Giustra charity defends secrecy
A Canadian charity founded by mining billionaire Frank Giustra released a legal opinion Wednesday affirming that its donors have a right to remain anonymous and public disclosure of their information requires their consent.
The charity, the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, has come under scrutiny because of its intimate connection to the New York-based Clinton Foundation, a charitable body established by former U.S. president Bill Clinton in 2001. In 2008, when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, the foundation promised to release annually a list of all its contributors. Since her recent decision to run for president, the foundation has committed to even greater transparency.
But while Giustra’s Canadian charity is listed as a donor on the foundation’s website, the names of individual donors have been withheld.
Maura Pally, the foundation’s acting CEO, released a statement this weekend stating that unlike in the U.S., she said, all charities in Canada are “prohibited from disclosing individual donors without prior permission from each donor.”
The legal opinion released by Giustra’s Vancouver-based charity on Wednesday supported that statement.
“We confirm our strong advice to you that under Canadian laws, and under Canadian charitable best practices, charitable donors have an expectation and right of privacy which must be respected by the charity with respect to the donor’s financial information, unless public disclosure is consented to by the charitable donor or disclosure is mandated by law,” read the legal opinion.
Others say the answer is not so cut-and-dried. Peter Murphy, a Toronto lawyer specializing in privacy law, said Wednesday federal privacy laws may not necessarily prohibit disclosure of donor information by charities that do not engage in commercial activity.
Some provincial laws, however, may prohibit disclosure without consent. “A growing body of law in various provinces in Canada recognizes individual expectations of privacy in certain circumstances and provides means for aggrieved individuals to obtain recourse for breach of their privacy,” Murphy said.
The Clinton Foundation supports initiatives around the world in numerous areas, including climate change, economic development and empowerment of females.
The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which has poured millions into the Clinton Foundation, was formed by Giustra in 2007 to allow Canadians to support the work of the foundation and receive a charitable tax credit.
“All of the money that was raised by (the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership) flowed through to the Clinton Foundation — every penny — and went to the (charitable) initiatives we identified,” Giustra said this week, confirming there were 1,100 undisclosed donors to the Clinton Foundation.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Canadian financier is now reaching out to his charity’s 28 largest donors — who have each given at least $250,000 in U.S. dollars — for permission to release their names.