Fort Langley businessman Eric Woodward said his namesake charitable foundation is making good on a commitment to donate $1.1 million to the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation ER campaign, and a claim to the contrary currently circulating on social media is “obviously absurd.”

He was responding to anonymous posts that claimed the Eric Woodward Foundation wasn’t among the donors listed on the hospital foundation’s 2019-20 annual report, despite the Woodward foundation announcing a $1.1-million commitment to support a new pediatrics zone and pediatric waiting lounge in the hospital’s new ER.

In fact, $300,000 in donations have been made so far, in installments of $100,000, through Statewood Properties Ltd., the Woodward company that owns several Fort Langley sites and is among the assets transferred to the foundation.

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In the LMH foundation annual report, the “honour roll” of donors lists Statewood in the “founder category” of contributors who have donated more than $100,000.

Copies of thank-you letters and tax receipts from the foundation provided by Woodward confirm there had been three donations of $100,000, in December of 2018, December of 2019, and October 2020.

Woodward, who was elected to Langley Township council in 2018, believes the motive behind the claims is political.

“Social media misinformation is (a) fact of life these days, especially during an election,” Woodward told the Langley Advance Times.

“Rather than present real ideas and platform for progress, some candidates and a few supporters will always feel the need to fall back on personal attacks as their only option. Of course, politics is politics, campaigns are campaigns, but we must focus on facts.”

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“In my case, the same repeated personal attacks appear over and over again on social media by the same handful of people. The same smears have to be proven false over and over again. For example, that donations and pledges to charity, such as for the new ER and Langley Memorial, are fake, even, (is) obviously absurd. It is imperative that as a society we see past this, and elect good people that are in it for the right reasons.”

“Social media can be a great tool for us to remain connected and informed, but it does allow those with more challenging morals to attack others in a very personal way with false information. We must stand up to it.”

Going forward, Woodward said future donations to the hospital foundation will be listed as coming from Fort Langley Properties Ltd.

Is there more to the story? Email: dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com