Ottawa’s tweaks to summer jobs funding rules fall short
The federal government has surrendered — sort of — with regard to the Canada Summer Jobs program controversy.
But faith groups caught in the government’s contentious pro-abortion attestation say the changes the government has made don’t go far enough to help them gain equal access to a federal program.
Employment Minister Patty Hajdu said Tuesday that the government has clarified what its attestation means, particularly with regard to abortion, which many organizations say violates their beliefs.
“I have reached out to many of the religious leaders across the country to let them know that it is about the activities of the organization and the job description (for youth),” Hajdu said. “It’s not about beliefs or values.”
For the past two weeks, Canada’s faith communities have expressed alarm at attempts by the Justin Trudeau government to force churches, synagogues, temples, mosques and faithbased social agencies to sign on to the federal Liberal party’s policy platform on abortion in order to secure funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program.
Applicants for the grant still must click the problematic “attestation” that states in part: “Both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other rights. These include reproductive rights.”
Rather than admit they are wrong in the wake of almost universal condemnation on this attestation — including from pro-choice organizations — the government has added Supplementary Information on its Employment and Social Development website clarifying the attestation.
Under “core mandate,” for instance, the website states: “This is the primary activities undertaken by the organization that reflect the organization’s ongoing services provided to the community. It is not the beliefs of the organization, and it is not the values of the organization.”
When it comes to defining “respect” in the attestation, the extra information says: “Individual human rights are respected when an organization’s primary activities, and the job responsibilities, do not seek to remove or actively undermine these existing rights.”
Five examples are provided that explain what is meant.
Example 1 says: “An organization whose primary activities are focused on removing, or actively undermining existing women’s reproductive rights, applies for funding. This organization would not be eligible to apply.”
Example 2 is: “A faith-based organization with anti-abortion beliefs applies for funding to hire students to serve meals to the homeless … The students would be responsible for meal planning, buying groceries, serving meals, etc. This organization would be eligible to apply.”
Stephen Wile, CEO of the Mustard Seed ministry — which houses, shelters, feeds, clothes and counsels thousands of Alberta’s most marginalized and poor people — says the supplementary information doesn’t go far enough.
“I was just speaking to the young woman who is in charge of making these applications for us and she can’t in good conscience click the attestation box,” said Wile.
“I’m still struggling with the dissonance between the wording in the attestation and the examples given in the supplementary material,” said Wile, who said their organization qualifies if you read the entire supplementary info.
“Unless the government changes the attestation to reflect their supplementary information, we can’t in good conscience click the attestation. Their supplementary information is clear, but the attestation is not and is still problematic,” said Wile.
He’s right. The government is still not backing away from forcing organizations that have nothing to do with abortion and remain neutral on the issue to give up their right to freedom of conscience — the very first fundamental freedom written in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms — in order to gain access to the Summer Jobs program.
This new requirement is a slippery slope that begs the question, what’s next? What other government program will become accessible only to those who agree with the government of the day’s opinion on abortion or doctor-assisted suicide, for instance?
Indeed, even Ottawa’s revamped national youth volunteer program must agree with the Liberal government’s views on abortion. CONFUSED
The government should simply state the parameters of what organizations are eligible and leave it at that. These kinds of declarations are what happens in totalitarian dictatorships.
Julia Beazley, the director of public policy for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, says some of its affiliate organizations see this as a win, but most are still confused and conflicted about agreeing to an attestation that doesn’t say what the government claims it means.
“That attestation is still there, it hasn’t changed, so this external clarification doesn’t change what the actual application requires,” Beazley said from Ottawa.
Most church-based organizations don’t have positions on abortion because they don’t need to, as abortion is not something they deal with. The problem with the attestation is it forces these very same organizations, that do most of the work with Canada’s poor, into taking a position, which is irrelevant to the organizations’ mandates.
“We appreciate that the government is trying to remedy this but there are bigger principles involved here,” she added.
Freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression. Those are worth fighting for.
The English language is very precise. It is possible to write exactly what you mean. The government proved that in the supplementary information. By refusing to simply admit it was wrong, the government is continuing to alienate the very people who help those who need help the most.
Let that be on the Trudeau government’s conscience.