Liberal donors' foreign aid org. funded liberally by Trudeau gov't

An international aid organization run by Liberal Party donors received almost $180 Million from the Trudeau government.

Liberal donors, former candidate lead foreign aid org that received $180M since 2015 | True North | Cosmin Dzsurdzsa:

February 11, 2025 - "Ottawa’s corridors are no stranger to cozy relationships between the federal government and international aid organizations, but few cases highlight the deep entanglement between government foreign aid funds and political influence quite like Cuso International. On the surface, Cuso International is a humanitarian organization dedicated to foreign development projects.... True North has discovered that four members of the organization’s board and executive leadership are listed as donors to the Liberal Party of Canada in Elections Canada records, contributing a combined $11,279.60 when individual donations were added together. 

from Cuso International's Facebook page.

"According to Cuso International’s financial statements between 2015 and 2024, the organization received a total of $179,434,291 from Global Affairs Canada via its Volunteer Cooperation Program and other funds.... This funding accounts for a significant portion of the organization’s overall revenue, with GAC contributions making up as much as 69.18% of total revenue in 2016....

"At the helm of this publicly funded organization is CEO Nicolas Moyer, a self-described social entrepreneur who once sought a nomination under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s banner. In 2016, Moyer declared himself 'thrilled and honoured' to be approved as a nomination candidate for the Ottawa–Vanier riding, though he ultimately lost.... Moyer was ... photographed cheerily smiling beside Trudeau – a photo that remains on his candidacy’s Facebook profile.... [H]e has donated over $9,000 to the Liberals between 2017 and 2022 according to Elections Canada contribution records....

"Board of Directors Co-chair Lori Spadorcia is an even more generous donor to the party and has a past as a Liberal staffer. Elections Canada contribution data shows Spadorcia has personally contributed more than $13,000 to the party. Her ties stretch back to the Paul Martin days when she was hired as a director of policy under former Liberal Minister Bill Graham.... Spadorcia was also photographed with then-Liberal Party of Canada leader Trudeau in 2013 as the VP of communication and partnership for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.... 

"Denise Amyot, another board member and decorated philanthropist, held senior positions under Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, including a role as assistant deputy minister. More than just a donor, Amyot was quoted by the Liberal Party of Canada publicly praising Trudeau’s 2017 budget, saying she was 'very happy' about it as the president and CEO of Colleges and Institutes Canada.

"Rosemary McCarney, another key figure at Cuso International ... was appointed by Trudeau as Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Office on Nuclear Disarmament....  

"Are Canadians’ tax dollars being used to genuinely help the world’s most vulnerable, or are they financing a network of Liberal loyalists under the banner of international development? The funded project objectives are telling. Cuso International’s projects align almost perfectly with the Trudeau government’s progressive priorities — diversity, equity, inclusion, gender equality, and climate change.

"Those projects include the ongoing 'Blueprints for Gender Equality' towards which Global Affairs Canada budgeted $2.5 million to 'foster more open, inclusive, and gender-responsive governance in Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.' These are not broad-based humanitarian efforts but rather ideologically charged initiatives that seem to mirror Liberal policy objectives."

Read more: https://tnc.news/2025/02/11/global-affairs-foreign-aid-180-million-liberal1/

Humanitarian aid groups turning to blockchain

PolloPollo: The crypto project putting chicken back on the table in Venezuela - Decrypt - Adriana Hamacher:

November 9, 2019 - "In a TV broadcast last month, Venezuelan President Maduro suggested installing hen coops in classrooms to feed the country’s starving children. It’s a measure of the enduring humanitarian crisis that he’s persistently insisted does not exist. And this stance, say aid workers, makes it impossible for international agencies, like UNICEF and the World Food Programme, to airlift and distribute the supplies that Venezuelans so desperately need....

"But a new initiative, PolloPollo, is hoping to put poultry, and other groceries back on the table once again. PolloPollo is using blockchain to deliver on its promise, but also to address questions of transparency and accountability that have been levied against other donation programs....

"It’s not the only one. Further afield, the World Food Programme has also been using DLT [distributed ledger technology] to distribute aid to those who need it most since early last year, and is now both expanding the ground it covers and improving on the technology....

"Casper Niebe, PolloPollo’s founder, told Decrypt [that aid] recipients don’t even need a smartphone. They simply have to register on the platform’s website, and post a request.... When a third party responds to the request and makes a donation on the platform, the person requesting food gets a text message or an email. They then pick up and digitally sign for their supplies from a food retailer or producer nearby. The shop or farm then receives payment for the produce in 'bytes,' the cryptocurrency of the Obyte platform PolloPollo is built on. The final step is when an Obyte representative visits the supplier and converts the cryptocurrency into Venezuelan Bolivars, or another crypto.

"Niebe said that the project was born out of his frustration at the lack of transparency in current aid distribution platforms. Transaction fees and costs eat up around 3.5 percent of the average donation, according to estimates, and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that up to 30 percent of development funds are lost to corruption.... Niebe believes PolloPollo is a better solution, one that offers more accountability. With their digital signature, the aid recipients activate the smart contract that ensures suppliers are paid. And donors are notified via the PolloPollo platform.....

"Since early in 2018, the World Food Programme has been using blockchain to address the food shortages that dog the 106,000 refugees who have fled Syria, and set up temporary homes in Jordan’s camps. 'Currently, we’re exploring the foundational blockchain layer, rather than cryptocurrency,' Houman Haddad, the UN executive behind the project, told Decrypt.

"His initiative, Building Blocks, provides food vouchers for the refugees to redeem in local stores. It uses a 'permissioned' or private version of the Ethereum blockchain, together with iris scanning technology, to manage the data underpinning the delivery of the vouchers. To buy food, a recipient need only go to a participating supermarket, where their iris is scanned and the price of the food they need is deducted from the family’s account....

"Instead of furnishing refugees with crypto, Haddad’s dream is to roll out a more decentralized version of Building Blocks; one that all 40 of the organizations assisting people in the camps can use.... Meanwhile, Building Blocks is expanding to Bangladesh and rolling out a blockchain that Haddad hopes will — eventually — service more than 800,000 Rohinga refugees."

Read more: https://decrypt.co/10972/pollopollo-the-crypto-project-putting-chicken-back-on-the-table-in-venezuela
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Billions in aid to Afghanistan wasted

Billions in aid to Afghanistan wasted, including money from Canada, U.S. agency finds - The Globe and Mail - Robert Fife and Michelle Zilio:

November 2, 2018 - "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. But Mr. Sopko said he is certain the problems he identified for U.S. taxpayers are the same for Canadian taxpayers.

"Nearly 2,400 U.S. soldiers have been killed fighting the Taliban, and 158 Canadians died before Canada pulled its combat troops out of Afghanistan in July, 2011. The Afghan government is still fighting intense battles across most of the country and millions of Afghans have been displaced.

"As the country became increasingly dangerous, Western countries pooled their aid dollars into trust funds managed by the World Bank, the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization....

"Mr. Sopko’s office found a troubling lack of financial oversight and far-reaching mismanagement of two Western trust funds – the World Bank’s Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund and the UN-administered Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, used to train and equip Afghan security forces.

"According to the Library of Parliament, Canada has donated more than $3-billion in foreign aid to Afghanistan since 2002, including US$850.9-million, to the two funds. (Foreign aid money is delivered in U.S. dollars.)"

Read more: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-billions-in-aid-money-for-afghanistan-wasted-us-agency-finds/
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Globe and Mail on Bernier's 'darker vision'

Maxime Bernier goes to a dark place - The Globe and Mail - Jeffrey Ibbitson:

November 12, 2018 - "In a speech on Saturday at a conference hosted by the right-wing Rebel Media in Calgary, the leader of the new People’s Party of Canada questioned the science of climate change, pilloried the United Nations and insisted immigrants to Canada must embrace 'Western civilization values'....'

"The party, which the Beauce, Que., MP founded in September after deciding Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives had become too centrist, is making good progress.... Mr. Bernier claims to already have signed up 33,000 supporters with PPC riding associations organizing across the country.

"In some ways, Mr. Bernier is simply a Conservative in a hurry, with his proposals to lower taxes, eliminate corporate subsidies, deregulate the telecom sector, cut funding to the CBC and privatize Canada Post. But in front of a friendly crowd, his vision grows darker.

"First, he pledged, 'I am the only politician in Ottawa who promises to take Canada out of the Paris accord' to fight global warming.... Climate-change deniers will feel very much at home in the People’s Party.

"Second, Mr. Bernier is committed to 'abolishing foreign aid and saving the $5-billion that we spend every year to help Canadians instead'.... Even Mr. Trump hasn’t proposed completely eliminating foreign aid, although he would doubtless warm to the idea if he thought he could get away with it.

"Third, and darkest, 'our immigration policy should not aim to forcibly change the cultural character and social fabric of our country,' he told the audience. Immigration levels should be reduced, and immigrants must 'adopt widely shared Canadian values, Western civilization values,' he maintained.

“'On issues such as immigration, multiculturalism, diversity, [the Conservatives] are simply not willing to push back against the dominant left-wing narrative,' Mr. Bernier declared, 'and they are afraid to create controversies. I’m not afraid.'

"And if there were any doubt about the buttons Mr. Bernier intends to push in the months ahead, on Sunday, he tweeted a video of crowds in Pakistan protesting the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian who had been convicted of blasphemy. 'Radical multiculturalism is the misguided belief that all values and cultures can coexist in one society,' he tweeted. 'They cannot. We must protect our society against this kind of barbarism.'”

"No credible voice in this country seeks to undermine the values and beliefs embedded in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and in the fabric of Canadian society. Immigrants and refugees come here in search of a future protected by those values and beliefs. Mr. Bernier is simply stoking irrational fears of a threat that does not exist. It is pure Trumpism."

Read more: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-maxime-bernier-goes-to-a-dark-place/
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$1.3 billion in aid to Afghanistan unaccounted for, internal study finds

WASHINGTON: Pentagon can’t account for $1 billion in Afghan reconstruction aid | National Security & Defense | McClatchy DC - James Rosen:

April 13, 2015 - "The Defense Department can’t account for $1.3 billion that was shipped to force commanders in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014 for critical reconstruction projects, 60 percent of all such spending under an emergency program, an internal report released Thursday concludes.

"The missing money was part of the relatively small amount of Afghanistan spending that was routed directly to military officers in a bid to bypass bureaucracy and rush the construction of urgently needed roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and other essential infrastructure. About 70 percent of the $100 billion the United States has spent to rebuild Afghanistan during more than 13 years of war went through the Pentagon, with the rest distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development and other civilian departments.

"A yearlong investigation by John F. Sopko, the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction [SIGAR], found that the Pentagon couldn’t – or wouldn’t – provide basic information about what happened to 6 in 10 dollars of $2.26 billion it had spent over the course of a decade on the Commander’s Emergency Response Program.

"'In reviewing this data, SIGAR found that the Department of Defense could only provide financial information relating to the disbursement of funds for CERP projects totaling $890 million (40 percent) of the approximately $2.2 billion in obligated funds at that time,' Sopko’s report says...

"U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in Afghanistan and 19 other countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, suggested that some of the money was redirected from reconstruction aid to more direct war needs.... The comment didn’t explain why money set aside for reconstruction needs would need to be used to pay for counterinsurgency, which has been a core part of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.... The bulk of the Afghanistan war’s $800 billion price tag for the United States has gone to battlefield needs."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/04/23/264136/more-than-1-billion-in-us-emergency.html
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Kill The Export-Import Bank - Time

House Conservatives Are Right: Kill The Export-Import Bank | TIME -Michael Grunwald:

July 2, 2014 - "The self-proclaimed fiscal conservatives who run the Republican Party did not object to the bloated agribusiness subsidies in this year’s $956 billion farm bill. They’ve fought for weapons systems the Pentagon doesn’t want and water projects the country doesn’t need. They’ve helped repeal sensible flood insurance reforms designed to slash subsidies for waterfront property. And now they expect us to cheer their efforts to kill the obscure Export-Import Bank, which doesn’t even cost taxpayers money?

"Sure, why not? The Republicans may be hypocrites, but they’re right to take aim at the Ex-Im Bank.

"The Ex-Im is, as Senator Barack Obama said during his presidential campaign, 'little more than a fund for corporate welfare.' It provides cheap credit to foreign borrowers, often cash-flush behemoths like Brazil’s state-owned oil company or the emirate of Dubai, so they can buy products from U.S. exporters, often cash-flush behemoths like Boeing, Bechtel, Caterpillar or General Electric. It’s dearly beloved by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, but it’s often earned its reputation for crony capitalism. William Jefferson, the congressman memorably caught with cash in his freezer, got his dirty money in exchange for introducing corporate executives to Ex-Im officials, and the Justice Department is now investigating potential corruption inside the bank....

"Opposing the Ex-Im doesn’t mean agreeing with the Tea Party notion that government shouldn’t try to do anything — just that it should stop trying to do this."

Read more: http://time.com/2951443/export-import-bank-house-conservatives/
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AIPAC lobbied to kill Paul's Stand with Israel Act

Rand Paul's Support for Israel | RealClearPolitics - Caroline Glick:

May 7, 2014 - "Last week, following the PLO’s unity deal with terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Paul introduced the Stand With Israel Act. If it had passed into law, Paul’s act would have required the US to cut off all funding to the Palestinian Authority.... Paul’s conditions for maintaining aid would have required the President to certify to Congress that the PA – run jointly by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO – formally and publicly recognized Israel as a Jewish state; renounced terrorism; purged all individuals with terrorist ties from its security services; terminated all anti-American and anti-Israel incitement, publicly pledged not to engage in war with Israel; and honored previous agreements signed between the PLO and Israel....

"Paul’s bill was good for America.... Ending US financing of the PA would certainly be good for Israel. Indeed, just by sponsoring the bill Paul has helped Israel in two critical ways....

"The day after Paul introduced his bill, AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] came out against it ... a week after the Israeli government formally ended negotiations because the PA supports terror, AIPAC opposed ending US aid to the PA because, AIPAC claimed, it fights terror....

"Paul submitted his bill for unanimous consent in order to fast track it to a vote and into law. AIPAC convinced some senators to vote against Paul’s bill, and so killed it."

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/05/07/rand_pauls_support_for_israel_122548.html
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Also read: "Paul: Pelosi spiked Iran bill"

Rand Paul slams support for ‘military junta’ in Egypt

Rand Paul slams support for ‘military junta’ in Egypt - Breanna Edwards - POLITICO.com:

July 8, 2013 - "Sen. Rand Paul lashed out Monday against neoconservatives on Twitter for supporting the 'military junta' in Egypt and arguing for continued monetary aid to the country....

"'In Egypt, governments come and go. The only thing certain is that American taxpayers will continue to be stuck with the $1.5 billion bill,' the Kentucky Republican sent out his message in two back to back tweets. 'In Egypt, democratic authoritarianism is replaced with military junta. American neocons say send them more of your money.'

"The Twitter slam comes right behind a July 4 op-ed that the libertarian senator wrote for The Washington Times expanding on the very issue.

"'In Egypt, protest is met with tear gas, manufactured in America and paid for with American taxes. When Egyptians protest, they protest against their government and also America for subsidizing that government,' Paul wrote. 'Despite the fact that Mohamed Morsi recently convicted 16 Americans of political crimes in a show trial, the Obama administration still sent them over $2 billion this year....

"'American tax dollars flow no matter which despot rules,' he added. 'But worse, due to our aid and support, Egyptians see Mr. Morsi and America as the same.'"

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/rand-paul-egypt-93826.html
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