Summer jobs ruckus not dead, just resting

Balk at signing abortion rights attestation

Andrew Scheer’s tenure as Conservative Party leader has been covered in a thick mildew of caution.

In January, the Liberals announced they would require all applicants for the Canada Summer Jobs program to check a box on the application form attesting they agree with the party’s position on abortion.

It should have been an open net for Conservative shots — a clear case of the self-proclaimed “party of the Charter” infringing on freedom of expression. Yet the Conservatives, leery of being drawn into a debate on abortion, backed away from engaging the government on the issue in the House of Commons.

The summer jobs issue was raised in question period just once, when MP Karen Vecchio said that including the values test for religious groups would deny money to organizations that provide aid to refugees, run day camp programs for kids with disabilities and help at-risk youth.

The smugness in the response from Employment Minister Patty Hajdu should have reinforced the Conservatives’ resolve to raise the heat on the subject. “Is the member opposite saying she is opposed to reproductive freedom?” Hajdu asked.

But that was it. The deadline for applications came and went and the issue died, without the Liberals ever being forced to defend in the House a measure that has upset all the Abrahamic and Indian faiths — not to mention the sheer bloody-minded, who don’t like being told what to think.

OTTAWA • Groups across the country are facing a cash crisis after they were rejected for a Canada Summer Jobs grant for refusing to sign a controversial attestation to respect abortion rights.

Millions of dollars are at stake, and some organizations are preparing urgent fundraising campaigns. The federal grants are discretionary, but many groups have received the funding every year for a decade or more. In effect, they feel they’re being de-funded for refusing to sign the attestation that says their “core mandate” must respect abortion rights, along with other rights around sexuality and gender.

Service Canada told the groups they can resubmit with the full attestation, and some are making a second try by requesting accommodation for religion and conscience. But unless the government backs down, the applications will be rejected again.

For the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto alone, the impact is $1.1 million in grants. “We’re kind of in limbo right now, but obviously making contingency plans,” said spokesman Neil MacCarthy.

Youth for Christ’s chapters across Canada have used the grants for years to fund more than 100 student jobs annually. Toronto City Mission, which runs day camps in impoverished neighbourhoods, received $70,000 last year for 16 positions. Winnipeg’s Centerpoint Church has used the grants for 24 years to hire two summer students; Mill Bay Baptist Church on Vancouver Island used a grant last year to hire a First Nations student. All have seen their applications sent back this year over the attestation.

Employment Minister Patty Hajdu has stood by the process, saying there are also many faith-based groups who have been fine with signing the attestation, and the government will still help fund up to 70,000 student jobs this summer (the program’s budget tops $200 million).

Conservative MPs have posted letters about the attestation from all kinds of groups, not just churches. The Great Lakes International Air Show wrote to Ontario MP Karen Vecchio to say its board had decided it couldn’t sign. Loon River First Nation wrote to Alberta MP Arnold Viersen to say it can’t sign the attestation because it discriminates “based on values held by the applicant.”

“We hold to values taught by our elders and will not compromise for a few dollars,” Chief Bernadette Sharpe’s letter said.

The attestation, new to this year’s form, requires groups to say their “core mandate” respects a variety of rights, including “the values underlying the Charter of Rights and Freedoms” and specifically mentions reproductive rights. Following heated controversy, the government issued a clarification on Jan. 23 that core mandate refers only to activities, not beliefs or values.

But the attestation itself remained unchanged, and dissenting groups either refused to sign it, crossed out part of it, or pencilled in their own clarification. Service Canada’s response said: “Your application must be resubmitted because the attestation cannot be altered or modified. The ‘I attest’ box must be checked and the application signed.”

Some groups gave up; others resubmitted with a cover letter asking for accommodation for their beliefs.

“The reason you require this particular attestation of us is not entirely clear,” said one letter by many Catholic organizations. “We have no difficulty attesting that we will operate in accordance with the law and the rules of the program at all times. If there is some reason you require further assurances of us, please advise us why.”

Religious groups are hoping for a negotiated solution, rather than legal action. An anti-abortion group did file a Federal Court challenge in January, but churches have not joined.

Tim Coles of Youth for Christ, said some student positions will likely be lost this year. “The bigger thing for us is, what’s next?” he said, adding he’d hoped the government would change or remove the wording. “Instead they tried to explain it away, but still asked groups to sign the same attestation. But if you don’t believe it, unless you’re double-minded, you can’t sign it.”