The Janeway Foundation says it has no link to telemarketers calling Newfoundland businesses and claiming to raise money for the local children’s hospital.
The promoters of the Healing Hands Busy Book are doing so “without knowledge or permission” of the foundation, according to manager of community initiatives Jenine Kerrivan.
Kerrivan says the Janeway Foundation’s mandate is to fundraise for equipment, education, and research – not toys or books for children. While the foundation can accept and distribute those items, they don’t do any fundraising to purchase them.
“At the end of the day, this does not support priorities at the Janeway Children’s Hospital,” she told CBC News.
This is not the first time the name Healing Hands Busy Book has hit the news.
In 2003, a U.S. federal district court in Seattle issued a permanent injunction against the company and people behind the Healing Hands Busy Book, forbidding them from misrepresenting their products.
The Federal Trade Commission won the default judgment against the Edmonton-based company after an operation it called “Operation Phoney Philanthropy.” The FTC alleged that the defendants were telemarketing to businesses in small communities, falsely representing that they were affiliated with, or authorized by, local hospitals to solicit sales of the books on their behalf.
David Suggitt — who, according to the FTC, is also known as David Sumner — was one of the defendants sanctioned by the 2003 U.S. court action.
He is also listed as the administrative contact for the Healing Hands Busy Book website. E-mails to Suggitt’s Hotmail address and messages left on the company’s phone line went unreturned Tuesday.
In a message posted online, the Healing Hands Busy Book says it has been “unfairly attacked” by the FTC and “a very small percentage” of Canadian hospitals.
It says its “extremely valuable” books are given to children in hospitals across the country.
But in the years since that FTC court action, health-care officials from Sudbury, Ont., to Kawartha Lakes, Ont., to Abbotsford, B.C., to Amherst, N.S., have raised questions about the operation.
The Janeway Foundation is advising people to be aware of the “false advertising” associated with the product.
According to Kerrivan, about a half dozen Newfoundland businesses have contacted the foundation about being solicited.
One of those pledged money to the telemarketers.
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