Trudeau pledges $8.4 million to study ‘democratic decline’

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As part of a surprise outlay of cash announced at a summit in South Korea, the Prime Minister’s Office has approved $8.4 million to study how autocracy thrives in warming temperatures.

“Today 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,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a video address to the third annual Summit on Democracy, a gathering orchestrated by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

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

The cash was part of a $30-million package of grants to “strengthen democracies,” of which $22.3 million was earmarked to “defend human rights and promote inclusion.”

A backgrounder on the $8.4 million describes it as a project to reclaim “civic space to confront the climate emergency.”

“Canada is investing $8.4 million to support human rights defenders working on climate and environmental issues across the Global South,” it reads.

The “democratic decline” project is being managed by the International Development Research Centre, a Crown corporation that is one of Ottawa’s primary conduits for overseas aid.

The International Development Research Centre will also be getting an additional $4.6 million to “create an equitable, feminist, and inclusive digital sphere,” according to a backgrounder by the Prime Minister’s Office.

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Other components of the $30-million package include $1.44 million “to strengthen the resilience of francophone LGBTQI+ rights movements in North Africa.”

The Prime Minister of Canada retains executive authority to approve unbudgeted cash grants to outside actors, and it’s relatively common that the PMO will roll out multimillion-dollar announcements on the eve of attending overseas conferences and summits.

Just before Trudeau attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2022, for instance, his government announced $333 million for various Asian projects, funds and non-profits.

This included a $32.8-million fund for any “civil society organizations” who could prove their commitment to promoting “gender equality and inclusion.”

In 2023, while visiting a summit of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Trudeau announced an outlay of $44.8 million in “climate crisis” money to various Caribbean agencies. This included $8 million to “improve ecosystem health” via “local environmental and women-rights organizations.”

Trudeau’s three surprise visits to Ukraine since the Russian invasion have similarly all been paired with top-ups to Canada’s Ukrainian aid budget.

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The prime minister’s February visit to Kyiv, for instance, was paired with several hundred million dollars in targeted civil aid, including a $4-million grant for “gender-inclusive demining.”

The cash, to be sent to a U.K.-based non-profit called The HALO Trust, would establish “a gender and diversity working group to promote gender-transformative mine action in Ukraine.”

One of the more controversial instances of the PMO earmarking federal cash for a pet cause was in 2018, on the occasion of the Global Citizen Festival organized in South Africa by comedian Trevor Noah.

Trudeau did not make an appearance at the event, but he scored a viral social media post by announcing a surprise outlay of $50 million to Noah’s charity, Education Cannot Wait.

“Sorry I can’t be with you — but how about Canada pledges $50M to … to support education for women & girls around the world? Work for you? Let’s do it,” he wrote in a Tweet to Noah.

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