ECA Review 2019-07-25

6 J uly 25'19 HANNA/CORONATION/STETTl ER, AB. ECA REVIEW
EDITORIAL
Nothing charitable
about mind
manipulation
B. Schimke
ECA Review
Premier Jason Kenney is right to
question the activities of charitable
organizations, he’s just wrong to focus
on one small group of charities.
Charitable organizations, with tax-free
status and authority to issue tax
deductible receipts, are privileged
indeed. Yet charity laws are fraught
with enforcement challenges and competing
interests.
Hunters, businesses and communities
reap economic benefits from
Ducks Unlimited even though there
are other rural Albertans opposed to
their water diversion schemes. Many
environmentalists would applaud their
commitment to wetland development
but frown on foreign hunters coming
to kill birds.
“
under the guise of
independent researchers,
they pump out reports to
sway public opinion and
economic policy.
Kenney is teaching us to hate environmental
groups opposing the
pipeline, yet Ducks Unlimited is also
an environmental group.
The same can be said for religious
institutions. Few may dispute the right
of Judeo-Christian churches to have
charitable status, yet can the same be
said for Muslim mosques or Jewish
Synagogues?
Throughout history, Jews have been
hated as money grabbers and many
believe mosques are incubators of terrorism.
Even today some churches
seem to promote right-wing politics as
synonymous with Christian values,
especially as witnessed in the United
States.
These examples are simply used to
show how conflicted we are when discussing
who is abusing their charitable
status. Governments could eliminate
charitable status altogether, but a
better option might be to audit the
donors—does their donation lead to
personal financial gain? The obvious
“
OPINION
targets for such audits would be ‘think
tanks’.
Two think tanks most often quoted
in Alberta are the Parkland Institute
on the left and the Fraser Institute on
the right. Under the guise of independent
researchers, they pump out
reports to sway public opinion and economic
policy. Yet both can cherry-pick
data to shape public perspective in line
with their donor’s wishes. It’s hard to
imagine how Parkland Institute
donors would gain personal wealth,
but the same cannot be said for the
donors of the Fraser Institute.
Right-wing ideology think tanks,
founded by wealthy Americans,
started to proliferate in the US in the
1970s. The Koch Brothers were the
leaders in this movement and today
they are the largest donor of foreign
dollars to the Fraser Institute.
The Koch Brothers wealth is oil
and gas; their mantra is climate
change denial and their investment in
the Alberta oil sands is significant.
Their large donations to right-wing
think tanks, on both sides of the
border, protects and grows their personal
wealth and has been highly
successful.
Liberal and Conservative political
parties and the Canadian public have
bought into their mantra that low
taxes, few regulations, small government
and trickle-down economics
benefit everyone.
Nothing is further from the truth,
but it is a testament to the power of
money. Today, corporations run governments
for the good of corporations,
and in the United States they own the
White House.
As Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize
winner said, “When you have a few
people who are so wealthy that they
can effectively buy the political system,
the political system is going to tend to
serve their interests”.
Charitable organizations should
face regular audits, but think tanks,
not environmental groups, need our
special attention. Think tanks, as the
name implies, tries to influence our
minds to their way of thinking. The
Koch Brothers’ 35-year investment in
think tanks has indeed been a financial
windfall for the wealthiest one per
cent of the one per cent.
Today, right-wing think tanks are
powerful political bodies of influence
at our highest levels of government.
Since there is nothing charitable about
mind manipulation, all think tanks,
including those on the left, need to be
stripped of their charitable status, now.
The opinions expressed are not necessarily
the opinions of this newspaper.
MAIL BAG
Sick at heart
Dear Editor,
Here we go again, the Canadian
media parroting all the left wing
media of the United States.
From the terrible Antifa organization
to the Democratic so called
freshmen, we are treated to not only
hateful words but very vulgar potty
language.
Add to that the violent attacks by an
organization that claims to be anti-fascist
makes some of us sick at heart.
What most individuals like these
love to do is call everyone else by the
very names that describe them. It
shows they suffer from the lack of
knowledge as to what these words even
mean.
What is it that disturbs most of
society?
Not the colour of one’s skin, not their
gender and not their religion, or their
race. It is their policies and their
character!
Definition of insanity
Dear Editor,
Well, here we go again! Round two
begins of consultations with ATCO and
AltaLink.
Apparently, landowners provided
too much input and it confused the
companies, or so they would want you
to believe.
Remember the definition of insanity:
Doing the same thing and expecting
different results?
In this round, both companies are
pushing landowners to commit to
accepting a route, with a ‘what can you
live with’ scenario.
I encourage those who have not yet
done so to submit your concerns and
route suggestions again.
In the second package you received
from ATCO or Altalink there is a form
for you to complete and submit called
‘Shape the Conversation’.
If mailing, please keep a copy. There
will be no more open houses. Route
Their policies because they are dangerous
and insulting, their character
because they don’t have one.
Donald Trump is not running our
country so why do Canadians think
they have to hate him? What difference
does it make to you what he says or
does?
We have our own problems in
Canada and Alberta, so why, oh why,
do we have to listen to our press trash
the President of the United States on a
regular basis?
Investigative journalism is dead in
most quarters of this country and
when CBC has a budget of millions of
dollars and then mimics CNN they
should be docked a few month’s salary!
Put on your gum boots reporters and
find your own press items! Your rhetoric
has become tiresome.
Apologies to the Review.
Faye Pearson
Stettler, Alta.
selections will be made and applied for
at AUC.
It’s unfortunate these companies are
allowed to manipulate this process of
consultation.
How simple would it have been to
present two routes in the very beginning,
knowing the two routes would
have allowed landowners to engage in
meaningful dialogue?
If landowners actually had property
rights, these companies would be
forced to consult and negotiate while
respecting landowners’ rights, eliminating
their divide and conquer
strategy!
I recently attended a Paintearth
County Council meeting in response to
a letter of concern with the CETO
project, published in the East Central
Alberta Review, regarding Paintearth
Council’s position on Halkirk 1 and 2
wind turbine projects.
Turn to Amazed, Pg 7
REast Central Alberta
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