Montreal group campaigns to restore US foreign aid to Times Square
"A retreat by the United States will mean that the weight balances in favour of digital authoritarianism, and away from what are essentially Canadian values," said Alex Dalessio, executive director of eQualitie.
The organization works to advance digital security for civil society and media around the world, allowing people in oppressive states to circumvent censorship and surveillance to communicate securely.
Dalessio's group has partnered with the American branch of Transparency International to post a 10-second message urging Americans to "support foreign aid" on a video billboard in the heart of Manhattan over 90 days.
"Instability abroad puts American jobs and safety at risk," the billboard message says, adding that foreign aid builds "a stronger America." The message will be displayed more than 11,000 times.
Dalessio said the campaign isn't "targeted" at the administration of US President Donald Trump and noted that European countries are also cutting back on foreign aid.
His organization says it's politically neutral but wants Americans to think about the impacts of the US pulling back from foreign aid after decades of funding development work that has helped spread democratic values around the world.
"Regardless of who made these changes to foreign aid, we would have made this message," Dalessio said.
"The role of foreign aid, in the advancement of tools that support informed and educated democracies around the world, cannot be overstated."
Trump tasked billionaire Elon Musk with gutting the United States Agency for International Development earlier this year, slashing its workforce and eliminating 83 per cent of USAID 's programs.
The cuts have led to sudden halts in medical trials, hunger in refugee camps and cutbacks in access to HIV treatment and contraceptives in poorer countries.
Dalessio said it's not clear yet what kind of impact those cuts have had on efforts to fight political repression abroad. Washington subsequently restored funding to some of the programs it had cut, while others went through what Dalessio described as "significant" layoffs.
"We felt to some extent like there were a lot of articles about it, but there wasn't a lot of action being taken," he said.
Transparency International fights corruption abroad by assessing governance in various countries, while eQualitie works to empower those trying to build strong civil societies.
Their work involves training locals to use technology to hold their governments to account and push back on repression.
Dalessio said that repressive states have been using technology to surveil citizens and block their access to outside news "as an extension of state power … to manage dissent, to direct election outcomes, or to influence the population at large."
"This is certainly becoming normalized," he added. "We're seeing it in on every continent."
Dalessio said he hopes the US reverses the cuts and that Canada joins its peers in "leaning in and supporting some of these programs."
He argued that foreign aid spending could even count toward NATO's military spending target for defence-related infrastructure, since instability leads to costly conflict.
NATO itself has said that hostile states are actively undermining democracies and neighbouring states.
"What's going on in the US will have implications for democracy worldwide," Dalessio said.
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