Thursday 8 September 2016

Public Money for Fake Clinics (An ongoing series)

Here at DJ! one of our aims is to defund and disrupt the operations of fake clinics, aka crisis pregnancy centres (CPCs).

Their outrageous lies, manipulation, sneakiness, and slut-shaming are well documented. They've been around a long time in North America and are somewhat cannier here than they used to be thanks to relentless investigations.

But they're relatively new in Ireland, where just a few days ago, a counsellor at a CPC in Dublin was caught on tape telling an undercover reporter that abortion causes breast cancer. (It does not, in case that needs saying again.)

Of course in a "free" country, people can believe whatever they want and proselytize however they want.

What we object to is their unregulated and blithe lying while receiving public funding.

Today in our desultory ongoing series on public money for lying liars, we begin our reports on investigations into Ontario fake clinics.

Using the Canadian Revenue Agency's handy public listing of CPCs that have charitable status (65 of them! more than abortion facilities in Canada), we've been focussing on fake clinics that report government funding.

Many report smallish grants from regional or municipal governments. I don't much care about those. If the good people of Whereverville know about and are cool with their hard-earned tax dollars supporting these liars, fine by me. (As long as it's not MY region or municipality.)

What concerns me is federal and provincial money going to these outfits.

And one really stands out in that regard: the Haldimand Pregnancy Care Centre.

For the past five years, HPCC has reported federal funding every year.

2015: $7298
2014: $3762
2013: $3953
2012: $4069
2011: $3983

There are no further details on which federal programs this gang could possibly qualify for.

Let's take a closer look at 2015.

Its total revenue was $376,345, which is pretty rich for these operations.




Oddly, all of its expenses ($350,592) were listed as "other," with nothing for "charitable program" or fundraising.



It reported $215,803 spent on compensation and $66,889 on occupancy cost.



It boasts two locations. One in Dunnville (population as of 2011: 5,789), the other in Caledonia (2011 population: 9,999). For comparison purposes, Hinton, AB, with a population of 9,640, has a fake clinic with 2015 revenue of just under $120K.

Haldimand Pregnancy Care seems to suck up a lot of peculiarly accounted-for money.

And oh yeah, it is Christian. Its mission is “Building Families Through The Love Of Christ”.

As blogging is often a collaborative effort, we invite any interested and/or knowledgeable readers to help us identify what federal programs these liars are getting dough from. And what kind of political clout they might have.

9 comments:

Francesca Scalzo said...

Crisis pregnancy centres get far less funding than abortion does. For those women who choose to go to a crisis pregnancy centre and aren't looking for an abortion, what's wrong with that centre getting a small fraction of the money that goes towards abortion?

Anonymous said...

If there were anti-vax organizations set up like CPCs, would they get government funding? I think they should all have their charitable status reviewed, and then pulled.

fern hill said...

That utterly gobsmackingly stupid comment/question prompted me to check your history here. Today alone, you've spend more than 35 minutes here, viewing 11 pages.

If you can read so much and (seem to) understand so little, the inescapable conclusion is that you are a troll.

Trolls are not welcome. Buh-bye. Don't let the door….

fern hill said...

Should have been more specific. The buh-bye is addressed to Francesca Scalzo.

fern hill said...

@Anonymous: An interesting analogy. A strong case could be made that anti-choice lies and stigmatizing is as harmful as anti-vax nutbars. I wonder if any anti-vax organizations, citing religious "conscience" of course, do get charitable status.

Francesca Scalzo said...

So you only allow people who agree with you to post comments?

fern hill said...

You don't post comments, you ask stupid trolling questions like this one. And I do post comments from people who disagree, if they have a damn point.

And now you really are done.

Alysha said...

Given they receive federal funding shouldn't they have to file more specific docs/shouldn't the funds be specified through FIA docs? I imagine the local MP is a con (literally and figuratively) but perhaps a know pro-choice Liberal MP could help?

fern hill said...

Alysha: I'm going to collect more of these examples, then turn them over to a reporter who, unlike a mere blogger, has some clout to ask questions. Also a budget for FOI requests. :)

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