Liberals accused of jobs grant hypocrisy
OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday there’s no problem with a Canada Summer Jobs grant that will fund antipipeline activism, arguing his government must stand up for the principle of free expression and advocacy.
That may surprise the religious organizations who have been battling the government for months over the same summer jobs grants, thanks to a new clause that requires them to attest their “core mandate” respects reproductive rights, defined as the right to access abortions.
The issue dominated a fiery question period in the House of Commons Wednesday, as the Conservatives hammered Trudeau over the fact the British Columbiabased Dogwood Initiative was approved for federal government funding that, according to a job posting, will be used to hire an assistant to “help our organizing network stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker project.”
The summer jobs grant is normally a feel-good program that allows MPs to prioritize groups in their ridings to get funds to hire students. Dogwood spokesman Kai Nagata said the group has received summer jobs funding every year since 2010 — including when the previous Conservative government was in power.
But this year the summer jobs funding program has been swamped in controversy thanks to the abortionrights attestation added by the Liberal government. Conservatives blasted the Liberals not only for approving grants to fund anti-pipeline activism, but also for what they called the government’s hypocrisy.
“There is nobody who believes that the Prime Minister is committed to free speech when he punishes all those in this country who do not agree with his personal point of view,” said Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, describing the grant as “taking tax dollars from people who are out of work in the energy sector and giving it to people who are trying to block a project in the national interest.”
Trudeau responded by defending the right to advocacy — but defended the attestation as well.
“The commitment that this government has made to stand up and defend reproductive rights and the rights of women at every single opportunity is one that sticks in their craw,” he said. “We will not apologize for ensuring that women’s rights are protected across this country.”
Neil MacCarthy, spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said the free speech defence is a tough one to hear now from Trudeau. The parishes and charities in the archdiocese had applied for $1.1 million in summer jobs funding this year, but had their forms rejected over the attestation.
“We would expect that the principle of freedom of speech would apply equally to all Canadians on all issues,” he said.