Is the Latvian Ministry of Defence providing majority funding to a Canadian think tank?
Photo Credit: (Macdonald-Laurier Institute / Google Images)
Written by: Aidan Jonah
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, gained much attention for its recent call to implement harsh sanctions against China and Iran, which would inevitably draw Canada into further conflict with these two nations. However, what isn’t as well known is their close ties with the Latvian government. Ever since declaring independence from the Soviet Union 1990, Latvia has been governed by right-wing, anti-Russia governments. In 2004, Latvia joined NATO, and has supported rampant imperialism by the West against Russia ever since.
The Latvian government has a long history of providing funding for imperialist think tanks, from the US-based Atlantic Council (at least until 2015), to the Latvian Institute of International Affairs and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (from 2017 onwards).
In June 2016, after pressure from NATO allies, the Trudeau government committed to send troops to join a NATO “high-readiness brigade” preparing to deploy in Latvia. At the time, Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Canada would take a leadership role and establish one of the battle group formations requested by the alliance. Canada would be NATO’s “enhanced Forward Presence” lead Framework Nation, while 450 troops were sent to Latvia, nearly half of the total of the 1,138 foreign NATO-member state ground troops, at a cost of $134 million per year to Canadian taxpayers.
In the MLI’s 2017 report, it was revealed that the Ministry of Defence of Latvia had become a donor to the Institute. However, the amount of their donation was not revealed in the Institute’s 2017 CRA tax report, nor in Charity Data’s report, which includes the exact dollar amounts for only some of their donors.
In their 2016 tax filings, the Institute revealed that 68.17 per cent of their donations were receipted donations, while “non-receipted donations” and “All other revenue” made up the other 31.83 per cent of their funding. This meant that of the $1,641,815.00 of total revenue, receipted donations made up $1,119,221.00 of this revenue.
Here's the list of 2016 donors, from CharityData.ca. This data comes from the donors who declared that they gave to the MLI.
Aurea Foundation: $250,000
Donner Canadian Foundation: $215,612
BC Foundation: $70,000
The Wilson Foundation: $25,000
M-E Squared Foundation: $25,000
Crabtree Foundation: $25,000
The Michael Young Family Foundation: $10,000
Canada Helps Foundation: $1,129
Of the $1,119,221.00 in receipted donations, only $621,741 (55.5 per cent) of these donations are accounted for.
However, the amount of the Latvian defence ministry’s donation was not revealed in the MLI)’s 2017 CRA tax report, nor in Charity Data’s report, which includes the exact dollar amounts for only some of their receipted donors.
In their 2017 tax filings, the Institute revealed that 61.62 per cent of their donations were receipted donations, while “non-receipted donations” and “All other revenue” made up the other 38.37 per cent of their funding. This meant that of the $2,089,738.00 of total revenue, receipted donations made up $1,287,791.00 of this amount.
Here's the List of 2017 donors, from CharityData.ca. This data comes from the donors who declared that they gave to the MLI.
Aurea Foundation: $250,000
Donner Canadian Foundation: $124,916
The Wilson Foundation: $75,000
Crabtree Foundation: $50,000
M-E Squared Foundation: $50,000
Max Bell Foundation: $32,500
The John Dobson: $25,000
Canada Helps Foundation: $318
Of the $1,287,791 in receipted donations, only $607,734 (31.8 per cent) of these donations are publicly available. Revenues other than receipted revenues make up $849,516 of the Institute’s revenue, while the amount of effectively anonymous receipted donations is ($1,323,594 - $421,694 = $901,900). Add these two (data points) together and you’ll find that ($849,516 + $901,000 = $1,750,516) of donations can’t be traced back to the donor, nor the amount given to the MLI.
In their 2018 tax filings, the Institute revealed that 60.91 per cent of their donations were receipted donations, while “non-receipted donations”, “gifts from other registered charities” and “all other revenue” made up the other 39.09 per cent of their funding. This meant that of the $2,173,110 of total revenue, receipted donations made up $1,323,594 of this amount.
Here's the list of 2018 donors, from CharityData.ca. This data comes from the donors who declared that they gave to the MLI.
The John Dobson Foundation: $175,000
Donner Canadian Foundation: $95,000
The Wilson Foundation: $50,000
Max Bell Foundation: $27,500
The W. Garfield Weston Foundation: $25,000
M-E Squared Foundation: $25,000
The Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation: $8,800
The Thor E and Nicole Eaton Family Charitable Foundation: $5,000
Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal: $5,000
Canada Helps Foundation: $3,594
Echenberg Family Foundation: $1,800
Of the $1,323,594 in receipted donations, only $421,694 (31.8 per cent) of these donations are accounted for in the T3010. Revenues other than receipted revenues make up $849,516 of the Institute’s revenue, while the amount of effectively anonymous receipted donations is ($1,323,594 - $421,694 = $901,900). Add these two (data points) together and you’ll find that ($849,516 + $901,000 = $1,750,516) of donations can’t be traced back to the donor, nor the amount given to the MLI.
Based on the MLI’s 2018 T3010 Charitable Tax Form, the Institute reported receiving $394,432 in “Total non tax-receipted revenue from all sources outside Canada (government and non-government)”. This is a $119,432 increase from 2016, when the Institute received $275,000 of this revenue.
However, given the Institute’s refusal to disclose its full financial data, based on an analysis of its publicly available 2018 tax information, there is reason to believe that up to 80.5 per cent ($1,750,516 of the $2,173,110 in total 2018 revenue) of the MLI’s current funding could be coming from the Latvian Defence Ministry.
The MLI begins pumping out propaganda for the Latvian military
A year after the Latvian Defence Ministry began funding the MLI, on June 11, 2018, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute founded the Canada in the Baltics Initiative. This initiative was described as “that aims to explore what NATO could do to better secure its Eastern frontier… from the threat posed by Russia.”
The centerpiece of this original announcement was a 40-page research paper titled “On the Baltic Watch: The Past, Present, and Future of Canada’s Commitment to NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in Latvia”.
This paper detailed Canada’s involvement in Latvia as of 2018, glorifies both the rampant imperialism of the past against the USSR post-WWII and the present-day aggression pushed by NATO against Russia, while making their case for Canada to continue its lead role in NATO’s mission in Latvia. In a particularly eye-opening paragraph, the MLI openly brags about how NATO’s presence forces Russia to spend more on defence, while it suffers under aggressive sanctions, reducing its ability to spending on valuable social programs, or to combat economic inequalities in their society. The MLI hopes that this reduces the Russian government’s legitimacy:
“Sanctions hamper the [Russian] economy “while the security dilemma has Russia spending more on defence, which has a compound deleterious impact on regime’s ability to spend on economic and social issues and thus on its legitimacy in the eyes of a population that bears the brunt of the consequences.” (pg. 20 of the paper)
The paper also complained of Trump breaking with the NATO consensus, and attempting to negotiate peaceful relations with North Korea, fearing that Trump would also seek to begin similar negotiations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
In particularly, it noted that even though Canada “has no threats to its sovereignty”, it must fight against the aforementioned “Russian aggression”
Two days later the MLI held a special event in Ottawa, “An Enduring Commitment: Trans-Atlantic Security and Canada’s Mission in the Baltics", which pushed yet again for an “unwavering” Canadian commitment to NATO and the Latvian mission. The event featured:
Richard Fadden, former National Security Advisor
Joel Sokolsky, Royal Military College of Canada
Stephen Blank, American Foreign Policy Council and
Elinor Sloan, Carleton University
On July 31, 2018, the MLI released another report fearmongering about supposed Russian influence, titled “Fear and Dread: Russia’s strategy to dismantle North Atlantic and European security cooperation”. In the report, Alexander Moens and Cornel Turdeanu make paranoid claims of “a kremlin plot” to “dismantle North Atlantic and European security cooperation” and infer that Russia’s “aim for equal status with the United States” is somehow insidious or illegal, reflecting the institute’s clear American supremacist ideology. All this to emphasize the “need” for continued support of and investment in NATO, which would ensure a continued Canadian presence in Latvia.
On December 11, 2018 the MLI released a new paper from Tom Nichols, a “moderate Republican” professor at the US Naval War College, titled “Russia’s Actions Are a Direct Attack on US and Allied Democracies” which pushed the now-debunked Russiagate scandal, and described these fictious clams of “an unprecedented attack on US democratic institutions which approaches an act of war”.
On March 16, 2019 a parade honouring Latvian Nazi collaborators was held in Riga, with more than 1000 people in attendance. The Latvian government refused to condemn the parade, stating that “March 16 is not an official remembrance day, and people, on their own private initiative, pay their respects to the fallen soldiers.” Two months later, the Ottawa Citizen reported that “The Latvian government also has on its website a 14-page document that argues Russian ‘disinformation’ is behind efforts to paint the gathering in an unfavorable light.”
Photo Credit: (Defending History / Twitter)
Days later the Latvian Ambassador to Canada claimed David Pugliese’s article on Latvian Nazi collaborators and others who murdered Jews during the Holocaust was a "threat to democracy."
https://twitter.com/DefendingHistor/status/1107673701636628492
Despite this, on May 13, 2019, the MLI hosted Latvia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Dr. Artis Pabriks, Janis Karlsberg, the Latvian Undersecretary of State and Policy Director of the Ministry of Defence, and the aforementioned Latvian Ambassador to Canada, Kārlis Eihenbaums, for a round-table discussion on “Russian disinformation activities”. The MLI failed to disclose that the Latvian Defence Ministry is a major donor to the Institute, which is especially noteworthy when promoting an event headlined by the Latvian Minister of Defence.
This follows a pattern of a lack of transparency by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, which has continued to the present day.
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