Toronto Right to Life: An "Educational" Charity

I had never heard of Toronto Right to Life before this "abortion clause" (I hate the phrase, but that's what it's being called) kerfuffle.

It is a registered charity.

It's been in the news as one of the three anti-choice groups (with Guelph Right to Life and Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, aka Fetal Gore Gang) that successfully pressured the government to release Canada Summer Jobs funding they were granted before the eligibility rules were changed.

Then it was in the news again for taking the government to court to argue that its Charter rights to freedom of conscience are violated by the new rules.

And this week, its' president, Blaise Alleyne, was on CBC's The Current to talk about those "rights."

I thought it odd that I hadn't heard of this gang, so I went looking.

Toronto Right to Life styles itself as an educational organization. (The website is under construction.)

Under What we do, there's this.

Our Mission
Equipping Toronto and the GTA to defend human rights for all human beings through education and applied experience.

"Applied experience"? Wot's that then? Hanging around street corners with big gory signs?



On the return filed with Canada Revenue Agency, it reports its' programs and activities thus:

Ongoing programs: 

Research and study for educational materials concerning life issues including abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, fetal and/or embryonic experimentation, stem cell research; speaking presentations and presentation content development; seminars and conferences; teaching and outreach; free support resources for people facing a crisis situation pertaining to pregnancy or end of life care.

New programs: 

Student grant program: assistance provided specifically for eligible high school students and post-secondary students in need of aid in accessing educational materials and resources covering the topic of abortion and euthanasia for student-led educational projects and initiatives.

It offers speakers to provide "pro-life education." And it has endorsements from teachers and students at "Toronto Catholic and Public School Board [sic]."



See that "Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute"? It's in the public Toronto District School Board (TDSB). On Twitter, I pointed this out to TDSB, who disavowed all knowledge, said they did NOT deal with this group, and acted swiftly to get that bogus endorsement off their page.

The principal is not aware of any such presentation taking place at Danforth Tech and this group is not a TDSB-approved partner. We have followed up with this organization and they have removed the quote and the reference to this school.

— Toronto DSB (@tdsb) January 12, 2018

And, indeed, they did remove it.



While I hadn't heard of the group, the president's name rang a bell. I looked further. Oh, there he is, as Toronto Outreach Director at CCBR (Fetal Gore Gang).



Hmm. Interesting. The Fetal Gore Gang is NOT a charity. Here's a 4-page PDF on its site explaining why.


Another thing struck me. In the brouhahas over CCBR's attempts to impose gory transit advertising, this is the ad.



On TRL's website, there's this.



More hmm. On its resources page, TRL lists "Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform: Pro-Life Classrom" and a presentation by Stephanie Gray, co-founder of CCBR.

Back to the CRA's financials.

TRL was registered in 1973. It claims no government funding before 2017, when it claimed $10,800 from the summer jobs program. (CRA website lists only 5 most recent years.)

Its' revenues in general took a leap that year. From $117K in 2016 to $260K in 2017. Similarly, it went from 2 full-time and 2 part-time employees in 2016, to 3 full-time and 6 part-time employees in 2017.

Might Toronto Right to Life have morphed into the "charitable/educational" arm of the Fetal Gore Gang?

Stay tuned. More research is coming.

Wham! Bam!

Oh boy, we've really got to work harder to raise awareness of what fake clinics are and do.

In August this year, a group of generous community-minded guys in Yarmouth, NS, got together to bestow money on a local charity.

Sadly, the winner of the windfall $11,600 was a fake clinic, called Tri-County Pregnancy Care Centre.

Here's how it works:

The 100 Guys Who Share – Yarmouth County, is one of more than 350 similar groups located worldwide that focus on coordinating funding for local, community charitable organizations. The group gathers for one-hour quarterly meetings to hear three short presentations on local charitable organizations. Members vote then each person writes their check for $100 directly to the winning non-profit chosen for a collective, impactful donation.

The three charities that presented at the first meeting were Parents Place, South End Community Youth Garden, and the Tri-County Pregnancy Centre.

The men’s group has grown to 116 members at last count. They have scheduled their quarterly event so that combined with the women’s initiative there will be good news in the community every six weeks throughout the entire year.

Members of the group can nominate any local charity. Three are chosen at random to make presentations.

From the website of the Halifax group, 100 Men Who Give a Damn.

"Bam!" indeed.

There might be drinking involved. More from the Halifax chapter.

under 60 minutes
Start the quarterly meeting with some heroic conversation, maybe visit the cash bar and be out the door in under 60 minutes. 

We’re all about giving smarter, not harder.

we don’t exist
We are a non-organization – no bank account, no fixed address, no opinion. Everything goes to the charity. 100%. Always. 

Otherwise, what are we doing this for?

So, it's fast -- and manly.

Too bad there's no vetting to ensure that their hard-earned dough is going to a real community asset and not an operation whose sole mission is to shame, guilt-trip, lie, and manipulate vulnerable people out of asserting their human right to autonomy and privacy.

It's hard to believe that in pro-choice Canada all 116 guys are anti-choice. More likely, the majority simply did not know what fake clinics are and do.

I'm going to write to the Yarmouth group and ask them if they understand where their money is going.

I'll report.


h/t Kathy Dawson

Alberta Fake Clinics Sponging Public Money, Part 2, Medicine Hat

To continue our investigation into Alberta fake clinics sucking off the public tit (Part 1 on Central Alberta Fake Clinic here), let's look at the Medicine Hat Pregnancy Support Society.

It doesn't seem to have its own website and does not belong to Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services, the organization that the Ontario Trillium Foundation had a problem with.

It does have a Facebook page, which consists mainly of announcements of holidays on which they'll be unavailable to help any crisis pregnancies. For fun, here's its very goddy newsletter.

Things get interesting however, when we look at its finances. A site named CHIMP gets its information from the same place we do, the CRA.

This pie chart is fascinating, though. WTF does that mean?

But Chimp reports the 2013 data correctly. In 2013, Medicine Hat Haters spent 90% of their dough on management and administration, with 3% going to the "charitable program."

Note that they report 0% "government funding."

Now have a look at their filing for 2012. Then, they spent 95% on the charitable program and 5% on management, again reporting no government funding.

In 2011, again 95% went to the charitable program with no government funding.

Now, go back to the Alberta Lottery Fund and nose around a bit, you'll find that Medicine Hat scored government/pubic money as follows:

2012/13: $4500
2011/12: $6300
2010/11: $9300
2009/10: 0
2008/09: $4500
(figures are rounded to nearest hundred)

Two questions here:
1. Why are they not reporting government funding?

2. How the hell did they go from spending 5% on admin to spending 90%?

Honest mistake?

No flags were raised?

We will continue to ask questions.




h/t to Niles in the comments for the FB, CHIMP, and newsletter links.