Resurfaced Canadian foreign aid meme is inaccurate
- Published on February 13, 2025 at 22:57
- 5 min read
- By Gwen Roley, AFP Canada
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"Remember that Donald Trump did not destroy the Canadian economy through tariffs" the text inside a February 6, 2025 Instagram reel says.
The post's image shows a list of purported large Canadian contributions to countries and groups next to a picture of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Other versions of the meme which supposedly depicted a summary of Canada's foreign aid spending spread across Instagram, Threads, Facebook, X and TikTok around the same time.
Since the focus on international funding by the United States was spurred by disclosures from the tech billionaire Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, Canadian accounts began calling for a transparency overhaul of their country's spending. False claims about foreign aid from the United States and Canada were previously fact-checked by AFP.
Similarly, the purported aid figures next to the picture of Trudeau are incorrect, just as they were when AFP first debunked the meme in 2018.
Reported figures
The most recent international assistance report available, for 2022-2023 (archived here), shows Canada spent Can$16 billion (US$11.2 billion) on foreign aid, much higher than the total it presented for 2016-2017 (archived here), but still not the same as the $5 billion sum alleged on social media. The report also said $2.14 billion was spent on refugees, compared to some versions of the meme which claimed that number was $20 billion.
Funding is broken down by contributions to individual countries in the report. None of the sums claimed in the meme match the totals listed in the government's 2022-2023 report.
Canada did not list any contributions to Russia in 2023 as it has imposed sanctions against Moscow since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2022 (archived here). Another large variation from the last time these claims were widely shared is Canada's aid to Ukraine, which is now its largest reported recipient with a sum of $5.44 billion in 2023.
Aid to Palestinians
The meme incorrectly claims Canada sent $351 million to Hamas, the ruling group in the Gaza Strip.
Louis-Carl Brissette Lesage, a spokesman for the country's international arm, Global Affairs Canada, told AFP on February 13, 2025 that the country has a no-contact policy with Hamas since it is a listed terrorist entity (archived here).
Canada's 2022-2023 report on international assistance lists $56.41 million in aid sent to the West Bank and Gaza.
Brissette Lesage said Canada's funding to the Palestinian territories is delivered through the United Nations, the Red Cross and non-profit partners and it strives to ensure funds reach civilians.
"These include a systematic screening process, ongoing oversight such as regular site visits, and strong anti-terrorism provisions in funding agreements," Brissette Lesage said in an email.
Searching Global Affairs Canada's international development project browser and the Government of Canada's grants and contributions database for spending which mentions "Hamas" only yields relevant results about funding for humanitarian aid and digital security in the context of the war which began in October 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel (archived here).
Funding for Clinton Foundation
The posts also allege Canada gave $600 million to the Clinton Foundation, established by former US president Bill Clinton.
As was the case in 2018, it would be impossible for the Canadian government to have given such a sum to the Clinton Foundation, as it exceeds the organization's total revenue. A 2023 financial statement (archived here) showed the American aid group brought in total support of around US$53.5 million (Can$76.4 million) that year.
Furthermore, the grants and contributions database does not show any funding sent to the Clinton Foundation (archived here).
AFP reported in 2018 that confusion about Canadian donations to the Clinton Foundation originated with a conflation of Canada's $20 million contribution (archived here) in 2017 to the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a separate global health non-profit (archived here).
Searching the international development database reveals more recent contributions from Canada to CHAI totaling about $72.9 million.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.
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