Dimitri Lascaris reporting from Lebanon in October 2023. Credit: Reason2Resist

Written by: Aidan Jonah

When Canadian lawyer and journalist Dimitri Lascaris went on a cross-Canada peace tour in Summer 2023 to speak about his visit to Russia earlier that year, a MacDonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) Senior Fellow went on the attack.

Lascaris says, back then, Marcus Kolga of the MLI and Kyle Matthews of the former Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies (MIGS) would marshal supporters on social media to demand the cancellation of venues for Lascaris’ tour; they succeeded four times. Even a Montreal pub where Lascaris knew the owners, felt they had to cancel because their business was potentially under threat, with Lascaris and Montreal organizers forced to hold the event in a park instead.

Frustrated with these shenanigans, Lascaris became curious about the MLI and wondered about their relationship with the Canadian state. On July 17, 2023, Lascaris filed an Access to Information Processing (ATIP) request to Global Affairs Canada (GAC) seeking “documents dating over the period of the past three years… that mention the name of Marcus Kolga or the MacDonald Laurier Institute”.

The Canada Files has reported extensively on the shenanigans and finances of the MacDonald-Laurier Institute (a neo-conservative, corporate elite-funded Canadian think tank) and Kolga, and revealed that:

The MLI took money from the Latvian Defence Ministry for years and didn’t disclose how much
The MLI took money from the Taiwan area administration and ramped up anti-China claims and campaigning
MLI has publicly begged for the US government to interfere in Canadian policy making more firmly, complaining that there’s been: “a benign neglect of Canada by Washington, thereby encouraging the belief in Ottawa that Canada can embrace China and engage in domestic diaspora politics, *with impunity*” [Emphasis added]
The MLI founded the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, which begs the United States to discipline Canada when they feel Canada isn’t pursuing imperialist policies rabidly enough.
The MLI, US State Department and Journalists for Human Rights jointly supported MLI Senior Fellow Marcus Kolga’s disinformation spreading anti-disinformation site “disinfowatch.org”
Kolga is an apologist for Estonian Nazi collaborators
Kolga claimed that Lenin was alive in the 1940s to start Soviet ‘disinformation’ efforts, in a Global Affairs Canada video
Kolga’s “DisinfoWatch.org” is part of the Canadian Digital Media Research Network (CDMRN) which was created with $5.5 million CAD for the Canadian government, and proceeded to attack Canadian Conservatives neutral or favourable towards Russia

Lascaris says his ATIP request was due for a response under ATIP law about 13 months ago, and that he’s repeatedly received false promises, on nearly 10 occasions, of receiving the documents soon. In late September, Lascaris says he went to the GAC ATIP Analyst handling his ATIP file, only to find out she was removed from the file. By October, a new ATIP Analyst was “just getting up to speed” on his file. On November 15, Lascaris received a message from this new ATIP Analyst, which stated that “the file has moved from my hands” and confirmed that the “file in question is now with my supervisor for approval.”

When The Canada Files reached out for comment to Global Affairs Canada’s ATIP Division, they didn’t respond to questions raised or any points of the request for comment, and stated they “are unable to disclose certain information about specific files to the public since we are obligated to protect the identity of the requester.” Further, they said that the requester would have to follow up unless we were acting on the requester’s behalf. As seen in this article, Lascaris had already provided updates to TCF.

Lascaris believes that the MLI might be objecting to the production of documents, while the embarrassment that deeper-than-expected MLI-Canadian government ties may pose to the government is another factor possibly driving the delay.

In July 2023, Lascaris and peace activist PhD candidate Tamara Lorincz separately sought to obtain the MLI’s donors list. When Lascaris went to the MLI office in Ottawa, a young intern told him that he’d put Lascaris in touch with a decision maker. That decision maker, Skander Belouizdad, MLI’s Communications Officer, then promised Lascaris he’d receive the donor list, in accordance with the MLI’s policy stated in their 2021 annual report. However, on July 14, Lascaris was then informed by Tristan Mele, MLI’s Director of Finance, that the MLI’s policy had “changed” and he would not be receiving the donor list.

In his article, Lascaris said “Mele asserted that MLI had altered its policy as a result of a review of MLI’s “legal and other obligations” toward its donors”.

“Probably what’s going on is that they are receiving large amounts of money from foreign governments… indirectly or directly… and arms manufacturers, other foreign corporations. And they don’t want the public to know they are the ultimate hypocrites, they themselves are being influenced and directed to a large degree by foreign entities and governments, while they are creating hysteria about foreign interference in Canadian politics”, said Lascaris.

The MLI did not respond to The Canada Files’ request for comment.

And the atmosphere of hysteria is putting anti-imperialists like Lascaris, and others such as Professor Radhika Desai, in danger. Lascaris noted that an op-ed in The Hill Times by Marcus Kolga and two Canadian Senators, Stanley Kutcher and Pamela Wallin, called for those who appear on RT or have cooperative relationships with Russian think tanks should be investigated by Canadian police and charged with criminal offences. Separately, Kolga called for Lascaris to be punished for visiting Crimea as part of his Russia trip in early 2023, claiming he violated Canadian sanctions on Russia.

Lascaris, Desai and Alan Freeman (co-director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group along with Desai) co-authored an op-ed response to the Hill Times Editor, Kate Malloy, who, on October 9, said they’d publish it. On October 16, the Hill Times’ Deputy Editor promised that the article would be published on October 21. Soon after, Malloy came back wanting to change the op-ed into a 500-word letter-to-the-editor, an option which was rejected. Lascaris thinks Malloy came under pressure from external sources. Despite attempts to reach to the Hill Times, no further response has come.

As the West’s attempt to shove a curtain over the eyes of Western citizens to hide their crimes continues to crumble, the pesky promises Western elites made of openness, transparency and internal democracy for all policy areas are being discarded. Lascaris’ attempt to make Canada’s government honour its promise of openness and transparency, and GAC actions in response, further showcase the dishonesty of Western elites.

Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.

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