Article content continuedUnfortunately, when it comes to ensuring that taxpayer dollars are not misappropriated, the Trudeau Liberals do not have the best track record, to say the least. This is a government that couldn’t even set up a program to encourage student volunteerism during the COVID-19 crisis without raising serious questions about where the money was going to go and why no one had foreseen that selecting a charity that was deeply embedded with the prime minister and finance minister might be problematic. It is also the government that reinstated, then increased, funding to UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, despite substantial evidence that it has been co-opted by terrorists and promotes anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda. And indeed, Gould left the door open to providing direct support to the Lebanese government, saying that such aid must come with “significant fiscal and political reforms.” This is a nod to French President Emmanual Macron and some within the NGO world who have called for aid to be tied to political reforms. While this is a worthy long-term goal, it would be folly to think that Beirut’s kleptocrats would start putting the welfare of their people ahead of their own, or that Hezbollah would begin putting the interests of ordinary Lebanese ahead of those of their Iranian puppet masters in the near-term, when the people need help most.

Source: National Post August 07, 2020 14:45 UTC