Baird pulls aid pledge from Syrian-Canadian group

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Source: CBC

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has reversed a decision to give $2 million to a Syrian-Canadian group for medical supplies.

"I have directed officials to change course and to review alternatives to deliver medical supplies to the victims of the Assad regime in Syria," Baird told reporters at Ottawa's airport just minutes after greeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "The current arrangement will no longer be pursued."

"The purpose of this funding was to help the people of Syria who've been targetted by the Assad regime and not to support such things as warehouses and infrastructure and we'll be working to ensure that aid gets to those people who need it as quickly as possible," Baird said.

Baird announced over the weekend that a group called Canadian Relief for Syria would be given the money to provide medical care to people caught up in the ongoing conflict in the Middle Eastern country.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/08/15/pol-cp-baird-syria-aid-opposition-medical-supplies.html

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1. Sounds like rethinking by the EU about aid to FSA and Syrian opposition groups tied to al-Qaeda.

Canada was going to give these people cash?!?!

Questions were also raised about Canadian Relief for Syria because of its connection to another charity called Human Concern International. HCI has faced controversy in the past over its links to the father of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, Ahmed Said Khadr, who helped finance al-Qaeda when he was HCI's representative in Pakistan and was later killed in a gun battle. HCI has never been charged with any terrorist activities, and the organization says it now has better checks on its operations.

Representatives of Canadian Relief for Syria say it is working co-operatively with HCI and it is helping it collect donations for relief efforts. Canadian Relief for Syria is in the process of applying for charitable status, which would allow it to issue tax receipts to donors.

Opposition critics reacted to the funding reversal by saying the government didn't do its research and was making policy decisions "on the fly."