When Brian Lee Crowley founded the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) in March 2010, he proudly touted it as a Canadian public policy think tank that would be “rigorously non-partisan and independent.”
In a YouTube video published around that time, Crowley—who currently serves as the institute’s managing director—explained that neutrality would be central to MLI’s work, which is why he eponymously named the think tank after two prime ministers from opposite ends of the political spectrum: Conservative John A. Macdonald and Liberal Wilfrid Laurier.
Despite these attempts to brand itself as politically neutral, records show that MLI holds strong ties to right-wing networks across North America, as well as individuals within the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).
For more than 15 years, the think tank has published reports and commentary with the stated goal of being “an indispensable source of reasoned and timely thought leadership for policymakers, opinion leaders, and Canadians at-large.”
On its website, MLI casts itself as “the most cited think-tank in Canada’s parliament” and says its experts “are routinely called upon to testify at parliamentary committee[s].”
But trans rights advocates paint a different picture of the institute and say it has recently dove headfirst into the right-wing culture wars by publishing anti-trans material about contentious human rights issues, while trying to pass off fringe activists as topic experts
A spokesperson for MLI declined Xtra’s repeated requests for an interview with Crowley.
Amplifying fringe voices
In its inaugural year, MLI published reports about confederacy, eliminating provincial trade barriers and managing natural resources, but recently things have started to turn. In 2021, the think tank began commissioning material about social and human rights issues including trans inclusion in competitive sports.
First, in August 2021, the institute published the results of a poll about Canadians’ views on women’s sport and gender identity. According to their data, the majority of respondents supported separate male and female categories in sports and were concerned about allowing trans women to compete on women’s teams.
Later that year, MLI published a report on the same topic, which called for the reconceptualization of sports categories. The authors proposed converting the men’s category to “open” and changing the women’s category to “female,” so it could be restricted to cis women only. The report was written by Jon Pike, Emma Hilton and Leslie A. Howe, three researchers who are listed as anti-trans activists on trans rights monitoring site Transgender Map, and have been accused by critics of being part of the “gender-critical movement,” also known as trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERF).
Scholars define that ideology as an essentialist belief that sex is biological and cannot be changed. It also rejects gender-diverse identities and has been defined as “postfascist feminism.”
Pike runs the world’s only gender-critical research network within higher education at Open University in the U.K., where he produces critical scholarship about sex, gender and sport.
Hilton is a U.K.-based biologist and founding trustee of an anti-trans organization and registered charity called Sex Matters. Howe is a retired Canadian philosophy of sport professor known for research on the ethics of sport and commentary on trans inclusion.
In 2022, she submitted a brief to the Standing Committee of the Status of Women with respect to the participation of women and girls in sport:
“[Female athletes’] physical performances are compared by coaches unfavourably with transwomen athletes, and reference to the biological sex of these athletes is considered transphobic. This is a grave and unjustifiable infringement of those women’s explicit Charter protections,” Howe wrote. “This submission should in no way be interpreted as opposition to the inclusion of transgender athletes in sport. But safety, fairness, and justice, which are constitutive values in sport and constitutional rights in Canada, must be protected for women and girls.”
The report that Hilton, Howe and Pike wrote for MLI was later cited in an episode of Dr. Phil and presented as evidence during a heated conversation about the “transgender athlete debate.” The hugely popular show, which aired on CBS until 2023, had for years faced criticism for blurring the lines between entertainment and clinical care, and occasionally peddling misinformation.
All three researchers rejected the characterization of their work as anti-trans activism in a statement to Xtra, which said, “We are not advancing a conservative or ‘anti-trans’ agenda. Our sole concern is to defend the sex-based rights of women and girls to equality of opportunity in sport.
“This concern comes from our shared commitment to fairness, to social justice, and to the equal claims of all participants to recognition,” the researchers added.
After that report made waves, MLI published material that advocated for bans to gender-affirming care for trans youth and for trans prisoners to be housed according to their “biological sex.”
The timing of their reports coincides with a rising tide of politicians attacking trans rights and an overall decline in public tolerance for diversity.
As of August 2025, more than 900 anti-trans bills have been introduced across 49 U.S. states, plus more than 70 bills at the national level. In Canada, anti-trans legislation has been introduced provincially in New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta, but only remains an issue in the latter two provinces, following a leadership change in New Brunswick in October 2024.
Experts say it’s difficult to quantify or directly prove MLI’s influence. Regardless, the institute takes credit, claiming victory on its website for a number of domestic policy issues in recent years, including in their 2023 annual report where they highlighted efforts around anti-trans legislation in Canada.
“Since our thought leadership on this issue began, three provinces have now adopted some of our recommendations and revised their own gender policies,” the institute wrote. “This is a victory that MLI has played a leading role in creating.”
Meanwhile, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has shown support for anti-trans bills and has not ruled out the possibility of introducing similar legislation at the federal level.
As the attacks on trans rights ramp up, the think tank continues to publish anti-trans material. Out of the 628 publications released by MLI in 2024, more than 20 had to do with gender identity. That includes commentary about trans women in sports from Linda Blade, a Canadian track and field champion from Edmonton.
In a February 2023 article, she argued that cis women in sports face a significantly increased risk of injury when playing against trans women. Blade drew on her own experience as a sports performance coach and cited the MLI report authored by Pike, Hilton and Howe to hammer her point home. This is a strategy that trans rights advocates like Andrea James call “academic log-rolling.” It’s a process where so-called “experts” scratch each other’s backs by exchanging positive book reviews or by citing one another’s research.
James is a California-based filmmaker who, in addition to her day job, runs the free website Transgender Map, which provides online education about trans issues, as well as the social, legal and medical ways to transition.
“By building this network within academia, they create what’s called an ‘invisible college,’” James tells Xtra. “It creates this bubble and what they’re trying to do is spread propaganda.
“They’re trying to take people’s lack of knowledge about these things and whip up a frenzy. And unfortunately, they’ve been pretty successful,” she adds.
Links to anti-trans activism
Since 2018, James has been working on a long-term data project that analyzes anti-trans networks to understand how they work.
On Transgender Map, she has outlined the MLI’s affiliations with various conservative groups and anti-trans figures. Among them is Linda Blade, who in 2021 co-authored a book about trans women in sports with one of Canada’s most controversial columnists, Barbara Kay.
For well over a decade, Kay has been accused of making racist remarks, spreading Islamophobia and ridiculing trans advocates. She declined Xtra’s request for comment.
Their book was published by far-right media network Rebel News and has boosted Blade’s profile. She’s amassed a large following on social media where she frequently posts her views, and she’s also been influential in shaping public policy around sex-segregated sports.
In March 2023, Blade proposed a controversial policy through her local Conservative riding association in Edmonton-Strathcona to “protect single-sex spaces” in prisons, shelters and bathrooms, as well as “women’s-only categories” in sports, scholarships and awards. The policy would also see the word “woman” defined as a “female person.”
After six months of workshopping the proposal and lobbying other members to get on board, she successfully managed to get it into the top 60 resolutions that were presented to Conservative party members at their policy convention in Quebec City in September 2023.
Blade has been a member of the CPC for more than 15 years and has been a donor for just as long. In the 2009 federal election, she ran and lost the Conservative nomination in her local riding.
Her policy ultimately passed at the CPC convention with the approval of more than 86 percent of members who voted in favour of the resolution.
In a statement to Xtra, Blade provided more nuance about her views and said that she is “in favour” of trans people participating in sports “as long as they are competing in the correct sex-based category.”
The think tank also publicly celebrated its research paper on gender-diverse prisoners for going viral online and reaching over a quarter million people on social media within 24 hours of its publication.
That report was also referenced in an ongoing lawsuit from an anti-trans group called Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (caWsbar). The group is currently challenging the federal government’s practice of housing trans people in correctional institutions that match their gender identity or expression instead of their sex assigned at birth.
In April 2025, caWsbar filed a statement of claim arguing that this practice is “cruel and unusual punishment” and violates the Charter rights of cis women. The group went on to cite MLI’s research on the topic as evidence to support the unfounded claim that cis women are at a greater risk of violence and sexual abuse when housed in institutions alongside trans women.
The legal challenge was brought forward by Charter Advocates Canada, a law firm, which, according to online statements, is funded by a right-wing advocacy group called the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).
The JCCF regularly takes on legal cases that align with socially conservative views, including the case of a controversial Christian activist who was charged with hate speech for handing out anti-gay flyers during Toronto’s Pride parade in 2016.
The group was founded by Calgary lawyer John Carpay, a former Wildrose Party and Reform Party candidate who previously faced backlash for comparing the Pride flag to a Nazi swastika at a conference hosted by the far-right media network Rebel News in 2018.
In a statement posted to the JCCF’s website, Carpay called caWsbar’s lawsuit “a pivotal stand for the safety and dignity of female inmates, challenging a policy that disregards their Charter-protected rights and exposes them to intolerable harm.”
The case is currently before the courts.
Raising funds for anti-trans research
As for Linda Blade’s links to the CPC and ties to right-wing networks, they are never mentioned by the adamantly non-partisan MLI. Instead, she is promoted on the institute’s website as an “international sport expert.”
In March 2023, MLI’s former director of domestic policy, Aaron Wudrick, interviewed Blade for a video on the think tank’s YouTube channel. Wudrick eventually left MLI to join Pierre Poilievre and the CPC as director of policy in 2024.
During the interview, Blade argued without evidence that trans-inclusive policies in sports undermine the rights and protections of cis women.
When asked if she was transphobic, Blade rejected the label and said, “Throwing names around just doesn’t get us anywhere.”
Wudrick later wrapped up the video by asking viewers to donate to an MLI fundraiser spearheaded by Blade.
“For every five dollars that you give, Linda and another private donor will each donate an additional dollar,” Wudrick explained. “We are a charity, so we rely on the support of Canadians to further our work.”
MLI also has an entire fundraising page on its website in which Blade’s name and photo are featured prominently. “Support MLI’s Work to Protect Women and Girls from Extreme Gender Ideology Worldwide—Coach Blade,” is written in bold letters at the top of the page. A bit farther down is a message from the organization:
“While many think tanks are being intimidated into silence in the current climate of ideological conformity, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute is not one of them.”
The institute claims that its work has brought some of the world’s leading biologists, sports ethicists, corrections experts and medical practitioners into the spotlight “to expose the impact of gender activism on public policy.”
“Join Coach Blade’s campaign,” it goes on to say.
Deeply embedded in conservative networks
As a registered charity, MLI relies heavily on donations and sponsorships for revenue, but they also like to keep the identities of their donors under wraps.
The institute has not publicized its list of donors since 2019, but historical reports, which are still available on the think tank’s website, show that previous backers have included pharmaceutical companies, fossil fuel corporations, American defence contractors, foreign governments that, according to MLI “are aligned with Canada’s interests and values,” and conservative groups like Atlas Network, of which they are a partner.
The latter is a U.S.-based non-profit that claims to support over 500 free market and libertarian think tanks in more than 100 countries. Some of its most influential partners previously included the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which developed Project 2025: a controversial initiative that has served as a blueprint for U.S. president Donald Trump’s second term, according to critics within the Democratic party.
The Heritage Foundation has strongly promoted anti-trans policies across the U.S. by directly drafting state-level “parental rights” bills and by working closely with legal groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, to defend states that pass anti-trans laws.
MLI has also received funding from the Charles Koch Foundation. The billionaire Koch brothers have become synonymous with “dark money” in politics throughout the last decade and have been criticized by many prominent political figures on the left, including Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
They also previously donated to Atlas Network.
In 2010, the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer exposed how the Koch brothers had created a populist conservative uprising by secretly funding the Tea Party movement through networks like the political advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity.
Mayer later penned a book in 2016 called Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, which takes a closer look at the ways the Koch brothers and other wealthy conservatives have influenced American politics from behind the scenes.
In the book, Mayer explains how Charles and David Koch built an extensive network of think tanks, advocacy groups, super PACs and media channels to push their political agenda.
The Charles Koch Foundation did not respond to Xtra’s request for comment.
In 2016, MLI hired former CPC staffer Shuvaloy Majumdar to lead its foreign policy and national security program. During his tenure at the institute, Majumdar also worked for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper’s consulting firm as its global director. He’s also college buddies with current Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre.
In 2023, Majumdar stepped down from his position at MLI in order to run in a federal by-election that same year under the Conservative banner. Majumdar won the Calgary Heritage by-election and was re-elected earlier this year.
Then there’s Canadian MP Jamil Jivani, the best friend and college classmate of U.S. vice president JD Vance. Jivani was hired by MLI in 2020 to be its senior fellow for diversity and empowerment. Around the same time, he hosted a radio talk show that was produced and distributed by Bell Media. He was ultimately fired two years later for showing open disdain for the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Bell Media said it also received complaints from listeners about Jivani’s behaviour following an on-air segment about singer Demi Lovato’s pronouns. In the episode, Jivani declined to refer to Lovato as “they” and said he only uses “he or she” on the show.
Following this, Jivani continued working with MLI for the next two years until January 2023 when he stepped down and took a position at the Canada Strong and Free Network. He later stepped down from that position and ran as a Conservative candidate in a federal by-election for a seat that opened up in Durham. Jivani ultimately won the 2024 by-election and was re-elected to the House of Commons in 2025.
Other links between MLI and the CPC include former Conservative MP Christian Paradis, who sits on MLI’s board of directors along with Prime Minister Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright. Meanwhile, former Conservative advisor David Mulroney sits on the institute’s advisory council along with former Alberta PC MLA Jim Dinning.
Representatives for Mulroney and Dinning could not be reached for comment. Xtra did not hear back from Jivani, Paradis, Majumdar, Wright or the CPC before publication.
The think tank has also enlisted Roy Eappen as a senior fellow. Eappen is a self-described “gay Tory” and endocrinologist based in Montreal who ran unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate in the 2022 Quebec provincial election.
In 2024, Eappen published an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, an American conservative news magazine, which was later republished on MLI’s website.
In the article, Eappen advocated against gender-affirming care for trans youth and accused a professional medical organization of endangering children. He is also a senior fellow at Do No Harm, which is an organization made up of physicians, nurses and policymakers who are “fighting to curtail” the practice of gender-affirming care, its website says.
Representatives for Eappen and Do No Harm did not respond to Xtra’s request for comment.
These links between MLI and the Conservative Party are no surprise to Donald Abelson, a political science professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Abelson says it’s an “open secret” that MLI is a conservative think tank.
“It’s well known for being conservative-leaning and they have a fairly strong presence in the National Capital,” Abelson explains. “It was built around Brian Lee Crowley’s vision to create a think tank that was more advocacy oriented.
“In many ways, they are following in the tradition of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, which really changed the complexion of the think tank community going back to the early 1970s,” he adds. “They have some well-known people affiliated with them, but more often than not, their policy recommendations tend to be right of centre.”
Abelson’s work focuses primarily on the role of think tanks and their efforts to influence public opinion and public policy. In his book, Northern Lights: Exploring Canada’s Think Tank Landscape, he explains how some think tanks are able to shape the discourse around key issues by combining aggressive marketing and promotion with policy research.
When asked about MLI’s attempts to brand itself as “non-partisan and independent,” Abelson explains that non-partisanship is a legal requirement for registered charities, including think tanks.
“They cannot give money to a political party, they cannot give money to a particular candidate, they cannot publicly support or oppose someone running for office. They cannot do that. That is being partisan,” he explains. “They can only use up to 10 percent of their annual budget toward what we would consider partisan activity, but when it comes to their ideological orientation, they can say whatever they want, so long as they are advocating for or criticizing a policy.”
While MLI may not engage in clear and direct partisan activity, their agenda is coming into sharper focus. In December 2024, MLI hired Mia Hughes as a senior fellow focused on pediatric gender medicine.
Hughes is the author of The WPATH Files, which was condemned by LGBTQ+ advocates like Andrea James from Transgender Map as “an attack” on the largest trans healthcare organization in the world.
Hughes is also the director of Genspect Canada, a political advocacy group that is opposed to gender-affirming care for trans youth. It has been classified as an LGBTQ2S+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center since 2023.
A spokesperson for Genspect condemned that classification in a statement to Xtra, saying, “Our work is rooted in demanding evidence-based care for people experiencing gender-related distress … We do not oppose any group of people; we expose unsafe medical practices and policy failures that put vulnerable patients at risk.”
Meanwhile, James categorizes the organization as an “extremist group primarily opposed to medical consensus on health care for gender-diverse youth.
“They are professional anti-transgender activists, and they get paid handsomely to just churn out all of this anti-trans rhetoric and propaganda,” James explains. “They clearly have an agenda, and that agenda is clearly anti-trans.”
In her time with MLI, Hughes has written about the alleged dangers of puberty blockers taken by trans youth and argued for “the entire field of gender medicine in North America to purge itself of activists who prioritize politics over patient health” and “to protect the young people swept up in today’s transgender craze.”
These efforts have largely paid off for MLI, whose revenue grew by more than 16 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to its annual reports.
The continued growth has led the think tank to expand into publishing podcasts, hosting webinars and facilitating in-person events about domestic and foreign policy issues.
“MLI has never been stronger or more committed to doing our part to turn Canada’s response to these challenges,” representatives for the think tank wrote.
Meanwhile, police-reported hate crimes targeting people for their gender identity continue to rise. According to the most recent data available which was released by Statistics Canada in 2023, these crimes have more than grown by 151 percent since 2020.
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