Trudeau commits $8.4 million to fund eco-radicals abroad

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) wants to uncover the correlation between warming temperatures and declining support for democracy.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged $8.4 million to research on how climate change "interacts" with democratic decline.

In a video address, he warned Canadians about "growing distrust of government and media" being exacerbated by ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation.’

“I’m announcing that Canada is investing $8.4 million on research across the global south to better understand how climate change interacts with democratic decline,” said Trudeau at the third annual Summit on Democracy in South Korea.

“These initiatives will also help protect the human rights of environmental defenders,” he added.

The financial commitment is part of a $30 million grant package to “strengthen democracies,” with $22.3 million allocated to “defend human rights and promote inclusion.”

Specifically, the $8.4 million will provide “vibrant civic spaces” across the developing world for activists and social movements to achieve "transformative climate justice" and "push back against impunity where people’s rights are not respected."

It also says that "misinformation on social media" is "targeting climate defenders."

“We are all facing a series of challenges, new and old,” added Trudeau. “We are still reeling from a pandemic that wreaked havoc on our democracies.”

He attributed some of the global disorder to ‘climate change’ in his address.

As the Prime Minister, he can approve unbudgeted cash grants to outside actors, a practice typically done on the eve of global summits, reported The National Post.

Of the package includes $1.44 million “to strengthen the resilience of francophone LGBTQI+ rights movements in North Africa.”

International Development Research Centre, a Crown corporation that funnels aid abroad, will oversee the “democratic decline” project.

The Centre will receive an additional $4.6 million to “create an equitable, feminist, and inclusive digital sphere,” according to the PMO.

Alex Dhaliwal

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