In an August 10 expose in The Toronto Sun, columnist and investigative reporter Warren Kinsella raised the alarm on a number of pro-Palestinian charities operating in Canada with highly problematic operations.
Kinsella’s exposé entitled: “Ottawa turns a blind eye to questionable pro-Palestinian charities,” identified four registered charities which he stated “show links or possible links with entities in the Middle East that have long been associated with terror,” as evidenced by their own filings, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) databases, and social media.
Alleged Ties To Terrorist Organizations
The four charities are the Canadian Palestinian Foundation, Hands For Charity, International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF), and Medical Aid for Palestine.
The Canadian Palestinian Foundation, based out of a nondescript building in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, which describes its mandate as “allocating donations and funds” to “victims of violence” in “Arab countries,” sent $14,000 to An Najah University in Nablus, a city in Judea & Samaria (West Bank) which has been noted as an active recruiter of terrorist organizations, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
That one recipient is far from an exception. Another donee sent funds was Inash El Usra, which Kinsella noted was identified as a financial backer of Hamas by none other than the CRA itself.
Hands For Charity, an organization with an unobjectionable name, sent tens of thousands of dollars to a Gaza charity called Al Hayah for Family Development, which as Kinsella revealed, has ties with a group called Interpal, which the United States government has said fundraises for Hamas in Europe.
Another CRA-registered charity, Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP), was previously called the Palestine Red Crescent Society, suspiciously has zero expenses listed for salaries and office supplies, but hundreds of thousands of dollars listed under the “other” category, a major red flag, and whose only international activities are in Tanzania, not the Palestinian territories.
The fourth registered charity flagged by The Toronto Sun, International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF), with annual revenue topping $25 million dollars, has received funding from another group, the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), which has reported ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation for Palestine (PFLP), a banned Canadian terrorist organization, according to the article.
The IDRF has also engaged in programs with PARC (Palestine’s “Agricultural Development Association”), which has reported extensive ties to Palestinian terrorism, and IDRF has partnered with a Toronto mosque, the Abu Huraira Centre, which allegedly has had ties to Al Qaida.
Canada Revenue Agency Must Investigate
To what degree these four charities represent a far larger problem remains to be seen, but it is incumbent upon Canadian news media outlets to shine a critical light on CRA-approved charities to ensure that they adhere to Canadian law, and do not have any ties to Islamist terrorism.
As The Toronto Sun exposé identified, members of the public can register complaints with the CRA on the agency’s Leads Program.
