To the Editor,
Re: Speak out for environment, democracy, Science Matters, May 10.
If it wasn’t so pretentiously fallacious, one could almost buy into some of David Suzuki’s (or Faisal Moola’s) soapbox rhetoric. But to equate his left-wing social engineering foundation with legitimately funded charities that provide valued services worldwide is disingenuous at best.
Suzuki is obviously in a snit over the federal government’s move to review the political activities of a few charities and how foreign money is fed through them to fund the political campaigns of environmental groups.
He claims that his foundation “relies on Canadians for close to 94 per cent of its funding”, but won’t say how close to 94.
A column in the Financial Post last month noted that “over the past decade, U.S. foundations accounted for at least 17 per cent of the revenue of the David Suzuki Foundation”.
In correspondence for the column, the foundation didn’t dispute this or other numbers relating to Suzuki’s U.S. links that go back to 1992.
It’s interesting that three days after the March 29 federal budget announced a review of political activity by charities, certain U.S. foundations that have funded Canadian green groups were scrambling to rewrite their grant descriptions to eliminate online references to political activities.
Several Canadian organizations have also removed revealing online information. Obviously something to do with charities only being allowed to engage in political activities that further a charitable purpose.
Suzuki states that “silence is not an option” and for a change I can agree with him.
I think it’s time he broke the silence and revealed details of his agenda, sources of funding and why he accepts so much of it from foreign entities. And never mind the condescending nonsense about saving the planet.
Jim Corder
Nanaimo
