When Journalists Drop the Ball
When Journalists Drop the Ball
Media Ignore Government Inquiry Finding Secret Foundation Funding of NGOs
In 2019, the Canadian Provincial Government of Alberta launched a public inquiry into who was behind the series of NGO campaigns attacking the provinces energy sector, economy and infrastructure. Forensic accountant, Steve Allan and the accounting firm, Deloitte, were tasked with researching into the root sources funding and leading the relentless attacks that had been having an effect on the Albertan economy.
Known as the Allan Inquiry, the final report published in 2021 revealed a shocking level of secret funding being channeled from American-based foundations and dark donor-advised funds into NGO campaigns designed to interrupt the Albertan economy and consumer access to affordable energy. Perhaps as equally stunning, given all of the data and evidence presented during the inquiry, there was no mainstream media coverage of the report’s findings in Canada or the US. Today the activists keep running their economic suffocation campaigns and the media have continued to sing from the NGO-approved song sheets.
Was it too hard for journalists to read the Allan Inquiry’s three-page executive summary?
Maybe the findings were not considered newsworthy?
Are news editors so understaffed that they can only publish articles written for them by activist campaign managers?
Or maybe it is because these media groups are now only able to survive with donations from many of these same big foundations?
In any case, it is safe to say, once again, that the media has dropped the ball and the general public, with limited sources of information, is led to believe the climate justice campaigns are actually fact-based rather than manufactured by special interest groups.
The Key Findings from the Allan Inquiry
A journalist would only have to read three pages to get the key findings of the government-commissioned report in order to produce an interesting article. The full report contains emails, documents and other evidence showing how NGOs are behaving badly courtesy of lucrative foreign funding from foundations that have been leading the charge while remaining hidden behind the lines.
Here are some of the key findings:
The accountants were able to show that, between 2003 and 2019, foreign funding of “Canadian-based” environmental campaigns totaled at least 1.28 billion CAD. They acknowledge that this number is grossly under-estimated as hundreds of millions in foundation funding was washed by other NGOs or donor-advised funds before being re-donated in Canada to other NGOs. The Allan Inquiry describes this as cases where money “loses its character” and becomes untraceable. This is corruption … just tax deductible corruption.
The main foreign foundations funding Canadian climate justice campaigners include:
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Pew Charitable Trusts
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
David and Lucille Packard Foundation
Oak Foundation
Wilburforce Foundation
The Marsla Foundation
Global Greengrants Fund Inc.
Sea Change Foundation
Energy Foundation
Brainerd Foundation
The Bullitt Foundation
There were also several “re-granters” – what The Firebreak refers to as dark donor-advised funds – that take donations anonymously and pass them on to designated activist groups. These include:
New Venture Fund
Tides U.S. Foundation
The Allan Inquiry recognized something anyone in industry had already known: “…in terms of reporting and accountability, there is an uneven playing field between not-for-profits and charitable organizations compared to regulated public companies. Industry is highly regulated, closely monitored, and must be open and transparent, but many of the same requirements do not exist for not-for-profits or charities.”
Between 2012 and 2019, there were over 1,000 divestments in oil and gas infrastructure projects (representing 8 trillion CAD) in response to activist campaigns, blockades and political lobbying. Keep in mind, post COVID-19, the energy sector was unable to ramp up production, leading to a spike in fuel prices that had a major impact on the global economy.
A large amount of the funding went to NGOs and activists based in the neighboring province of British Columbia, with the express intent to “landlock” Albertan natural resources. For those not in the know, British Columbia is an affluent social justice campaign paradise (the equivalent of California).
Many US-based NGOs have also run campaigns to affect Canadian environmental policy from the US (with little to no involvement in Canada). These NGOs include:
Corporate Ethics International
National Resources Defence Council
ForestEthics (now Stand.Earth)
350.org
Oil Change International
This is not uncommon. The Firebreak covered how the NRDC recently ran an anti-forestry campaign in Canada from the comfort of its Manhattan headquarters.
A Well-Organized Network of Extremists
The Allan Inquiry report put it bluntly:
“The commissioner references a “broader campaign” and says that networks of ENGOs seem to work in concert, collaboratively advancing an agenda. They function “like an industry,” attracting various sources of funding and employing large personnel and capital to promote their objectives.”
This reference fits nicely into what The Firebreak’s Foundation Capitalism series identifies as a business-driven objective to activist campaign management. The Albertan government, in 2021, recognized that they are not up against a band of thoughtful, caring hippies.
Even more concerning, these NGOs have extremist wings (flanks?) prepared to use violence to achieve their goals. The Canadian national police (RCMP) considered these foreign-funded activists as violent threats not only to critical infrastructure and oil and gas employees, but also to first responders.
So What!
A government inquiry into ethically questionable practices of NGOs being secretly funded in the billions by foreign entities should raise some eyebrows. That the national police would consider these extremists to be a criminal threat should drop some jaws. But the media remained largely silent on this report.
An excellent Nemeth Report video set the context:
Given that the money is hidden (it “loses its character”), how can we be sure that these NGO campaigns aren’t funded by Russian or Saudi interests? There is no scrutiny by the law (foundations have a privileged place) and practically zero attention by the media. It did not take me long to harvest the valuable information from two well-written research reports and prepare this 1300 word article … so lack of time for journalists is clearly no excuse. The media clearly have other political interests and an inherent bias.
Large media groups from The Guardian to the Associated Press receive significant financial support from the same foundations that have been funding these NGOs. As the Allan Inquiry report states, there is a network of interests working in concert, and that, evidently, includes the media. So what we have here is a government inquiry, providing clear evidence of unethical activities funded by dark foreign entities, that goes unreported by a media not willing to criticize one of their major funding sources. Sweet.
Most of the publicly accessible annex documents providing evidence of NGO and foundation wrongdoing in the Allan Inquiry and Deloitte reports have only been downloaded around 200 times. We can assume half of those files were opened by government staff or the consultants. Another 50 downloads surely came from the stakeholders in question (NGOs, foundations and industry reps). So the number of people who had no skin in the game who opened the documents could all fit in my living room. This is shameful.
The Nemeth Report says that the NGOs reaction to the Albertan Inquiry was that it was a waste of taxpayer money. Correction: The hundreds of millions given to activist NGOs to run pointless fear and outrage campaigns that harm consumers and the economy is a waste of taxpayer money.
As the Trudeau administration looks to be soon running out of time, these carpetbaggers had better get ready to retreat back to their Manhattan and K-Street suites. Hopefully they can become a pointless nuisance to somebody else.