Foundations funding anti-Israel college protests

George Soros is paying student radicals who are fueling nationwide explosion of Israel-hating protests | New York Post | Isabel Vincent

April 26, 2024 - "George Soros and his hard-left acolytes are paying agitators who are fueling the explosion of radical anti-Israel protests at colleges across the country. The protests, which began when students took over Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus lawn last week, have mushroomed nationwide. Copycat tent cities have been set up at colleges including Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, the Ohio State University and Emory in Georgia — all of them organized by branches of the Soros-funded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).... The SJP parent organization has been funded by a network of nonprofits ultimately funded by, among others, Soros, the billionaire left-wing investor.

"At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are 'fellows' of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). USCPR provides up to $7,800 for its community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for its campus-based 'fellows' in return for spending eight hours a week organizing 'campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.' They are trained to 'rise up, to revolution.' The radical group received at least $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017 and also took in $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019.... [USCPR] has three 'fellows' who have been major figures in the nationwide protest movement. 

• Nidaa Lafi, a former president of the University of Texas Students for Justice in Palestine, was seen at an encampment at UT Dallas Wednesday making a speech demanding an end to the war in Gaza. In January, she was detained for blocking the route of President Biden’s motorcade after he arrived in Dallas for the funeral of Johnson, her former boss.
• At Yale, USCPR’s fellow Craig Birckhead-Morton was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree trespassing when SJP’s branch, Yalies4Palestine, occupied the school’s Beinecke Plaza, the Yale Daily News reported. Birckhead-Morton — also a former intern for a Democrat, Maryland rep John Sarbanes — emerged from custody to address a sit-in blocking traffic in New Haven.
• The most high-profile of the fellows is Berkeley’s Malak Afaneh, co-president of the Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine. She has been a serial speaker at an anti-Israel protest on the campus this week — which came after she first shot to prominence by hijacking a dinner at the law school dean’s home to shout anti-Israel slogans, then accused the dean’s wife of assaulting her when she asked the radical to leave.

Soros is paying agitators fueling the explosion of radical anti-Israel protests at colleges across the country. New York Post.

"The cash from Soros and his acolytes has been critical to the Columbia protests that set off the national copycat demonstrations. Three groups set up the tent city on Columbia’s lawn last Wednesday: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Within Our Lifetime. An analysis by The Post shows that all three got cash from groups linked to Soros. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund also gave cash to JVP.... And a former Wall Street banker, Felice Gelman, a retired investment banker who has dedicated her Wall Street fortune to pro-Palestinian causes, funded all three groups. 

"Both SJP and JVP were expelled from Columbia University in November for 'threatening rhetoric and intimidation.' JVP blamed Israel for the Oct 7 Hamas terrorist attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead. 'Israeli apartheid and occupation — and United States complicity in that oppression — are the source of all this violence,' JVP said in a statement on its website.  SJP called the terrorist strike on Israel 'a historic win.'

"An analysis by The Post shows how Soros and Gelman’s cash made its way to the students through a network of nonprofits that help obscure their contributions. Soros has given billions to the Open Society Foundations which his son Alexander ... now controls. In turn, Open Society has given more than $20 million to the Tides Foundation, a progressive nonprofit 'fiscal sponsor' that then sends the cash to smaller groups. Those groups include A Jewish Voice for Peace [JVP], which between 2017 and 2022 has received $650,000 from Soros’ Open Society.... JVP has been a prominent part of the protests at Columbia and one of its student members was among a group expelled from the university for inviting the leader of a proscribed terrorist group, Khaled, to the 'Resistance 101' Zoom meeting.

"Soros has also donated $132,000 to WESPAC, called in full the Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation. The White Plains-based nonprofit was founded in 1974 to rally for civil rights and against the Vietnam War but is now a major funder of anti-Israel groups, including Within Our Lifetime and Students for Justice in Palestine. SJP has also received funding from the Sparkplug Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit run by Gelman and her husband, Yoram Gelman. The couple funneled their $20,000 donation to the group through WESPAC in 2022, according to public filings. Gelman was previously on WESPAC’s committee for Justice and Peace in the Middle East in 2009 when she was invited to Gaza by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, according to the group’s website. The UN group has been slammed for its support of Hamas.

"WESPAC president Howard Horowitz, a former Orthodox Jew, is a member of the New York chapter of JVP, which says it works for 'advocacy and public education for Palestinian human rights.' Horowitz said he embraced the Palestinian cause after time spent living in Israel, according to a report in the Israel Times. WESPAC has also given money to Within Our Lifetime, founded by the ubiquitous anti-Israeli protester Nerdeen Kiswani. Within our Lifetime uses a loophole in the law to avoid declaring how much it receives from donors by not being a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, meaning it is unknown how Kiswani has benefited. However, WESPAC is named as a fiscal sponsor of Within Our Lifetime.

"After The Post published our story, an Open Society Foundations spokesperson said: 'For the record, Open Society Foundations has a long history of fighting antisemitism, islamophobia and all forms of racism and hate. Open Society has funded a broad spectrum of US groups that have advocated for the rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel and the OPT. This funding is a matter of public record, disclosed on our website, fully compliant with US laws, and is part of our commitment to continuing open debate that is ultimately the only hope for peace in the region'.... None of the other groups responded to requests by The Post for comment."

Read more: https://nypost.com/2024/04/26/us-news/george-soros-maoist-fund-columbias-anti-israel-tent-city/

George Soros is paying student radicals, fueling nationwide explosion of Israel-hating protests | New York Post | April 26, 2024:

House committee wants Trudeau Foundation audit

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has voted unanimously to have Canada's Auditor-General investigate the Chretien government's 2002 endowment of $125 million to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. 

Taxpayer-funded Trudeau Foundation's $125 million endowment faces audit | Western Standard | Christopher Oldcorn:

Sep 22, 2023 - "The Commons Public Accounts committee unanimously voted 10-0 on Thursday to instruct the Auditor General to investigate the initial funds provided by taxpayers to support the Trudeau Foundation. According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the government gave the Foundation $125 million, some of which was used to purchase stocks in China.

"'I would like that the Auditor General within her powers look into the original agreement with the Government of Canada, which gave $125 million to the Trudeau Foundation,' said Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné (Terrebonne, QC), sponsor of the motion.... 'It is very unusual that a foundation with the name of an individual receive public funds,' said Sinclair-Desgagné. 'There are many foundations that have names of individuals, but they never receive public funds like the Trudeau Foundation. That imposes some responsibilities and obligations and we need to make sure.'

"MPs passed the motion 'that the Auditor General investigate the funding agreement between the Government of Canada and the Trudeau Foundation particularly as regards to the Foundation’s compliance with its obligations under this agreement.' 'The language could not be any clearer,” said Sinclair-Desgagné. 'We are asking for an investigation'.... 

"Parliament in 2002 approved the $125 million endowment. 'What is a more fitting legacy to the man who symbolized youth, excellence and the innovative spirit?' said then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

"Opposition MPs questioned the funding at the time. 'Access to Information does not apply to these foundations,” then-Canadian Alliance MP Val Meredith (Surrey-White Rock, BC) told a 2003 Commons Public Accounts committee hearing. 'We don’t have any control over what the agreement says, what they do with the money or whether they are spending it in the way it is supposed to be spent.' [The Foundation was put under FOI requirements in 2007 by the Harper government - gd] 

"Earlier, people said that up to 2021, the Foundation had an unknown amount of money in Chinese company shares. 'We had two investments,” Edward Johnson, chair of the board, told a June 8 hearing. The China portfolio had stocks in Tencent Holdings Limited, a video game company from Shenzhen, and in the software firm Baidu.

"The Foundation received a $140,000 donation from someone linked to China's Communist Youth League. After this came out, the CEO and the board quickly stepped down on April 10..... Justin Trudeau claimed he was not involved with the Foundation named after his family. However, his brother Alexandre was the executive director and he [the PM] did meet with a donor from China.

“'Those people who are trying to get short-term political gain by increasing polarization and partisanship in this country by launching completely unfounded and ungrounded attacks against charities or foundations must not succeed,' Trudeau told reporters on April 11."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/news/taxpayer-funded-trudeau-foundations-125-million-endowment-faces-audit/article_f5f924aa-593e-11ee-be84-abd0ae3f9487.html

Trudeau Foundation Uncovered | Senator Denise Batters | September 7, 2023:

Trudeau Foundation investigating $200K donation with 'potential connection' to Chinese government

The Canadian government-funded Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is investigating a controversial donation from a businessman with ties to the Chinese government, following the mass resignation of the foundation's CEO and board of directors.

Controversial Trudeau Foundation donation from Beijing-linked businessman was not reimbursed | CBC News - Peter Zimonjic:

April 12, 2023 - "A controversial $140,000 donation to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation has not yet been returned because the charity has been unable to find anyone able to accept the payment, say sources who have spoken with Radio-Canada. Last month, the Globe and Mail reported that Zhang Bin — a businessman later identified by the newspaper as being linked to the Chinese government — pledged in 2016 to donate $200,000 to the foundation.... Shortly after that report, foundation president Pascale Fournier said the foundation had reimbursed the full amount of the donation.... Radio-Canada confirmed Wednesday that the money has not been returned. The refund cheque was issued but it has yet to be cashed.... Radio-Canada sources say that while the donation was given to the foundation by two individuals, the cheques were in the name of a corporation. The sources told Radio-Canada that the foundation has not been able to deliver the reimbursement to that corporation.

"The foundation also said that its board would launch an independent review of its acceptance of the donation. It said that the review would be conducted by an accounting firm overseen by a law firm, and that both firms would have no prior involvement with the foundation. This week, Fournier and the foundation's board of directors resigned en masse.... Sources told Radio Canada that the mass resignation stemmed from members of the board wanting the foundation to do more to verify the provenance of donations."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-foundation-china-donation-1.6808272

What’s going on with the Trudeau Foundation? Here’s what we know about the controversy that led to a mass resignation | Toronto Star - Alex Ballingall:

April 12, 2023 - "The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation says it is launching an 'independent review' of a $140,000 donation that had a 'potential connection to the Chinese government,' as the scholarship charity is engulfed in an ongoing political firestorm over Beijing’s alleged interference in Canadian politics. In a statement Wednesday, the Montreal-based foundation said its board of directors unanimously agreed to stage an investigation before they resigned en masse this week, with an official explanation claiming the 'political climate' had made the charity’s work impossible.

"One source with direct knowledge of the situation said an internal feud erupted in recent days after the organization’s attempt to refund the donation failed. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the failure prompted a desire for an independent investigation, but there were disagreements among board members about how that review should play out. The Trudeau Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday about the source’s concern. Several officials at the charity did not respond to interview requests, while others declined to speak when contacted by the Star....

"Though it was originally billed as a $200,000 donation, Johnson’s statement said the Trudeau Foundation received only $140,000 of the pledged money. It also said the charity issued a refund cheque under the donor’s name, but did not confirm whether the money was successfully returned.... Another source with knowledge of the situation also told the Star the charity’s attempt to refund the donation failed, after Montreal’s La Presse newspaper reported an internal foundation document — which the Star has not seen — said the money could not be returned because the name on the donation cheque didn’t match the actual source of the funds....

"The Conservatives have latched on to reports of the Trudeau Foundation donation, arguing it raises questions about whether officials with ties to the charity — which Poilievre labels as 'Beijing-funded' — should be probing alleged foreign interference for the government. That includes Morris Rosenberg, a former civil servant who was head of the foundation when the donation was made in 2016, and who penned a recent report on foreign interference in the 2021 election. It also includes former governor general David Johnston, who is a foundation member tasked with examining the issue and recommending whether a public inquiry — which opposition parties are demanding — is necessary....

"Established in 2001, a year after Pierre Trudeau’s death, the foundation received a $125-million endowment from the federal government in 2002. The idea was to support the research of more than 100 scholars every year to honour the late prime minister’s memory. But with the ascent of Justin Trudeau from Liberal MP to prime minister, the foundation came to be seen by some under a more political lens. After the Liberals took office in 2015, the government came under fire for so-called 'cash-for-access\ fundraising, in which the party sought donations at events where contributors could hobnob with cabinet ministers or even Trudeau himself. 

"Chinese businessman Zhang Bin reportedly attended such an event with the prime minister. Then, in 2016, according to a news release from the Université de Montréal, Zhang and another person identified as a fellow businessman — Niu Gensheng — donated $1 million to commemorate Pierre Trudeau’s ties with China....[U]niversity spokesperson Geneviève O’Meara confirmed the school’s faculty of law was slated to receive $750,000 of this money, with another $50,000 going toward a statue on campus of [Mau Zedong and] Pierre Trudeau, who attended and taught at the university. But the statue was never built, and the school only ever received $500,000, O’Meara said by email. Another $200,000 of the money was slated for the Trudeau Foundation....

""The 2016 donation ... grew more controversial this year, after the Globe and Mail reported it was part of a suspected campaign of foreign influence by the Chinese government. The revelation added to the ongoing political firestorm involving allegations of Beijing’s election meddling and interference in Canadian politics that has troubled the Liberal government for months. And in response, the Trudeau Foundation declared on March 1 it had refunded all money received from the 2016 pledge, after learning of a “potential connection” with the Chinese government. While the foundation now says it has issued a cheque under the donor’s name, the Université de Montréal still hasn’t decided what to do with the $500,000 it received."
Read more: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2023/04/12/whats-going-on-with-the-trudeau-foundation-heres-what-we-know-about-the-controversy-that-led-to-a-mass-resignation.html

Brian Lilley, "Would anyone notice if the Trudeau Foundation disappeared?", Toronto Sun, April 12, 2023:

Mass resignation at Trudeau Foundation

The president and CEO, and board of directors, of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation have resigned en masse, blaming "politicization" that has "made it impossible to continue with the status quo." 

Trudeau Foundation president, board resign, citing 'politicization' of China-linked donation | CBC News - Richard Raycraft:

April 11, 2023 - "The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation's president and board of directors have resigned en masse, citing the charity's entanglement in the ongoing foreign interference controversy. 

"In a statement, the foundation said that a $200,000 donation in 2016 from a businessman linked to the Chinese government 'has put a great deal of pressure on the foundation's management and volunteer board of directors, as well as on our staff and our community.' The charity announced last month that it would return the donation. The Conservatives criticized the government over the matter, saying the donation compromised a government report on the integrity of the 2021 federal election.

"'The circumstances created by the politicization of the foundation have made it impossible to continue with the status quo, and the volunteer board of directors has resigned, as has the president and CEO,' the statement said.

"The foundation is independent and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has no involvement with it. 'The Trudeau Foundation is a foundation with which I have absolutely no intersection,' Trudeau told a news conference Tuesday.... The charity, established in 2001 to honour former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, funds scholarships, mentorships and fellowships.

"Last month, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed former governor general David Johnston as a special rapporteur to investigate foreign interference in Canadian elections and institutions, including alleged meddling by the Chinese government. The Conservatives have questioned Johnston's impartiality, in part by pointing to Johnston's former role as a member of the Trudeau Foundation. Foundation members are responsible for appointing the board of directors. Johnston resigned from the foundation following his appointment as special rapporteur....

"The statement said three directors will remain on an interim basis to continue the charity's work while a new board is appointed. The foundation's website currently lists six members of the board of directors. Its president and CEO, Pascale Fournier, had been in the position for almost five years.

"Reacting to news of the resignations Tuesday morning, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for an investigation into the charity. 'We need to investigate the Beijing-funded Trudeau Foundation,' Poilievre tweeted. 'We need to know who got rich, who got paid and who got privilege and power from Justin Trudeau as a result of funding to the Trudeau Foundation.'

"Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said the resignations make the 2016 donation look more suspicious. He called on Johnston to step down as special rapporteur and for the government to call a public inquiry into foreign interference.... NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he won't comment on the Trudeau Foundation specifically. He repeated his calls for a public inquiry."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-foundation-resign-1.6806482

Chinese gov't gave $1 million to Trudeau charity

Chinese Billionaire Made $1 Million Donation to Trudeau Charity Following Election that Brought Liberals to Power | National Review - Ari Blaff: 
February 28, 2023 - "Ahead of the 2015 Canadian elections, the Chinese Community Party (CCP) reportedly considered targeting Justin Trudeau, then the Liberal Party’s national leader, to be the recipient of a million-dollar 'donation' via the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, named after his father and former prime minister. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) sources told the Globe & Mail, on condition of anonymity, that a commercial attaché at a Chinese consulate in Canada instructed Zhang Bin, a billionaire political adviser to the CCP, to transfer $1 million to the Trudeau Foundation.... [T]he Chinese government further added that it would reimburse Zhang for the political donation....

"[T]he following year the prime minister attended a party fundraiser in Toronto hosted by the Chinese Business Chamber of Commerce which Zhang attended. Shortly after the fundraiser, Zhang and Niu Genssheng, a wealthy Chinese business leader turned philanthropist, made a joint $1 million donation 'to honour the memory and leadership' of former prime minister Pierre Eliott Trudeau. According to the Globe & Mail report, twenty percent of the contribution was earmarked for academic fellowships and scholarships, with the remaining bulk set aside for the University of Montreal’s law school that included grants for college students to visit China.

"However, the prime minister dismissed any nefarious connections between Zhang’s contribution to the Trudeau foundation in a statement on Monday. 'Following his election as Leader of the Liberal Party, the Prime Minister withdrew his involvement in the affairs of the foundation for the duration of his involvement in federal politics,' Press Secretary Ann-Clara Vaillancourt noted.

"The revelations come on the heels of investigative reporting by Globe & Mail last week which revealed that the CCP meddled in Canada’s 2021 federal elections with the aim of re-electing Justin Trudeau.... 'Most important, the intelligence reports show that Beijing was determined that the Conservatives did not win. China employed disinformation campaigns and proxies connected to Chinese-Canadian organizations in Vancouver and the GTA [Greater Toronto Area], which have large mainland Chinese immigrant communities, to voice opposition to the Conservatives and favour the Trudeau Liberals,' journalists Robert Fife and Steven Chase wrote.

"Another Canadian news outlet recently unearthed that Prime Minister Trudeau turned a blind eye to intelligence reports that Han Dong, a Liberal member of parliament (MP) was likely involved in a Chinese 'foreign interference network.' Han succeeded the incumbent, MP Geng Tan, who reportedly had disappointed the Chinese consulate in Toronto. Former Trudeau allies are now calling on the prime minister to appoint a “public inquiry” to investigate the matter in a non-partisan way."
Read more: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/chinese-billionaire-made-1-million-donation-to-trudeau-charity-following-election-that-brought-liberals-to-power/

Trudeau Foundation returning $200K to Beijing-linked donor | CBC News - Darren Major:
March 1, 2023 - "The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is returning a donation worth thousands of dollars made by an adviser to the Chinese government. In 2016, Zhang Bin, a wealthy Chinese businessman and adviser to the Chinese government, made a donation to the foundation worth $200,000. A story published by the Globe and Mail on Tuesday suggests that Canadian security officials linked that donation back to the Chinese government. Foundation president Pascale Fournier released a statement on Wednesday saying that, in light of the Globe's reporting, the foundation — which funds and promotes academic and public interest research — has reimbursed Zhang the full amount of the donation....

"The donation has drawn scrutiny from the Conservatives, who say it has compromised a recent report on foreign interference in the 2021 election. A report assessing the work of top civil servants tasked with monitoring and alerting the public of foreign interference in that election ... released Tuesday ... was written by Morris Rosenberg, a former senior public servant for more than 30 years. Rosenberg also served as the [Trudeau] foundation's president when Zhang made the donation. 

"Even before Rosenberg's report was made public Tuesday, the Conservative Party said those ties discredit his work. 'This discredits the report and proves we need a separate investigation, and the government should fully cooperate with the House committee studying this very issue. They must cease their obstructionism, and the NDP must stop protecting the Liberals in committee so Canadians can finally discover the extent of [Chinese Communist Party] interference'.... Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc dismissed the Conservatives' assertions, calling them a 'gratuitous smear.'"
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-foundation-returning-donation-chinese-government-adviser-1.6764847

Inaccurate modelling led to care home deaths

How the Gates Foundation seeded America's COVID-19 policy catastrophes | The Dossier - Jordan Schachtel

February 16, 2021 - "New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is finally facing the heat for his botched and criminally negligent coronavirus response policies, yet no one seems to be asking why Cuomo and select governors made the fateful decisions that led to the excess deaths — and the coverup campaigns — of tens of thousands of senior citizens in New York and elsewhere across the United States.... Cuomo ... is far from the only governor who executed the 'nursing home death warrants.' Governor Cuomo was accompanied by the governors of California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and elsewhere.

"The common thread seen in the United States is the delegation of state policy to prediction modeling forecasts from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), a Washington State-based institution that is wholly controlled and funded (to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars) by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In March and early April, politicians were informed by the modeling 'experts' at Gates-funded IHME that their hospitals were about to be completely overrun by coronavirus patients. Modelers from IHME claimed this massive surge would cause hospitals to run out of lifesaving equipment in a matter of days, not weeks or months.... 

"On two separate April 1 and April 2 press conferences, Cuomo made clear that his policy decisions were based off of the IHME model. 'There is a group that is funded by the Gates Foundation. Thank you very much Bill Gates,' Cuomo said on April 1 in discussing ICU needs and how he was using Gates models to make other healthcare policy decisions. 'There's only one model that we look at that has the number of projected deaths which is the IHME model which is funded by the Gates Foundation,' Cuomo said on April 2, adding, 'and we thank the Gates Foundation for the national service that they've done.'

"In an April 9 briefing, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer referred to the IHME model in order to project deaths and the PPE resources needed for the supposed surge. It was the same story with the government of Pennsylvania. The PA Health Department exclusively uses IHME models to forecast coronavirus outcomes. Governor Phil Murphy, another nursing home death warrant participant, used IHME models to navigate the state’s policy response. 

"It wasn’t just state governors relying on this data; federal bureaucrats Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, both of whom have substantial ties to the Gates network, used the IHME COVID-19 forecasting models (which Birx endorsed specifically as the best prediction modeling outfit) to make policy recommendations to states. In her White House briefings, Birx, who simultaneously had a seat on the board of a Gates-funded institution, almost exclusively relied on IHME models to project outcomes.... 

"These models, and the policy decisions that were made by relying on them, set off a chain of events that led to indefinite lockdowns, complete business closures, statewide curfews, and most infamously, the nursing home death warrants. States across the nation went to extremes, resorting to full bunker mode while waiting for bodies to start dropping in the streets, but the IHME modeling never panned out. Hospital capacity was never threatened. Most states that had created 'surge capacity' pop-up health care centers never even used these facilities. 

"IHME, for its part, regularly 'adjusts' its models, and has never acknowledged their routine failures to forecast outcomes. Gates has never discussed the catastrophic failures of his prized 'health metrics' forecasting organization.... Instead, he has seamlessly washed his hands of COVID mania, and has moved on to demanding that the western world sacrifice itself in the name of the latest 'crisis' that is climate change."

Read more: https://dossier.substack.com/p/how-the-gates-foundation-seeded-americas

1st US psychedelic research center founded

First US Center for Psychedelic Research a 'Game Changer' - Megan Brooks, Medscape:

December 2, 2019 - "A group of private benefactors has donated $17 million to fund the first psychedelic research center in the United States.

"The Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, 'reflects a new era of research in therapeutics and the mind through studying this unique and remarkable class of pharmacological compounds," 'Roland Griffiths, PhD, the center's director, said in a statement. 'We've been conducting research with psychedelics at Johns Hopkins for almost the last 20 years, but funding has not been forthcoming from federal sources as yet so the work has primarily been supported by philanthropy,' ... and this 'very large philanthropic gift has allowed the establishment of the first center for psychedelic research in the United States,' said Griffiths.

"The center's operational expenses for the first 5 years will be covered by private funding from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation and four philanthropists, including author and investor Tim Ferriss; Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress; Blake Mycoskie, founder of the shoe brand TOMS; and investor Craig Nerenberg.

"The funding will support a team of six faculty neuroscientists, experimental psychologists, and clinicians with expertise in psychedelic science, as well as five postdoctoral scientists. The faculty will train graduate and medical students who want to pursue careers in psychedelic science, where historically there have been few avenues for career advancement.

"Initial priority projects include researching the potential of psilocybin as a therapy for anorexia nervosa, early stage Alzheimer's disease, opioid use disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), posttreatment Lyme disease, and alcohol use disorder comorbid with depression. Based on research to date, the nature of the changes that occur during a psilocybin session would appear to have 'transdiagnostic generality' across a range of mental health and behavioral conditions, Griffiths said.

"He added that there are 'very strong preliminary signals' that psilocybin is an effective treatment for cancer patients who are anxious or depressed. 'We also have promising efficacy data in people with major depression as well as treatment-resistant depression; and we have indication of potential efficacy across a range of substance use disorders, including alcohol and cocaine abuse and cigarette smoking,' he said....

"For patients with depression secondary to a diagnosis of early Alzheimer's disease, Griffiths said his team 'strongly suspects' psilocybin will be effective at least for the mood disorder 'but, of course, the really interesting thing would be whether there is any change in cognitive function.' 'The emerging data with psilocybin and other psychedelics is that they may produce neuroplastic changes, they may end up rewiring the brain in ways we simply don't understand,' Griffiths added."

Read more: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/921986
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Donner Canadian Foundation funds "right wing"

The Donner Prize is part of a larger effort to reimagine Canada as a right-wing American Libertarian fantasy - Tim Bousquet, Halifax Examiner:

April 8, 2019 - "The Donner Prize is awarded by the Donner Canadian Foundation, which was founded by William Henry Donner, an American industrialist who made his fortune in tin and steel. In 1929, Donner’s son Joseph died of cancer, and ... William Donner ... 'sold the assets he had in the Donner Steel Company of Buffalo, New York, his final business undertaking, and set aside $2 million for charitable purposes, primarily for cancer research,' explains the McGill Library.

"Donner moved to Montreal in the 1940s. The move was in part motivated by a desire to avoid U.S. income taxes, but Donner was also attracted by the world-leading medical research then going on in that city, and in 1950 he established the Donner Canadian Foundation. Donner died in 1953, but the foundation continued to dole out money, mostly for medical research and mostly in uncontroversial ways, until 1993.

"Then came a sea change. As Thomas Walkom wrote in 1997 for the Toronto Star: ... 'For the first 43 years of its existence, the Donner foundation was a typical Canadian charitable fund, donating its money to the kinds of unconcontroversial mainstream projects that are generally, and often uncritically, deemed worthy — medical research, prison reform, studies on Canadian unity. Now it is known as paymaster to the right, a source of ready cash for the favourite causes of the new, market conservatism'....

"[Walkom] went on to list the myriad right-wing causes the Donner Canadian Foundation funded — including the Fraser Institute, the Atlantic Institution for Market Studies (a $515,000 grant 'to look at issues such as privatization of the fishery'), the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (a grant of $286,000 'to fight so-called political correctness at Canadian universities'), among others....

"Patrick Luciani, now acting executive director of the foundation, openly acknowledges the shift. 'We changed emphasis in 1993. It had been a classic Canadian foundation, quite liberal. But the Donner family saw the country going through a fiscal crisis and they wanted to fund projects that looked at more competition and less government'....

"Recipients of last year’s grants from the Donner Canadian Foundation are split between environmental organizations and more clearly identified right-wing political causes. On the environmental side, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society received $93,425 for 'Advancing Marine Protected Areas.' The Nature Conservancy received three grants for regional projects. The World Wildlife Fund received a $50,000 grant.

"Then there are the grants going towards 'Public Policy Research and Education.' Recipients include the Canadian Constitution Foundation ($30,000), which among other things has funded a court challenge to Alberta’s medicare system; Hillsdale College ($17,000) to fund the work of R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. — the editor of the right-wing American Spectator magazine; the Fraser Institute ($55,000); among others....

"The Donner family can fund whatever they want. But let’s not go a-gog over the Donner Prize, which is clearly part of a larger effort to reimagine Canada as a right-wing American Libertarian fantasy."

Read more: https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/the-donner-prize-is-part-of-a-larger-effort-to-reimagine-canada-as-a-right-wing-american-libertarian-fantasy/

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Prometheus Foundation promotes Objectivism

Prometheus Foundation for Advancing Objectivism: Founder’s Intent - The Objective Standard - Craig Biddle:

March 19, 2019 - "[T]he Prometheus Foundation (PF) [is], a nonprofit organization established by Carl Barney to provide funding for ventures that advance Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, scholarships for students who are pursuing careers that advance these ideas, and grants for proven Objectivist intellectuals to boost their productive output.

"I am honored to serve on the board of directors of PF, along with Carl Barney, Jim Brown, Lenny Esmond, David Hardy, Rony Miller, and C. Bradley Thompson. If you think that you or anyone you know might qualify for funding, visit Prometheus Foundation’s website for details and application guidelines....

"Here’s to Ayn Rand for developing a philosophy for living on earth! And here’s to Carl Barney for funding its advancement! —Craig Biddle

"Money is a great power because ... it is a frozen form of productive energy. And, therefore, the spending of money is a grave responsibility.―Ayn Rand....

"The Prometheus Foundation (PF), in essence, is a store of 'productive energy.' It is money that the Founder/Donor accumulated during his working life and now wishes to use to help make the world a better place for people to flourish. The only substantive, enduring way to do this is by advancing rational philosophy and rational psychology. This means advancing Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and any psychology that integrates with it; such psychology would integrate with Objectivism, with Ayn Rand’s theory of emotions, and her work on epistemology and psycho-epistemology. PF exists solely for this purpose.

"Advancing Objectivism includes promoting Ayn Rand’s novels and nonfiction works, promoting Leonard Peikoff’s books and courses, creating courses on Objectivism, and creating organizations or undertaking projects that explicitly advance the philosophy.

"Every day, in many small ways, Objectivism is slowly changing the world. It is a long game. This is why, through the Objectivist Venture Fund (OVF), we want to invest in infrastructure (rather than one-off programs) that will endure. As of March 2019, examples of worthy recipients include the Ayn Rand Center in Europe, ARC Israel, the Ayn Rand Centre UK and centers in other countries, the Balkan Objectivist Center, the John Galt School, and The Objective Standard.... Carl B. Barney, Founder/Donor"

Read more: https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/2019/03/prometheus-foundation-for-advancing-objectivism-founders-intent/
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Reed retires after 10 years as FEE president

Giving Thanks for Ten Years of Growth and Progress at FEE - Foundation for Economic Education - Lawrence W. Reed:

November 21, 2018 - "The holidays and final weeks of the year are upon us. It’s a time to count blessings.... I’m thankful for more than anybody has time to read about, but right now I am spending a lot of time appreciating the wonderful opportunity I’ve had to lead FEE for more than ten years as its president. Last June, I announced that when our board of trustees chooses a successor, I will step into an active president emeritus role. That will hopefully allow me more time to write and lecture. The search process is on track and will likely culminate with the announcement of a new president sometime in the first half of 2019....

"My 10+ years represent by far the longest and most consequential of any FEE presidency since that of our founder, Leonard Read. For the benefit of our readers and especially our thousands of financial supporters, I’d like to recap some of our accomplishments since 2008.

"Big and tough decisions were made. One was to move from ... Irvington, New York to Atlanta, Georgia. Many of us felt a deep and long-held attachment to the old mansion on the Hudson.... But the numbers made the case for moving. We chose Atlanta, cut our operating costs in half, avoided a small fortune in future upkeep of a 140-year-old building, and now have an office that fits our needs and mission perfectly. Good stewardship of donor dollars demands their most efficient and effective use in everything an organization does....

"Another big, tough decision was to re-focus and re-staff the editorial/content team. The wisdom of that decision was proven quickly. Our readership had been flat or declining for 15 years but it’s risen dramatically every year since that decision.

"Reflecting where our targeted audience goes to read content, we ended the costly print edition of our venerable monthly magazine, The Freeman. We now publish online every three days the equivalent of an entire issue of The Freeman. And instead of a readership in the thousands, we approach a million unique visitors to FEE.org most months of the year.

"We also do a lot less preaching to the choir these days.... FEE is now focused, laser-like, on young newcomers to liberty of high school and college age....

"Overall revenues, at $6 million last year, are three times what they were in 2008. Moreover, the million-dollar deficit we faced at that time was erased within two years. Every year for the past eight, our bottom line has been in the black and big. We’ve rebuilt our reserves and put FEE on its soundest financial footing in decades. Our auditors give us the highest marks and Charity Navigator ranks us in its top category for nonprofit soundness and management....

"FEE’s many accomplishments would not be possible without our generous supporters. As we continue to advance the ideas and principles of free markets and individual liberty among the rising generation, I ask that you please consider supporting FEE in this endeavor.... Thank you, FEE supporters, for all that you’ve done for us to make FEE the vibrant and productive organization it is today!"

Read more: https://fee.org/resources/giving-thanks-for-ten-years-of-growth-and-progress-at-fee/

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Rival foundations funding the UnKoch movement

Deep-Pocketed Donors Behind Campus Anti-Koch Movement - Washington Free Beacon - Lachlan Markay:

November 2, 2015 - "Liberal foundations financing a nonprofit news venture that is reporting on donations made by the Koch Brothers to colleges are also financing on-campus groups protesting the Kochs’ donations. The same foundations have also spent billions backing educational initiatives of their own that frequently promote left-wing policy agendas....

"The Center for Public Integrity [CPI] ... [has] detailed the Kochs’ grants to colleges and universities, that, reporter Dave Levinthal wrote, are 'now a critical part of their broader campaign to infuse politics and government with free-market principles.' According to Levinthal, Koch-backed foundations provided $19.3 million in funding for colleges and universities in 2013, a $6.6 million increase over 2012. 'Funding — as well as pushback against it — is increasing," he wrote.

"One group committed to such 'pushback' is UnKoch My Campus, which immediately picked up on and promoted CPI’s story. Its publication came just days before UnKoch’s planned 'day of action' ... to protest what it says is the Kochs’ undue influence on the curricula and staffing of those programs.... UnKoch, as its name suggests, is focused exclusively on the influence of conservative and libertarian university donors....

"UnKoch’s views reflect those of the groups backing the campaign: environmental giant Greenpeace; Forecast the Facts, a climate-focused project of the left-wing Citizen Engagement Lab; the Center for Media and Democracy, another nonprofit news venture; and the American Federation of Teachers.

"Those groups receive significant funding from the same foundations that finance CPI’s reporting. The Park Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Foundation for an Open Society have all granted money to CPI and at least one of the groups behind the UnKoch effort.

"These groups are also heavily involved in education philanthropy: Together, those six foundations have doled out more than $4.2 billion in related grants, including nearly $270 million in 2013, according to the nonprofit research service Foundation Search....

"Levinthal followed up his reporting with a story detailing the work of six foundations with ties to the Kochs. Together, the foundations reported net assets of $463 million in 2013. In comparison, the six aforementioned foundations backing CPI and the groups behind UnKoch reported combined net assets in 2013 of more than $31 billion....

"Levinthal writes that the Kochs’ giving will 'build a "talent pipeline" of libertarian-minded students.' Little attention is paid to the fact that this is exactly what the foundations backing CPI and the groups behind UnKoch are also trying to do....

"UnKoch referred questions about its activities to Greenpeace spokesman Connor Gibson, who rejected any parity between university donations from the Kochs and similarly ideological donors on the left.... Gibson for the most part declined to directly address questions about the UnKoch effort, and demanded to know whether the Washington Free Beacon is 'contracted to write defenses of [the Kochs] every time another scandal breaks.'"

Read more: https://freebeacon.com/issues/deep-pocketed-donors-behind-campus-anti-koch-movement/

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Provincial trade barriers OK'd by Canada's Supreme Court

Supreme Court upholds law prohibiting Canadians, wherever they live, from buying beer wherever they want | The Star - Tonda MacCharles:

April 19, 2018 - ""Gerard Comeau wasn’t the only one shaking his head when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday there is no 'constitutional guarantee of free trade' within Canada.

"'Money’s more important than liberties, I guess,' said the 64-year-old retired linesman.... Comeau’s bid to strike down the [New Brunswick] Liquor Control Act’s limits on cross-border beer shopping failed, but he became the champion of free-traders across Canada.

"Now some of his supporters hope all the attention his case, and the social media campaign dubbed #freethebeer, brought to the issue will galvanize provincial and federal leaders to drop barriers they say add $50 billion to $130 billion in extra costs to goods and services that cross provincial borders....

"The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the 1867 constitution did not impose 'an absolute free trade regime within Canada' ... [and] any decision to knock down interprovincial trade barriers would be a political one.... It cited the 'need to maintain balance' ... as long as the law’s primary purpose is not aimed at blocking trade across provincial borders.

"Any other interpretation, warned the court, could lead to a whole slew of laws being invalidated: environmental or public health regulations, agricultural controls on the production and distribution of eggs, dairy or poultry, for example, and 'innumerable' other exercises of provincial jurisdiction."

"Lawyer Howard Anglin, of the Canadian Constitutional Foundation, which intervened at the high court in support of Comeau’s arguments, ... believes the ruling actually provides an opportunity for a federal government or federal party leader to push to lower trade barriers, using the federal power to regulate trade and commerce....

"Freer trade between provinces could be a windfall for the provinces, said Anglin, who pointed to a senate committee report that accepted findings by Trevor Tombe and Lukas Albrecht. They say interprovincial barriers cost each Canadian household about $7,500 a year."

Read more: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/04/19/supreme-court-upholds-laws-limiting-amount-of-alcohol-moved-across-provincial-borders.html
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Canadian governments abuse civil forfeiture

National | Abusing civil forfeiture in Canada - Justin Ling:

January 10, 2017 - "Ontario’s civil forfeiture laws have created a system that is broad in scope and power, light on defence and relief....That’s a reality that Margaret and Terry Reilly have learned the hard way over the past decade, as the government has aggressively pursued two of their properties, seizing their buildings and selling them off.....

"The Reillys have found allies in the Canada Constitution Foundation (CCF), who are helping in the legal fight against the forfeiture order.

"The case dates back to 2008, when the couple had two of their rental properties in Orillia seized. As a Crown attorney told the local paper in Orillia, where the Reillys live, the properties had essentially become drug dens.... But the police didn’t pursue charges against the Reillys’ tenants.... Instead, they went after the houses themselves and, in turn, their owners....

"The properties were taken into the possession of Ontario’s Director of Asset Management in 2008, while the two sides battled it out in court, and filed to permanently take control of the properties in 2012 and sell them. The move was, according to the CCF, 'on the grounds that some of the tenants’ rents may have been paid, in part, with the proceeds of their drug
activity'....

“This case is a particularly chilling example,” said Shawna Fattal, a criminal lawyer who represents the Reillys, speaking at the CCF’s [2017] annual Law & Freedom Conference....

"In a 2016 report from the CCF, they gave Ontario an 'F' on its civil forfeiture law. They note that 'the province routinely uses its power to forfeit property in circumstances where there is insufficient evidence to merit criminal charges.' Also, the province 'uses its power to pursue the property of third parties not suspected of any wrongdoing.'"

"Fattal shared the stage with Justin Safayeni, a litigator at Stockwoods with a practice in constitutional matters. 'We have very broad seizure powers, very weak statutory defences...and we have a Crown that is using this legislation is quite aggressively,' Safayeni told the crowd.... he and Fattal agreed that the fight against overbroad forfeiture laws — something endemic to almost every province, according to the CCF — is ultimately a fight that may have to go province-by-province.

 "One big variable will be how the Hell’s Angels fare in British Columbia, where they are currently launching a constitutional challenge to fight the seizure of a clubhouse on the basis that, the Attorney General says, the location could be used for crime in the future."

Read more: http://nationalmagazine.ca/Articles/January-2017/Abusing-civil-forfeiture-in-Canada.aspx
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Bettina Bien Greaves dead at 100

Bettina Bien Greaves, R.I.P. | Liberty Unbound - Mark Skousen:

January 28, 2018 - "All scholars dream of having one or more disciples who will make sure their legacy is kept alive and their works and theories prominently trumpeted before the public eye.

"For the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, there was quite a following, including two couples, Hans and Mary Sennholz, and Percy and Bettina Greaves. On January 22 the last of the four, Bettina Bien Greaves, died at the astounding age of 100. (Mary Sennholz also lived to be 100)....

"Bettina Greaves deserves to be honored as Mises’ most devoted student, and in July a room will be dedicated to her at the annual FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas.

"From the time she first heard Mises speak in 1951 at a Freeman seminar in Washington Square in New York City, Bettina was smitten. With a background in shorthand and secretarial work during the war years, she attended Mises’ famous New York University graduate seminar, taking copious notes on every lecture from 1951 until 1969. Although she had no formal training in economics, Greaves was the queen of the Austrian school and never deviated from it. She joined the Foundation [for] Economic Education (FEE) staff in 1953 and worked at the FEE mansion for the rest of her career. She survived everyone, including founder Leonard Read. After retiring, she stayed on as a board member and even donated her home in New York to FEE....

"She focused her career on advancing the works and ideas of the Austrian school, including the contributions by Henry Hazlitt and Hans Sennholz. She wrote many articles for The Freeman, gave lectures, and compiled anthologies about Austrian economics. She spearheaded FEE’s program to provide libertarian material for high school debaters with packets on foreign aid, government regulations, medical care, and other issues. She compiled and edited Free Market Economics: A Syllabus and Free Market Economics: A Basic Reader, a two-volume set that was distributed to thousands of students and teachers....

"But her main interest was always in her mentor, Ludwig von Mises.... She compiled, edited, and translated many of his books after his death in 1973. She also worked with her husband Percy [on a book] ... published in 1974, called Mises Made Easier (but never easy!). With the help of Robert W. McGee, she published an exhaustive Mises: An Annotated Bibliography (FEE, 1993, 1995). When the Liberty Fund decided to publish the complete works of Mises, Bettina was asked to be the editor, writing introductions for each volume."

Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1808
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Libertarian site FEE seeking website publisher

Oldest Libertarian Organization, FEE, Looking for Publisher/Editorial Director - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

December 20, 2017 - "The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is looking for someone to run its publications and website. From the job description:

FEE's Publisher is responsible for the strategic and operational success of FEE's content across all print and digital platforms, including FEE.org, social media, third-party websites, ebooks, and print. This role requires an editorial visionary with a digital savvy, business focus. The Publisher supervises the Editorial staff and partners with the Marketing and Development (fundraising) departments to dramatically increase readership of and engagement with FEE.org. Furthermore, this role works with FEE leadership to create a FEE brand that will deliver a content experience attractive to FEE customers, partners, supporters, and advertisers. The role also communicates the business goals of the organization to the editors and writers, helping to plan editorial calendars and develop new content products. The Publisher reports to the COO.

[S]ome background on the group founded by Leonard Read, right after World War II:

Established in 1946, FEE (the Foundation for Economic Education) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to make the ideas of a free society–including free markets, civil society, and individual rights–familiar and credible to the rising generation (14-26 year-olds). Over the past three years, FEE has installed the latest digital marketing capabilities and assembled an editorial team to become the leading voice for ideas and commentary on the humane values and ethical principles of a free society. FEE.org attracts an average of over 1 million monthly sessions, making it one of the top 5,000 websites in the U.S. and one of the top 21,000 websites in the world. FEE is well-positioned for continued growth with repeatable annual revenues having increased 79% since 2015.

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/20/oldest-libertarian-organization-fee-look
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Antony Fisher, libertarian think-tank pioneer

Sphere of Influence: How American Libertarians Are Remaking Latin American Politics - Lee Fang, The Intercept:

August 9, 2017 - "Antony Fisher, a British entrepreneur and the founder of the Atlas Network, pioneered the sale of libertarian economics to the broader public.... Fisher made it his mission to, in the words of an associate, 'litter the world with free-market think tanks.'

"The basis for Fisher’s ideals came from Friedrich Hayek, a forbearer of modern thought on limited government. In 1946, after reading the Reader’s Digest version of Hayek’s seminal book, The Road to Serfdom, Fisher sought a meeting with the Austrian economist in London....

"Fisher was propelled forward by a fateful visit to [Leonard] Read’s newly formed nonprofit, the Foundation for Economic Education [FEE], in New York, which was founded to help sponsor and promote the ideas of free-market intellectuals. There, libertarian economist F.A. Harper, at the time working at FEE, advised Fisher on methods for creating his own nonprofit in the U.K....

"In 1955, Fisher founded the Institute of Economic Affairs [IEA].... The institute was a place to showcase opposition to British society’s growing welfare state, connecting journalists to free-market academics and disseminating critiques on a regular basis through opinion columns, radio interviews, and conferences. Businesses provided the bulk of funding to IEA, as leading British industrial and banking giants — from Barclays to BP — pitched in with annual contributions....

"As the economic slowdown and rising inflation of the 1970s shook the foundations of British society, Tory politicians gravitated more and more to the IEA to provide an alternative vision — and IEA obliged with accessible issue briefs and talking points politicians could use to bring free-market concepts to the public. The Atlas Network proudly proclaims that the IEA 'laid the intellectual groundwork for what later became the Thatcher Revolution of the 1980s.' IEA staff provided speechwriting for Margaret Thatcher; supplemented her campaign with policy papers on topics as varied as labor unions and price controls; and provided a response to her critics in the mass media. In a letter to Fisher after her 1979 victory, Thatcher wrote that the IEA created 'the climate of opinion which made our victory possible'....

"Hayek [had] set up an invitation-only group of free-market economists called the Mont Pelerin Society. One of its members, Ed Feulner, helped found the conservative Washington think tank the Heritage Foundation, drawing on IEA’s work for inspiration. Another Mont Pelerin member, Ed Crane, founded the Cato Institute, the most prominent libertarian think tank....

"In 1981, Fisher, who had settled in San Francisco, set out to develop the Atlas Economic Research Foundation at the urging of Hayek. Fisher had used his success with IEA to court corporate donors to help establish a string of smaller, sometimes regional think tanks in New York, Canada, California, and Texas, among other places. With Atlas, though, the scale for Fisher’s free-market think tank project would now be global: a nonprofit dedicated to continuing his work of establishing libertarian beachheads in every country of the world. 'The more institutes established throughout the world,' Fisher declared, 'the more opportunity to tackle diverse problems begging for resolution.'"

Read more: https://theintercept.com/2017/08/09/atlas-network-alejandro-chafuen-libertarian-think-tank-latin-america-brazil/
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Chase Foundation gives $800K/year to libertarian policy network

Chasing Free Enterprise: An Investor Gives Steadily for Libertarian Think Tanks — Inside Philanthropy - Ade Adeniji:

June 20, 2017 - "The Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation's motto is 'free minds, free markets.' Among its trustees is Derwood S. Chase, Jr., who steers Chase Investment Counsel Corporation in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"Chase, who graduated from the University of Virginia and holds a Harvard MBA, also sits on the board of the right-leaning Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada, which starts to paint a picture of the type of organizations that Chase is interested in.

"His Chase Foundation of Virginia was established in the mid-1990s, and in recent years has given in the neighborhood of $700,000 to $800,000 annually to a number of libertarian or conservative policy organizations across the country and north of the border.

"Besides the Reason Foundation and Fraser Institute, Chase, via his foundation, has also backed Acton Institute in Michigan, a think tank whose mission is 'to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.' The outfit is named after English Historian Lord John Acton, behind the well-known dictum 'power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'

"Chase has also supported places like the Atlas Network, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy in Ohio, Cascade Policy Institute in Portland, Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Goodman Institute for Public Policy in Miami, Institute for Energy Research, Manhattan Institute for Public Policy, and Montreal Economic Institute....

"As we've reported in the past, such giving has allowed the right to scale up a comprehensive policy infrastructure to influence policy at all levels of government."

Read more: https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2017/6/20/derwood-chase-philanthropy-think-tanks
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Essentials of Economics back in 'print'

Essentials of Economics | Foundation for Economic Education - from the foreword by Jeffrey Tucker:

"The enduring power of this book is due to the enduring power of economic logic. If it is done well, it applies in all times and places. And this book does economics extremely well. In times when economics is subject to vast political manipulation, when people have abused the science to push political agendas contrary to everything economics stands for, this book stands out as a clear, objective, and rational statement of the core of what economics teaches....

"Ballvé was teaching in Mexico when he heard Mises speak. They struck up a correspondence. After Ballvé felt that he had most of his questions answered, he sat down to write this short book. It was published in Mexico in 1956. It sold very well and went into several editions.

"Two additional names deserve special mention in the tale of how it came to the English-speaking world. The William Volker Fund, administered by its founder’s nephew Harold W. Luhnow, funded a translation. This was one of thousands of incredible projects pushed by the Volker Fund in those years. Without this act of benevolence, this book would have likely been forgotten....

"But there is another important act of entrepreneurship behind this work. Leonard Read (1898–1983) was head of the Foundation for Economic Education. His passion was finding literature that propagated economics to the intelligent layman. He had a remarkably independent mind and a good eye for literary value. He read through Ballvé’s work and decided that he would use the extremely scarce resources of the foundation to promote and distribute the book as widely as possible.

"This was a risky decision. Ballvé was an unknown in the United States. He had no academic position in the United States. He had no champions, money, or connections. There was no quid pro quo at work. Read would not be able to sponsor lecture tours by the author or otherwise turn him into a big star....

"It was an excellent decision. FEE distributed many thousands of copies, perhaps even many tens of thousands of copies....

"What Read had seen in this book others saw as well. The book does not require a great deal of time, but it covers a vast scope of topics. It is, in many ways, the perfect tutorial in what economics is and what it implies about our world. It is completely free of the tendency toward political posturing. Its lessons are broad enough to apply in all times and all places. For this beleaguered generation of freedom-minded individuals assaulted on every side by trends toward centralization, this tutorial is truly the light."

Read more: https://fee.org/resources/essentials-of-economics/
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Tenants may have sold drugs, so gov't seizes rental units from owner

John Robson: Ontario’s brutal assault on a good couple, which it never even bothered to accuse of a crime | National Post:

January 10, 2017 - "Canadians have rights, don’t they? We love our Charter and the robust, even convoluted, legal system that surrounds it. Yet increasingly we live in a fools’ paradise because one of the worst things that can happen to us is to be sucked into precisely the elaborate legal system we think protects us.

"This point was driven home for me, horribly, at a Canadian Constitution Foundation conference on Law and Freedom in Toronto last weekend. I was there to talk about the surprisingly encouraging 'Comeau' court ruling that we can buy beer and take it home even from (ugh) another province.... But this matter, or the apparently endless procedural wrangling in the CCF challenge to B.C.’s restrictive health-care law, is nothing to a tragic case described at the conference that, I confess, I was not aware of.

"It concerns the Reillys, a couple dedicated to helping the unfortunate who tailored two of their Orillia rental properties to low-income people with often chaotic lives. The Reillys were the sort of landlords who would personally drive carless tenants to the grocery store and to addiction counselling sessions.

"So in 2008 the police alleged drug-dealing at these two properties. Furthermore, they said some rent was paid from drug profits. And under Ontario’s soothingly named Civil Forfeiture Act, the “Director of Asset Management” seized the Reilly’s two properties as the 'proceeds' and possibly 'instruments' of crime.

"The Reillys were never charged with anything. It was never suggested that they were involved in drug trafficking. Moreover, despite deep sympathy for their tenants’ sometimes disorderly lives they had evicted more than 50 for dangerous behaviour and tried without success to have others evicted for drug use....

"No tenant was even arrested in connection with this seizure. The state never proved that the Reillys ignored any crime, let alone condoned or quietly profited from it. It just swooped because what Juggernaut wants, Juggernaut takes, casually crushing the Reillys in the process.

"They sold all their other properties to pay legal bills and mortgaged their home. Their marriage broke down. They are elderly and their lives are destroyed. And the case is far from over. Indeed the contested properties, badly dilapidated in the tender claws of the state, are being sold without any pettifogging determination whether the seizure was lawful."

Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/john-robson-ontarios-brutal-assault-on-a-good-couple-which-it-never-even-bothered-to-accuse-of-a-crime
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Dunn's Foundation gives libertarians $10M/year

This Foundation Is a Stalwart Backer of Libertarian Policy. Have You Heard of It? — Inside Philanthropy - Philip Rojc:

June 2, 2016 - "Most of the time, it’s hard to pick up on a foundation’s funding philosophy from its name alone. Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking makes it easier than most.... Founded in 1994, Dunn’s Foundation ... isn’t the oldest or most well-known funder around, but its low profile belies grantmaking of about $10 million a year, money that goes a long way in the think tank world.

"Dunn’s Foundation is devotedly libertarian in its outlook. While the foundation maintains no website or social media presence, public tax documents reveal a twofold purpose: to advocate for free enterprise and market capitalism, and to 'reduce the impact of the use or threat of force by coercive organizations (both public and private) against the people of America and the world, principally through education.'

"Since the year 2000, Dunn’s Foundation has provided major and ongoing funding to some of the biggest names in libertarianism like the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Atlas Society. Dunn’s persistent support for the Marijuana Policy Project cements the foundation’s libertarian status....

"Another feature of Dunn’s grantmaking is its direct support for several libertarian public interest law firms. Some highlights: the Institute for Justice ($5,910,000 between 2002 and 2013), the Pacific Legal Foundation ($3,713,000), and the Landmark Legal Foundation ($2,340,000)....

"A theoretical physics Ph.D., Dunn left the sciences for finance in 1974, establishing what is now Dunn Capital Management, LLC. According to the firm’s website, Dunn was an early pioneer of quant trading in commodity futures, applying then-new computer technology to manage financial portfolios.... Dunn ...  is a Reason Foundation trustee and sits on the board of the Cato Institute, both major recipients of his money....

"Dunn is said to maintain strict control over his foundation’s grantmaking. Despite assets of around $130 million, Dunn’s Foundation has a small, tight-knit board of trustees and few apparent staff. In addition to Dunn himself, officers include Dunn’s wife Rebecca Walter Dunn, Dunn Capital general counsel David Dreyer, and Thomas A. Beach, who is also current chairman of the Reason Foundation....

In addition to the grantees mentioned above, others include the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Americans for Limited Government, Chapman University, the Heartland Institute, and the Institute for Humane Studies.... The foundation has also given around $4 million over the past decade to the Property and Environment Research Center, a proponent of free market solutions to environmental problems and a critic of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts."

Read more: http://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2016/6/2/this-foundation-is-a-stalwart-backer-of-libertarian-policy-h.html
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