---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 14:14:07 -0800 (PST) From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FRASER ALERT -- PLEASE FORWARD > Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 09:55:51 -0800 > From: "Murray G. Dobbin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Fraser alert > > From Murray Dobbin...author of "The Myth of the Good Corporate > Citizen" > > Attention all nonİprofit service agencies' staff and board > members and friends.....The Fraser Institute is launching a new > initiative aimed at undermining the nonİprofit sector and > attacking the relationship between government and nonİprofits. > > The Fraser Institute, the neoİliberal, corporateİfunded "thinkŞtank" based in >Vancouver, has hooked up with the Donner Canada > Foundation, a wellİfunded foundation which finances many rightŞwing causes in >Canada, in a project aimed at gathering > information to be used in its promotion of free market solutions > to social policy issues. > > WARNING: DO NOT COİOPERATE WITH THIS PROJECT AND IF YOU HAVE ANY > ÔALERT THEM TO THE DANGERS OF COİOPERATING WITH THIS PROJECT. > > The project, funded by and named for the Donner Foundation, > offers six $5000 prizes purporting to award "best practices" by > nonİprofit agencies and a $25,000 award for the agency "which > best illustrates the principles of excellence." These cash awards > in effect offer to pay nonİprofits for their coİoperation in > their own demise. Both the Donner and the Fraser Institute are > wellİfunded rightİwing bodies promoting exclusive market > solutions to public policy issues. The Fraser Institute's > explicit mandate is to reduce the social role of government to > its barest minimum. Its motto is "Public problems, private > solutions." In its fundİraising materials it boasts about being > able to promote the interests of corporations in ways that > corporations can not. Institute head Michael Walker once admitted > that he and a fellow researcher in the U.S. engaged in an > "informal contest" to see who could find the best evidence > proving that women fare better in the workforce than men. > > The Fraser constantly attacks public medicare and public > education as dismal failures, attacks official poverty statistics > as wild exaggerations of real poverty levels. Its research is > often questionable such as a "study" on hospital waiting lists > based solely on the "impressions" of selfİselecting doctor > specialists (no random sample was used) who had a vested interest > in creating anxiety about waiting lists. > > In a leaked five year plan the Fraser indicated it intends to > double its budget through canvassing 25 large multinational > corporations. Under the heading "Social Affairs Unit" the plan > indicates a major new focus on social services and welfare andÔhave influenced past >governments' social policy. One objective of > the plan is to get Statscan to adopt the Fraser definition of > poverty. > > The Donner Foundation funds the Fraser Institute's relentless > attack on the government debt in which it promotes massive cuts > to social spending as the only solution. It financed the > establishment an eastİcoast clone of the Fraser Institute > (Atlantic Institute for Market Studies); the neoİliberal "Next > City" magazine, various charter school advocacy groups (promoting > privatelyİrun, publiclyİfunded schools); it provides funding to > universities to be distributed to professors Ôideology; it gave the University of >Victoria $450,000 to > establish a Centre for Municipal Studies to examine lowering tax > revenues and "market options in delivering public services." It > has also funded a group of Canadian professors defending > University of Western Ontario professor Phillipe Rushton, whose > writings claim blacks are less intelligent and have smaller > brains than whites. > > The "contest" application, sent out by the Ôwith a contact name Jason Clemens at >the Fraser Institute, names > some of the judges for the contest. They include Donner Chair > Allan Gotlieb, one of the most vigorous proponents of free trade, > Sally Pipes, Executive Director of the conservative Pacific > Research Centre and ÔDonner. > > While the cover letter written by the Fraser Institute describing > the contest says the study will only use "aggregate statistics" > detailed reports on each agency's "performance" will be produced. > Nothing on the Donner application form makes any promise about > how the data for individual agencies will be used. > > The questions which must be answered to "win" the context are > loaded with neoİliberal traps which can be used to attack the > social agencies which coİoperate. Several questions seek > information on performance indicators a neoİliberal Ôof private sector outcomes >monitoring which are now finding their > way into government administrations. Their effect has been > pernicious. It is a new kind of Taylorism; a time/motion study > approach used to judge social services and intended on proving > that private sector providers are "more efficient" and should > therefore replace government and nonİprofit providers. > > Other questions ask whether or not the agency "restricts the > receipt of services on the basis of need?"; "Does you agency > measure the frequency of usage by clients?"; It asks what > percentage of board members are also employed as staff members > and how many time the board metÔ > Ôgovernment funding an agency receives. These questions, in > conjunction with questions about what services government > provides that are similar to the agency, suggest an attack on > "overlapping" and therefore inefficient services. The application > form requires that the agency provide extremely detailed > financial information from its audited report to all fundİraising > activities and sources of funding.
