(0:00) That’s right. So the moment you name a candidate is when it’s regulated. But there’s nothing to (0:07) stop them from having, as I said, volunteers, professional staff, full-time staff, and door (0:13) knocking across neighborhoods.

And those voter lists are becoming increasingly more important (0:19) because this is where they identify who to target. And the phone banks, their own data (0:25) and their own website does publish, does give you some insight into the scale of these (0:30) nonprofit organizations. One has claimed 42,551 live calls in a single campaign.

(0:39) I don’t have the time to make five, 10 phone calls, Ben, let alone 42,000. So they’re big. (0:47) They’re big.

And that’s the loophole. And that’s where it should be scrutinized. (0:50) OK, so we’ve set the table.

Let’s serve the meal. The advocacy group in B.C. that is (0:57) the best at this, the top of the top, they’re called Dogwood. Who are they? (1:02) We’ve got to give credit where credit’s due because they are big and they have been around (1:07) since 1999 in Victoria.

Based off our estimates, probably about 15 to 20 staff. They have an annual (1:16) revenue of one point nine million dollars. So nobody’s getting rich in this organization.

(1:22) It’s not as if they have a 20 million dollar revenue here. It’s one point nine. But it’s (1:28) the structural fact that everything that follows them is where is what matters.

(1:34) They’re not a registered charity. So Dogwood is is is a society and it is deliberate because (1:40) charities face limits on political activity, whereas societies, they don’t. So there’s no (1:47) Canada Revenue Agency return, nothing that we can see publicly.

And there’s no line. This is (1:53) crucial. There is no line asking about money from outside Canada.

There’s no public filing at that. (2:00) So this is I leave this to you to deduce where I’m going with this. (2:05) Yeah, well, that’s they always say follow the money.

So where does the funding come from? (2:12) Well, and just one thing, they’re not they are, say, on the on the whole, they are described as (2:19) an environmental group in the conventional sense, but it’s really an electoral organizing machine. (2:25) They get their funding. Well, we used to see it.

A lot of that was coming from the United States. (2:31) They used to tell you. And so prior to twenty twenty one on their annual reports, they used to (2:37) list their funders by name in their annual reports.

And some of those American foundations that have (2:43) been contributing to them historically were the Tides Foundation, USA, and they’re based in San (2:49) Francisco, the Gulen Foundation in Seattle, Brainerd Foundation, also Seattle, the Wilberforce (2:55) Foundation. You guessed it. Also, Seattle and the West Wind Foundation.

They are all very (3:01) prominent, progressive, environmental focus, U.S. philanthropic foundations. And the last report (3:08) that named anyone Ben was in twenty twenty. So they used to name them.

And then now it’s dropped (3:14) off a cliff. We don’t have any visibility on that. And they are under no legal obligation (3:19) to share that with us.

They don’t actually have to say where they’re getting their funding. And so (3:24) that that’s that’s concerning to Canadians from thirty thousand feet from where I’m sitting. (3:30) It it sounds like foreign interference or American interference.

(3:37) I wish I could call the elbows up crowd, but we can’t say that it is because they’re following (3:43) they’re following the law. They were funded by American foundations, as we know, up until twenty (3:50) twenty. But we have no evidence and neither does anyone else, Ben, because there’s no filing that (3:56) contain it.

And we’re not describing a crime here. This is this is a loophole. And I’d rather (4:03) talk about it now.

And thank you for bringing this up nine weeks before an election rather than nine (4:09) weeks after the fact. David, we were talking about listed funders of the group Dogwood, (4:17) at least up until twenty twenty one. And they all used to be listed as all about environmental (4:22) advocacy.

Has that changed? Definitely. And this is the part that that is not necessarily being (4:30) broadcast, at least I think it’s on their website, certainly, but this is the part I really want (4:35) people to hear, because the frameworks that we were talking about, they were all built for (4:40) something else that has shifted. In 2008, Dogwood’s mission was about local control.

So (4:48) communities and First Nations, co-management, collaboration, and that kind of crossed from (4:54) whether it was coal bed methane and oil tankers. But it has shifted and it’s shifted dramatically (5:02) since particularly since twenty nineteen, but even in the last year and a half or so. And today, (5:07) a sitting board members, his official bio describes the mission as to and quote, I quote, (5:13) this is on their website, then to democratize, decarbonize and decolonize British Columbia.

(5:21) So those are the big three objectives. And one of them, only one of them is environmental. So (5:26) big shift, noticeable shift.

And I think this thing we need to pay attention to. (5:30) Yeah. From from their own annual report, decolonize B.C. (5:38) It’s their front and center.

And it’s and I’m going to read it from you. You can go on to (5:43) their website. Dogwood is committed to dismantling colonial systems and ideas in B.C. and then on (5:51) there.

And so they have a number of different pages. It’s all their front and center. Anyone (5:55) can read it, look it up.

Their indigenous rights page says British Columbia is a resource colony (6:01) founded on land theft, white supremacy and genocide. And their twenty twenty one annual (6:08) report describes the province. It goes further as unseated, stolen indigenous territory.

So that is (6:15) how they characterize British Columbia and the people who live here. And like anyone else, (6:22) they’re entitled to every word of it. And I want to be absolutely clear about that.

But (6:26) that is the characterization that this organization is making about our province.