Israeli foreign ministry granted Exigent Foundation $175,000 CAD to bring ‘Canadian influencers and policymakers’ to Israel, documents show
A Canadian-based pro-Israel group that has been organizing trips to Israel for Canadian right-wing media personalities and influencers was quietly approved for funds worth nearly $175,000 CAD by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last year, a source of funding the organization has not previously disclosed.
The Exigent Foundation, a non-profit organization co-founded by Toronto businessman Larry Maher, former Canadian ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici and Conservative Party insider Georgeanne Burke, was launched in 2024 with a professed mission to counter what it describes as a “surge of leftist and Islamist extremism following the October 7th Massacre.”
It pursues this mission, the group explains, primarily by organizing “educational trips” to Israel for “media, corporate leadership, academics and key policymakers” in Canada.
“We will finance educational trips to the middle east with intensive programs tailored to the interests and knowledge of the group,” the organization states, explaining elsewhere that it aims to turn participants into “agents of change” equipped to reinforce pro-Israel narratives in Canada.
Since 2024, the Exigent Foundation has organized a number of “fact-finding” trips with guest lists featuring a who’s who of right-wing Canadian media personalities and social media influencers, including several names from the National Post and Toronto Sun, as well as others from right-wing alternative media outlets like Juno News, True North, the Western Standard, the Post Millennial, as well as the pro-Israel pressure group Honest Reporting Canada.
The guest list for one of the group’s earliest trips in January 2024 saw National Post editor-in-chief Rob Roberts and columnist Terry Glavin along with Toronto Sun editor-in-chief Adrienne Batra and columnist Brian Lilley. (more...)






