Feb. 26, 2007: April Audits -&- Threads

April Audits

April audits may bring Grits shame , Ezra Levant, Feb. 26, 2007, Calgary Sun -- Interesting days ahead?

calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/
Levant_Ezra/2007/02/26/3667747-sun.html

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=2826&mforum=elwoodpdowd

This is terrifying for multi-million dollar slush funds like the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology, previously exempt from that kind of basic scrutiny. Secretive boards and foundations were stocked full of Liberal appointees who operated beyond the oversight of Parliament or the Auditor General.

It was the Auditor General who helped expose AdScam ... $2-billion gun registry .... Canadian Foundation for Innovation or the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation were put out of reach by the Liberals -- so no trouble-making auditors could peer through their books. [....]

Threads of interest:


Al-Qaeda's Hidden Arsenal and Sponsors: Interview with Hamid Mir , By Ryan Mauro, TDCAnalyst@aol.com Team, Thursday, May 25, 2006

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=359&mforum=elwoodpdowd


Bush threatens to cut Pakistan aid.

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=2823&mforum=elwoodpdowd

Refugee describes abuse in Chinese prison -- Physical abuse was bad, but mental torture was worse, Falun Gong member recalls , Gary Castagna, Sun Media



Radical Imam Aly Hindy on The Michael Coren Show --

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OTfacRDBJo

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=2802&mforum=elwoodpdowd


Impotence fears hit polio drive , By Ashfaq Yusufzai, BBC News, Peshawar

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=2813&mforum=elwoodpdowd

Health officials in Pakistan say they have failed to immunise over 160,000 children against polio due to rumours the vaccine causes sexual impotence.

Parents in parts of northern Pakistan told the BBC news website they feared an "American conspiracy" to cut the fertility of the next generation. [....]

[More information here]

Imposing Islamic law , By Diana West, Washington Times, Feb. 23, 2007

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=2816&mforum=elwoodpdowd

[....] What is quite eerie about these horrific crimes is the striking fact that the perpetrators, who acted to avenge various infractions of Islamic law, would likely feel right at home in a British state school that had adopted the Muslim Council of Britain's recommendations. In other words, the outlaws and the advocacy group are working in their different ways to enact Islamic law. Which should teach us all a lesson — if we bothered to learn it.

The Emperor Wears No Clothes , via puntedposters

Feb. 26, 2007: Foundations

Membership Transparency, Anonymity, Audit Committee

It appears that a foundation may have one member, may have no audit committee, and may have anonymous donors.

House of Commons CANADA Standing Committee on Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology NUMBER 022 1st SESSION 38th PARLIAMENT EVIDENCE Tuesday, February 22, 2005 -- here

cmte.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/381
/INDU/Evidence/EV1659341/INDUEV22-E.PDF

Prof. Warren Grover: I'm not sure I'm understanding exactly.

There is a lot of stuff in here about members, and the act, to my way of thinking, clearly thinks you're going to have a list of members, that there are going to be many members of the corporation, and those members will have the right to elect the directors. That's how the act seems to be set up, as I read it.

Now, can you distort a corporate act by having only one person as the only person in it? Sure you can. I can be the only holder of Grover's Holdings, which is my investment company; I don't need three people. I tend to agree with my friend that in a not-for-profit corporation it's very unusual, but there are some foundations where somebody such as Li Ka-Shing is setting up a foundation, and if only he wants to be there, bless him. He's setting up a charity for the whole of Canada, and it's only he. He's the only person contributing. He's put in, I think, $4 billion. If that has one person...? Yes.

[....] Mr. Michael Chong: I have a number of very quick questions. My first quick question is for Mr. Grover. You mentioned in your notes that the CBCA requires an audit committee to be formed. The current proposal uses the word “may”. I take it you don't want to see that whole clause taken out of the proposed legislation; it's just that you don't want to see it made mandatory. Is that correct?

Prof. Warren Grover: That is correct. I don't think you need an audit committee, basically.

Mr. Michael Chong: Yes, but there's no problem leaving that section in, because it says the board “may” form an audit committee. That's what it currently says. You don't have a problem with that?

Prof. Warren Grover: I don't have a problem with anything facilitative.

Mr. Michael Chong: Okay.

The next question I had concerns access to the membership lists, the registered members. Does anybody on the panel here have any concerns regarding access to the membership list? [....]

Mr. Werner Schmidt: Referring back to the members and classes of membership, and specifically with the access to membership lists, as it ties in with classes, there are classes of members who are automatic members because of the donations they might make to an organization like this, but they want to be anonymous in terms of their membership existence with the organization.

Under the provisions of this act, it seems to me the transparency provision makes it impossible for anyone to be an anonymous donor or member of such an organization. Is that correct? [....]

Mr. David Skinner: I've looked at a couple of sets of bylaws and organizational structures on my own outside of CSAE. This act would not actually prevent any organization from structuring their classes of participation in the organization such that an anonymous donation could be made outside of the bylaws stipulating what constituted a membership. [....]

I think there is adequate leeway and opportunity for organizations to structure their bylaws in order to protect some of that anonymity. [....]

Within the last year, I have found some intriguing information on anonymous donors and their donations for political purposes, perhaps not termed that; nevertheless, in effect, political. Maybe you had better read this for yourself.

Feb. 26, 2007: At the confluence of two rivers ...

Of Generosity and Business


Frost Hits the Rhubarb Nov. 5, 2006
Nov. 6, 2006: Charity begins ... in Hong Kong - China

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_11_05_archive.html

Hong Kong-based Li Ka-shing of Hutchison Whampoa, Husky Energy, White Rose, Cheung Kong Construction, and many other Canadian businesses


A "Canadian Charitable Foundation" ...

[....] The foundation recently filed its first financial report with the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA, and it shows that nearly all of the charity's gifts in 2005 went outside Canada.

[....] The Aga Khan and U.S. billionaire George Soros have set up several foundations to give money way on a global basis and ....

In general, Canadian tax laws make it difficult for foundations in this country to donate money abroad. But charity experts say pressure for change could come soon as more foreign-born Canadians start establishing private foundations with a desire to make international gifts. [....]

Although Calvert didn't emphasize uranium, the China trip comes some 10 months after federal officials said Canada and China have agreed to work together in the energy sector, including "the uranium resources field." [....]

Search: Husky Energy Inc. , medical research and knowledge translation initiatives , Chinese University in Hong Kong, Shantou University in mainland China

There is more.


Billionaire Li Ka-shing: East meets West in new medicine exchange program , April 2003, Page 34 , Univ. of Manitoba Alumni -- or here

umanitoba.ca/alumni/media/onmanitobaapril03.pdf

Medical students from both sides of the Pacific will gain a better understanding of each other’s cultures and medical know-how through a new exchange program between the University of Manitoba and Shantou University.

Hong Kong-based global entrepreneur and philanthropist Li Ka-shing is helping establish the exchange program with a gift of $1 million. [He gave money to St. Michael's, as well, within the last year or so. ]

Xu Xiao-hu, president of Shantou University, said that students from Shantou University will benefit from “exposure to state-of-the-art clinical and research experience in a developed country.” Shantou University is located in the city of Shantou, Guangdong Province, China.

... the transfer of technology and knowledge [....]

The new exchange program will give medical students in Shantou University and the University of Manitoba the opportunity to share views in terms of both academic and cultural experiences.

... work together on research projects.

Patrick Choy, associate dean (research) in the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Medicine, said....

[....] students participating in the exchange will study traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture.

Founded in 1981 by Li Ka-shing, Shantou University consists of eight schools and colleges with 7,000 students. Programs include liberal arts, science, engineering, medicine, law, business, art and adult education.

While Shantou University Medical College has participated in a number of such academic collaborations, this is the first one with a Canadian university.

Two students from each university will participate in the exchange each year. The first student from Shantou University is scheduled to visit the University of Manitoba in Fall 2003. The exchange program will also increase the research strength of both institutions by periodically bringing researchers to their partner university.

Choy is confident successful research collaborations will emerge once students and faculty from the two universities begin working together. [....]

ASIA MISSION TO PROMOTE SASKATCHEWAN "POWERHOUSE" , October 17, 2005

www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=
beeaa284-dd9e-4a48-8035-0c5b50e598cd

[....] Premier Lorne Calvert is leading the Oct. 17th to 29th trade mission, which includes approximately 40 business, community and academic leaders as participants. Team Saskatchewan will hold over 60 meetings with Asian business and government leaders to promote new business relationships in potash, energy, agriculture and agricultural machinery, telecommunications, film production, forestry, tourism and research and development.

"Hong Kong, China and Japan are among the world's – and Saskatchewan's – biggest importers and sources of investment, and Kazakhstan is a vital and growing market for us," Calvert said.

Highlights of the mission include two keynote speeches by the premier on the "Saskatchewan Powerhouse" to the Canadian Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong and Tokyo, Japan. The delegation will meet in Hong Kong with Hutchison Wampoa Ltd. (parent company of Husky Energy) and the Noble Group; in China with Sinochem (potash), China National Cereals, Oils and Food Stuffs Corporation (COFCO), the China National Petroleum Corporation, Chinese film producers, the National People's Congress, and various Ministries; and in Japan with Hitachi, Sapporo Breweries, Nippon Flour Mills, the Idemitsu, Overseas Uranium Resources Development (OURD), Japan-Canada Uranium Company Limited (JCU) and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) uranium companies and Japanese outbound tourism operators.

A number of new co-operation agreements will be signed on the mission, including agreements between the University of Regina and Jinan University, between the University of Saskatchewan and the Beijing Institute of Technology, and between the China National Petroleum Corporation and the Regina-based Petroleum Technology Research Centre.

Uranium Saskatchewan Development

China interested in Sask. uranium, Calvert says , Oct. 25, 2005 -- here
www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/
2005/10/25/sask-uranium051025.html

www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/
2005/10/25/sask-uranium051025.html

[....] Calvert said the rapidly growing economy in China makes it a strong market for Saskatchewan's potash, forestry and energy industries.