Despite the country's rich land and mineral resources, he said, the people are trapped in poverty.



Pope Francis is right. In Mozambique, foreign aid — including nearly $300 million a year from the United States — props up a corrupt government that demands bribes and fails to promote economic growth.



Although President Trump has tried every year to slash global foreign aid, Congress refuses, thumbing its nose at the public, the president — now even the pope.

https://nypost.com/2019/09/10/the-pope-is-right-foreign-aid-can-be-worse-than-a-waste/">https://nypost.com/2019/09/10/the-pope- ... n-a-waste/">https://nypost.com/2019/09/10/the-pope-is-right-foreign-aid-can-be-worse-than-a-waste/

[Anonymous]

In 2011-2012 alone, Ottawa spent $6 billion in foreign aid – a pretty big chunk of change. To put things in perspective, that's just slightly more than the feds spend on departments of health, the environment and the Canada Food Inspection Agency

combined. Foreign aid also costs more than the cumulative budgets of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency.



The bulk of the aid budget - $4 billion – goes to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)– which was folded into the Foreign Affairs and International Trade department in the recent federal budget. CIDA divides countries into three main categories: fragile, low-income, and middleincome states. The agency focuses its aid on a handful of countries in each category.



The money then gets spent on local CIDA employees, along with grants to NGOs and businesses in the region. But that hasn't always been the agency's business model. Founded in 1968, CIDA focused its efforts on major infrastructure projects like roads and highways in the developing world. But a lot of this government to government funding ended up in the Swiss bank accounts of foreign dictators.

[Anonymous]

America alone spent $42 billion on foreign aid in 2017.

And I will bet it had the same effect on the intended donors as flushing all that money down the toilet.

[Thiel]

The ugly truth is corruption is a way of life in the developing world. When our tax dollars are in their houses, we play by their rules.

[Anonymous]

Canada has sent nearly $800 million in foreign aid to Jordan over the last 10 years. Now, the Pandora Papers – a massive leaked trove of financial documents linked to world leaders and public officials – has found that the King of Jordan is clandestinely funneling large parts of that Canadian aid into a worldwide portfolio of luxury real estate.