Rights and Democracy

Paul Wells on the Harper government’s arms-length sequel to Rights and Democracy

There’s no reason to believe three years’ worth of relentless negative coverage led to the Harper government’s decision, announced today, to shut down Rights and Democracy. No negative coverage preceded the government’s decision, announced last Thursday, to shut down the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy; Katimavik; the National Council on Welfare; and the First Nations Statistics Institute. It’s reasonable to suspect that if nobody at the PMO had taken an interest in Rights and Democracy in 2008, it would have run much as before — that is, as a beacon of hope for oppressed millions around the world — until it would have been dumped last week for the crime of having been created while Joe Clark was a minister of the Crown.

The group is urging the government to consider the MEK as a potential replacement government for Iran

The National Post‘s Graeme Hamilton has a fascinating story this morning based on access-to-information requests he filed more than a year and a half ago. The documents he received fill in much of the missing story on Rights and Democracy, the Montreal-based arm’s-length agency the Harper government’s board appointees pretty much ran into the ground in 2009 and 2010.

Ten individuals who used to work for Rights & Democracy have endorsed Paul Dewar. Peggy Nash wins the endorsement of Alexa McDonough.

Whenever Jason Kenney picks a fight with an organization, it is helpful to ask, among several other questions, this one: “Hey, has the organization in question recently found itself on the wrong side of Israel’s most vocal defenders?” And indeed, in the case of Amnesty International, the answer is yes.

Paul Wells on why the immigration minister waded into a fight with Amnesty over war criminals, and was in the right

Hunches and goose chases at Rights and Democracy have cost taxpayers $1 million

In the Globe, a former staffer at Rights and Democracy and a former staffer at the Forum of Federations note the state of Canadian democracy promotion:

A news release from Gérard Latulippe, the president of Rights and Democracy, reacting to yesterday’s events:

Eight months ago I began calling for the public release of the Deloitte audit of Rights and Democracy. That was about five weeks after the R&D board announced the forensic audit into the agency’s financial transactions between 2005 and 2009, vaguely alleging financial improprieties under an earlier regime.

Daniel Leblanc at the Globe and Mail has posted the entire Deloitte audit of Rights and Democracy on the newspaper’s website, “in the spirit of transparency.” Off I go to read it now. You can too. Let’s check back in with one another later, shall we?