Toronto Star Disappointed in Canadians

In an editorial headed "Pakistan's aid lesson," the Toronto Star chides Canadians, who in the past have been so generous, for failing to cough up aid money for Pakistani flood victims:

...Canada’s tepid response is a far cry from our prompt generosity in other disasters, including the Haiti earthquake and Asian tsunami. And while donor fatigue, summer distraction and nagging fears that aid might be wasted have been cited to explain the sluggish response, there may be another factor at work, as well.

Britain’s 13 major aid agencies, including the Red Cross, Oxfam, Christian relief groups, Save the Children and Islamic Relief are simply doing a better job of reaching out to the public. Back in 1963 British agencies banded together under a Disasters Emergency Committee umbrella to pool their efforts and galvanize public support on major crises. With help from the media, banks, phone and postal services, their dynamic outreach efforts are paying off. Alerted to the crisis, British donors are responding.

It’s a model that several leading Canadian aid agencies adopted five years ago, on a smaller scale. CARE Canada, Save the Children, Oxfam Canada and Oxfam-Quebec agreed to pool their efforts as the Humanitarian Coalition to respond to the most serious crises. They’ve been helped by CTVglobemedia, Astral media, eBay and PayPal. In the case of Pakistan, they are helping more than a million people. But the British experience suggests that far more could be achieved.

When moved, Canadians are a compassionate people. But as Pakistan’s crisis is showing, that compassion can’t be taken as a given.

The e'er clueless Star draws the entirely wrong lesson here. It's not that Canadians haven't been alerted to the seriousness of the crisis, or that they lack compassion. It's that they don't trust Pakistan, and are concerned that, instead of helping flood victims, their hard-earned charity dollars could well end up in the hands of corrupt officials and/or the jihadis.