PROTESTS OVER THE TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT’S CONTENTIOUS SUMMER JOBS PROGRAM HAVE SHIFTED TO THE COURTS, WITH SEVERAL GROUPS CHALLENGING IT ON THE GROUNDS OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND EXPRESSION.
Liberals face more religious freedom cases
• A batch of new and anticipated court challenges against the government’s Canada Summer Jobs abortion clause shows the legal fight over the controversial program is widening, and will likely last years.
The new challenges move beyond the right to advocate against abortion, and more squarely into arguments about religious freedom and compelled speech.
An evangelical Christian organization recently filed a case in Federal Court that marks the first time a religious group has entered the fray. On Tuesday, an Ontario concrete company filed a challenge that argues the attestation illegally forces businesses to take a stand on divisive moral and social issues.
Multiple sources, meanwhile, have told the National Post that more faith-based challenges are coming and the fight is expected to spread over the coming months to provincial courtrooms and human rights tribunals.
The attestation was added this year and required all Canada Summer Jobs applicants to declare that both the job and the organization’s “core mandate” respect reproductive rights (defined as access to abortion), as well as other rights and values underlying the Charter.
Following widespread outcry, the government issued a clarification that “core mandate” refers only to activities, not beliefs — but many organizations still refused to sign the attestation or wrote in their own interpretation. Government figures show 1,559 applications were eventually rejected over incomplete or modified attestations, though hundreds of religious groups were also approved for grants.
The first Federal Court challenge was filed in January by the Toronto Right To Life Association, but the case has been slowed as additional allegations are filed by the anti-abortion group. A hearing is expected in September to deal with the allegation the government wrongly withheld documents during disclosure.
At the end of May, a registered charity called Power To Change, which does Christian student ministry on campuses, filed its own Federal Court case over its applications for a total of 44 summer jobs being rejected because it included a letter that read in part: “Our belief is contrary to the current government’s view on women’s reproductive rights. Our honestly held belief is protected under the Charter.”
Power To Change is now contesting a government request of the court to consolidate the case with the Right To Life case, or to stay the proceedings until the Right To Life case is decided.
“This Applicant is not principally involved in raising awareness about abortion, unlike (Right To Life),” says its reply. It argues the government would gain “a significant tactical advantage” by tying their religionbased case to the anti-abortion case, and says their own challenge represents “a far larger segment of the nonprofit sector.”
The entire problem with the attestation, argues Power To Change, is that it is overly broad and “not just blocking funding to organizations involved in fighting abortion, but also funding of organizations that do not have this mandate.”
A separate Federal Court case was filed on Tuesday by Sarnia Concrete Products Ltd., which argues the attestation tried to force it to align with “a particular position on abortion, a controversial moral, ethical and social issue and perhaps the most politically divisive issue in Canada.”
“As a for-profit corporation, Sarnia Concrete does not have a position or opinion on abortion or other political, moral, ethical and social issues completely unrelated to its business,” the notice of application says.
Sarnia Concrete’s CEO, Roy Botma, declined to comment. Botma has served on the boards of numerous Christian organizations, including a private school called Redeemer University College, but the court challenge is focused on the right of his concrete business to stay neutral on such issues as abortion.
The court challenge was announced by a group called Free To Do Business, which held a news conference in Ottawa on Tuesday to say more businesses are preparing to file similar challenges.
SARNIA CONCRETE DOES NOT HAVE A POSITION OR OPINION ON ABORTION.