Summer jobs ruckus not dead
Conservatives can still score a win on issue
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 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.
Now, however, the Conservatives have a chance to redeem themselves. A number of groups that refused to check off the attestation box (which calls for organizations to respect “the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as … reproductive rights”) have had their applications returned by the ministry and have been asked to try again. Crucially, the government has not backed down on its demand that applicants must agree with the Liberal party’s position before getting the money.
The sums are significant. Last year, the summer jobs program distributed $204 million to create 69,000 jobs (roughly $3,000 per job). As my colleague, Brian Platt, reports, the Archdiocese of Toronto could lose the $1.1 million for which it has applied if it continues to refuse to check the attestation box on religious grounds.
In what for Scheer constitutes an act of reckless abandon, the Conservatives have come off the fence and put forward an opposition day motion saying groups that engage in non-political, non-activist work should be able to access the summer jobs program, regardless of whether they tick the attestation box. (Admittedly, the motion was a late substitute for one condemning Khalistani terrorism, which was pulled after pressure from the Canadian Sikh Association.) But, if late to the party, the Conservatives are now determined to embarrass the government in a vote on the issue Monday. Privately, many Liberals are shaking their heads when asked why Hajdu has refused to soften the government line on the checkbox. A number remain quietly pro-life, and there will be some sympathy on the Liberal benches for the Conservative position.
Their disenchantment is understandable. While it’s true that a Liberal victory in 2019 relies on strong support from women, it also depends on the backing of large numbers of Catholics, Sikhs, Muslims and Jews. Their leaders are united in little other than the belief in salvation through faith — and agreement that the summer jobs program attestation is a rotten idea.
“The vote on Monday is an attempt to help people understand what is at stake,” Scheer said in an interview Thursday. “We have a government forcing a values test on everyone applying for funding, even those who have nothing to do with advocacy.”
The Conservatives were not averse to directing funds toward their own hobby horses while in power. But Scheer maintains the Liberal manoeuvre is different and sets a dangerous precedent. “The state has no place in the conscience of the nation,” he said. “If we grant government the power to do this, it could be used to determine which groups get charitable status. We have to be vigilant and we can’t allow the government to infringe on the Charter.” He’s right. In the vast majority of cases, these summer jobs have nothing to do with abortion. The attestation is over-broad and, in all probability, unconstitutional. The Liberals have overplayed their hand by suggesting everyone who has problems with ticking a box, saying they agree with a woman’s right to abortion, is actively working against reproductive freedom, as Hajdu did.
I spoke to a Baptist pastor in Nova Scotia who said that in order to access the funding he has received in previous years, he now has “to agree with a part of the ideology of the Liberal Party of Canada.”
If the government is in danger of losing the support of Baptists, Catholics, Sikhs, Muslims and Jews, particularly in Ontario, it would represent a grave threat to its prospects of re-election. The caucus acts as an early warning system in these situations and it will be interesting to see if any Liberal MPs are bold enough to vote with the opposition on Monday.
However unlikely that may sound, it may be that the only thing that will shake Hajdu from her dogmatism is seeing her caucus colleagues rise in support of a Conservative motion. The death of the summer jobs story has been greatly exaggerated. It won’t quickly be forgotten, or forgiven.