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I’m confused how obtaining every member’s contact information is a ‘foundational democratic principle’. For federal or provincial politics, running for office does not entitle one to every citizen or resident’s contact information, and yet candidates are able to mount effective campaigns. Nonetheless, I have recently learned that members obtaining lists, with contact information, for all members is (apparently) part of the CNFPA (although I’m not clear on whether this is a requirement or something an NFP is permitted to do). While I think if it is a requirement that the law that should be changed, if it is indeed a hard requirement in law, then that law should be followed as the law was intended to be applied, whether it is as I would prefer or not.
I will note, it is imperative if the list is in fact required to be given to any member who requests it, that there are means to determine which member used the list, and in what fashion, in order to ensure the member requesting the list uses the list as intended by law, and only for the purposes intended by the law, and that CIRA proactively protect the membership from misuse of the list.
To be honest, seeing Alex’s complete inability to adhere to the rules of order for the AGM, taints my view on ’causes’ he promotes. It doesn’t help that the platform wasn’t working perfectly (I suspect due the alleged Indian cyber-attacks against Canadian targets, in the wake of the allegations around the recent high-profile political assassination in Canada) leading those prone to suspicion to presume intentionality around the issues, on CIRA’s part, particularly in light of the implied allegations and innuendo from Alex.
From what I can piece together, it seems that Alex has spent years railing against CIRA’s management team due to his apparent belief that CIRA is (at least) being horribly mismanaged, and this is being covered up by management, successive auditors, and successive waves of board members, all of whom are either ‘in on it’ or incompetent. It sounds like a conspiracy theory to me, not like something for which there is genuine evidence or truth.
I’m not clear what motive he ascribes for this behaviour, since if the accusation were one of significant amounts of money being funnelled out of CIRA, there would be police involvement already. Not only due to FINTRAC, failed audits and so on, but because that were the allegation for which there was a shred of evidence, Alex would have gone to the police and an investigation done.
So, I’m at a loss as to why Alex thinks there is malfeasance going on, what it is, and the motivation behind the suspected activities.