Canada hides tax dollars going to abortions in Uganda and Mozambique

Dear Information Commissioner,

I would like to submit my complaint to you regarding my ATIP to Global Affairs using Sections 20(1)(b) and 20(1)(c) of the federal Access to Information Act. See attached letter below. It would seem that this refusal is a work around to an open, transparent, accountable government. 

The tax dollars going to these third party organizations (Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) the Guttmacher Institute) are hidden from public scrutiny by the very fact that they are given to these organizations through the primary source organization (Oxfam), so that they can be hidden from public disclosure. 

IPPF is a global international company and the Guttmacher Institute is an American company--they aren't even Canadian companies and yet the Canadian dollars they receive is hidden from Canadian scrutiny. None of this is in the public interest.

In other words, if I am a company that does not want the public to know how much money I am getting from the government (AKA the public purse), I simply need to piggyback onto a primary company who receives funds and voila, the public is none the wiser of where their hard earned tax dollars are going and what they are being used for. 

This is definitely not open, not transparent, and not accountable to the public.

Can you please look into this?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Patricia Maloney

My ATIP that I was refused access to:

“For this contract to Oxfam. How much of the grant went to (or will go to) Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights? Agreement Number: 7433891P008437001. Also what other organizations received monies from this contract, and how much money did each of them receive, or will receive? Also how much did International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) the Guttmacher Institute receive, or will receive?”

This is what the $19,638,400 grant was for:

"This project aims to improve access to high quality and gender-sensitive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for vulnerable adolescent girls and young women, between the ages of 15 and 24, in Mozambique and Uganda. Projects activities include: (1) recruiting and training peer educators and facilitators to raise awareness of topics related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) amongst beneficiaries in the targeted communities; (2) holding training sessions for adolescent girls and women, and engaging with men, boys and community-leaders to raise awareness of SRHR and address discriminatory social norms; (3) delivering training to health care providers and providing local health care facilities with the appropriate equipment to deliver gender-responsive and youth-friendly SRH services, including access to contraceptives, safe abortion (where legal), post-abortion care, and secondary prevention services for gender-based violence; and (4) organizing advocacy campaigns alongside local women’s and girls’ rights organizations to push for better and more accessible SRH services, and the adoption of rights- and evidence-based policies in both Uganda and Mozambique. The project seeks to benefit nearly 500,000 people, 95% of whom are adolescent girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 24. Oxfam Canada is implementing this project in partnership with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Guttmacher Institute, Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, and various Women’s Rights Organizations and Youth-led Organizations across Uganda and Mozambique."

Final thought. Why are Canadian taxpayers paying for abortions in Uganda and Mozambique? And why are Canadian tax dollars paying for "organizing advocacy campaigns" for abortion in Uganda and Mozambique?