crockatt-foreigners_thumb-1.png
crockatt-foreigners_thumb-1.png This article is more than 6 years old

Are conservatives trying to start another witch-hunt against progressive organizations?

It certainly looks that way.

NEWPP.gif

Remember the Harper government’s attack on progressive charities? Well, it looks like Canadian conservatives are gearing up for Round 2.

Last week, Former Finance Minister Joe Oliver used his column in the Financial Post to complain about donations by American organizations to Canadian non-profits. 

This week, a complaint filed with Elections Canada by a group called Canada Decides is alleging “foreign influence” in the 2015 federal election, even claiming that progressive organization Leadnow was “spawned” by foreign money.

The group, fronted by former Conservative MP Joan Crockatt, also includes two other directors: Brent Chapman the husband of former CPC MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay and Chad Hallman, a conservative campus activist and U of T undergraduate. 

Chapman’s Facebook page appears to regularly promote right wing conspiracy theories about open borders and the funding of third party groups in Canada. 

 

unnamed.png

The complaint, yet to be investigated and still unproven, has already started to spread throughout the right wing blogosphere in typical fake news fashion. 

Screen_Shot_2017-05-23_at_2.37.00_PM.png

For her part, Crockatt has been regularly taking to Twitter to complain about “foreign influence” in Canadian elections.

In his recent column Oliver also invoked the spectre of shadowy foreign governments and interests, citing “third parties…from L.A. or Moscow”.

Of course, when it comes to conservatives conflating environmental and other progressive groups with sinister foreign powers, we’ve seen this movie before.

Indeed, this rhetoric is eerily reminiscent of the very language Oliver used in 2012 when, as Natural Resources Minister, he claimed “environmental and other radical groups” campaigning on green issues were “threatening to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda”.

(You know, that radical agenda of preserving the planet for future generations…)

The Conservative government then proceeded to launch audits of a number of progressive charities, ignoring right wing groups entirely.  

Given that the last of these audits were finally suspended this month, it’s perhaps no surprise Oliver and other conservatives have started singing the same tune all over again… 

donate-5.jpg

Photo: CBC News.

Our journalism is powered by readers like you.

We’re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality, big business and labour, and right-wing extremism.

Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don’t get the attention they deserve from Canada’s big corporate media outlets.

 

Donate
PressProgress
PressProgress is an award-winning non-profit news organization focused on uncovering and unpacking the news through original investigative and explanatory journalism.

Most Shared

South Asian Studies Institute NEWS

Take Back Alberta Leaders are Training ‘Scrutineers’ to Infiltrate Campaigns and Act as ‘Security’ on Voting Day

Related Stories

NEWS

“Where is Our Museum?” asks Punjabi and broader South Asian Canadian community in BC

View the post
NEWS

Toronto Police Arrested A Striking Worker At York University. Labour Experts Are Concerned Police Infringed on Charter Rights.

View the post
NEWS

Take Back Alberta Founder Vows to Fight Election Watchdog’s Investigation Into Donors

View the post
Our free email newsletter delivers award-winning journalism directly to your inbox.
Get Canadian Investigative News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers.
Our free email newsletter delivers award-winning journalism to your inbox.
Get Canadian Investigative News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers.