PM responds to criticism on abortion rights clause
Offers support for ‘faith-based’ job applicants
OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says religious groups shouldn’t be discouraged from applying to the Canada Summer Jobs program, despite a new clause in the grant application that seems to require that they endorse access to abortions.
“On the contrary, so many of the great community organizations that we have working incredibly hard are faith-based across this country, and it’s an important and wonderful part of our society,” Trudeau said at a town hall in Hamilton, Ont., on Wednesday.
But, he went on, “an organization that has the explicit purpose of restricting women’s rights by removing rights to abortion and the right for women to control their own bodies is not in line with where we are as a government, and quite frankly where we are as a society.”
The new attestation on the grant application requires that groups indicate their support for individual human rights as laid out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including “reproductive rights.”
The change was made after a report last year showed that anti-abortion groups had received federal funding through the summer jobs program, which gives wage subsidies to employers to hire secondary and post-secondary students. Last week, an anti-abortion group opposing the change launched a lawsuit, arguing that the attestation violates its charter right to freedom of expression.
But churches and religious groups across the country are also concerned about the new attestation, which they say is forcing them to endorse a statement that goes against their beliefs.
“Because of our commitment to the sanctity of life and to biblical teachings, our government is discriminating against us,” Brad Jones, the pastor at Woodgreen Presbyterian Church in Calgary, told the Post this week.
On Wednesday, Trudeau drew a distinction between religious groups that hold pro-life beliefs, and groups whose principal mandate is to oppose abortion.
“Of course, you’re more than allowed to have whatever beliefs you like,” he said. “But when those beliefs lead to actions determined to restrict a woman’s right to control her own body, that’s where I, and I think we, draw the line as a country. And that’s where we stand on that.”
Trudeau was responding to a question from a firstyear student at McMaster University in the audience who wanted to know about the government’s stance on free speech. The man didn’t mention the Canada Summer Jobs program, but used views on abortion as an example.
“If you’re pro-life then you are ridiculed and insulted, but if you’re prochoice then you’re praised,” the student said. “And I just want to know if this is important to you.”
Trudeau answered that defending rights and freedoms “is at the core of who I am and, quite frankly, is at the core of who Canada is. … At the same time, we need to know that there is a difference between freedom of expression and acting on those expressions and beliefs.”
He then brought up what he called the “kerfuffle” around the summer jobs program as an example, saying that some groups “couch themselves in freedom of speech, freedom of conscience.”
“Women have fought for generations for the right to control their own bodies, to be able to choose themselves what to do with their bodies, when and with whom to have children,” he said. “This is a really important right that we have established.”