Canada had already sent UNRWA M when pause announced, GAC confirms | Maqvi News

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That includes the first $25 million instalment of the $100 million funding boost announced over the summer

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Canada had already sent $48 million to UNRWA by the time the government paused funding for the contentious UN agency, Global Affairs Canada has confirmed.

And despite attempts by International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen to duck reporters’ questions on the timing of last week’s announcement, that number does include the first $25 million instalment of the $100 million funding boost for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced over the summer.

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In a statement to the National Post, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Pierre Cuguen said Canada has so far sent $48.15 to UNRWA in the 2023 fiscal year.

“This funding includes a $20 million contribution to meet the urgent needs stemming from the crisis in Gaza as a result of the Israel-Hamas conflict,  $1.25 million to the flash appeal for West Bank and Gaza, as well as $25 million in line with the disbursement schedule under Canada’s multi-year funding commitment to the UNRWA programs across West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon,” Cuguen said.

The remaining $1.9 million, he said, was allocated to responses in Syria and Lebanon.

“Canada will not retroactively revoke funds that have already been disbursed to address urgent humanitarian needs,” he said.

Despite the pause, Ottawa announced an additional $40 million in Gaza funding earlier this week — mostly earmarked for non-UNRWA UN agencies.

Critics have long accused UNRWA of being an agency of Hamas, saying that decades of well-meaning governments and donors have unwittingly been funding their brutal campaign of terror and rocket attacks against Israel.

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And despite public claims of a zero-tolerance policy for hate, students in UNRWA-funded schools are also routinely  indoctrinated to hate Jews and Israel and to glorify terrorism and martyrdom.

As Parliamentarians return to Ottawa for the end of the Christmas break, questions about the timing of Hussen’s announcement last week have swirled — specifically how much money Canada has contributed to the agency before the pause was announced.

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The current conflict began Oct. 7 when Hamas unleashed their latest brutal campaign where scores of Palestinian terrorists stormed towns and an outdoor music festival — assaulting, murdering and sexually assaulting thousands of innocent Israeli men, women and children.

Hundreds more — including children and infants — were kidnapped and taken back into Gaza as hostages.

Evidence provided by the Israeli government shows as many as 12 agency employees took part in that attack, prompting 17 other governments — including the European Union — to follow the lead of the United States and halt further payments to UNRWA.

Two of UNRWA’s Gaza employees are also accused of taking part in the Oct. 7 kidnappings.

Details of Israel’s dossier published earlier this week suggest as many as 10 per cent of UNRWA’s 12,000 employees in Gaza have ties to terror groups, and that 10 of the 12 staffers named by Israel were full-patch members of Hamas.

Criticism of the funding pause’s timing or effectiveness isn’t confined to Canada.

The U.S. State Department admitted it had already paid nearly all of its promised aid to UNRWA when the funding pause was announced, the New York Times reported on Wednesday — with only $300,000 of a budgeted $121 million already sent.

Citing concerns over aid being diverted to Palestinian terror groups, Canada cut its funding to UNRWA in 2010 under the government of former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Full funding was restored in 2016 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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Speaking in the House of Commons Wednesday evening, Independent MP Kevin Vuong described UNRWA as an organization “full of hate” who have indoctrinated generations of innocent Palestinians to hate Jews.

“It’s not political to want to ensure Canadian tax dollars are not being used to fund terrorism,” Vuong said.

“It’s the government’s moral and legal duty.”

More to come.

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