Attestation requirement is being wildly misinterpreted

An avalanche of falsehoods about the Canada Summer Jobs program and its new attestation requirement has needlessly deprived thousands of students of summer jobs.

Many media commentators have irresponsibly repeated these inaccuracies in the mainstream press (including Peter Stockland in the Spec as well as all of the Conservative caucus and even several NDP and Liberal MPs.

Organizations applying for funding to hire summer students must check off a box on the Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) application that requires them to “respect” Charter and human rights for the purposes of the program, as well as attest that their “core mandate” does not involve undermining human rights. The listed rights include the right to abortion and LGBTQ2 rights.

Although some confusion arose when the attestation requirement was first introduced in Dec. 2017 due to unclear wording, the Liberals later issued clarifications with examples of eligibility.

The new guidance made it clear that almost all organizations are eligible to apply for CSJ grants. The attestation requirement is simply about preventing taxpayer funding from going to groups who would use it to oppose the rights of others or discriminate in hiring students. But many people have been politicizing the issue to attack the Liberals. Sadly, this was done at the expense of job opportunities for students.

A common accusation is that the attestation requirement is unconstitutional. On the contrary, the attestation does not interfere at all with peoples’ rights to dissent, conscience or speech. Constitutional law professors Daphne Gilbert and Karen Busby have both said the requirement is likely constitutional.

Regardless, no one’s rights are being trampled by checking off the attestation box because CSJ grants are discretionary. The government is free to apply eligibility criteria and groups are free not to apply.

The attestation requirement does not require applicants to “support” abortion but that misunderstanding has been the main theme of most critiques. Many commentators also confidently assert there is no constitutional right to an abortion, which is a misunderstanding of how the justice system works. The 1988 Supreme Court Morgentaler case, together with subsequent case law, have effectively established abortion as a Charter right in Canada [as described in the paper “Abortion is a Charter right” by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada: http:// www.arcc-cdac.ca/postionpapers/65abortion-charter-right.pdf]

To clarify, here’s what the attestation really means (as confirmed by Employment Minister Patty Hajdu’s office):

• “Respect” means that employers agree to not use summer jobs funding for activities that actively undermine or oppose any of the listed rights — whether they agree with those rights or not.

• “Core mandate” refers not to the group’s beliefs or values, but to their primary activity. This means anti-abortion groups are ineligible because they primarily act to oppose women’s rights.

• All groups with a different or more general mandate, including churches and religious groups, are eligible even if they are against abortion.

• Any group would be refused funding if they discriminate in hiring students, or if the summer job itself involves undermining individual human rights.

Terms are often given specific definitions for programs like Canada Summer Jobs. Because the Liberals defined the terms “respect” and “core mandate” to make churches and religious groups eligible, that means they are eligible. Period.

So why are some churches and religious groups subjectively redefining the attestation criteria in a way that deprives them of funding? Over 1,400 applications were rejected because of a failure to check the attestation box.

Perhaps groups are using the abortion issue to cloak their opposition to LGBTQ2 rights. Three known groups who received past CSJ funding have discriminated by refusing to hire LGBTQ2 people. They are likely just the tip of the iceberg.

Discrimination has no place in Canada, particularly when funded by taxpayers. The Canada Summer Jobs attestation requirement simply assures that we don’t pay for discrimination against women and the LGBTQ2 community.