Feds clarify LGBTQ, abortion stance for summer jobs funding

OTTAWA — The Liberal government has clarified how its new policy on reproductive rights will apply to organizations seeking youth summer job funding – but it’s standing firm on its decision to deny grants to groups advocating against abortion.

“It’s not about beliefs or values,” Employment Minister Patty Hajdu said Tuesday in Toronto.

Employment and Social Development Canada, which oversees the Canada Summer Jobs program that created nearly 69,000 temporary jobs last year, added a section on its website Tuesday further explaining the language – and the intended goal – of the controversial new requirement.

The Liberals have said that faith-based organizations are welcome to apply, but they and all other applicants must attest to their respect for sexual and reproductive rights – including “the right to access safe and legal abortions” – as well as other human rights in order to be considered.

That stipulation, as outlined in the application guidelines, concerns both the job activity and the core mandate of the organization.

Many churches and other religious groups have said that forces them to choose between their spiritual values and funding that helps run programs that have nothing to do with abortion, treading upon fundamental freedoms of conscience, religion and thought guaranteed by the charter.

Even Liberal MP Scott Simms had spoken out against the requirement, telling CBC Radio on Monday that groups were being asked “to do something that they shouldn’t be asked to do for the sake of a summer job for kids.”

The change to the website is meant to address those concerns.

The core mandate, the website says, refers to “the primary activities undertaken by the organization that reflect the organization’s ongoing services provided to the community,” and not its beliefs or values.

The website then also provides some hypothetical examples of what would – and would not – be eligible for funding.

What would get a green light?

“A faith-based organization that embraces a traditional definition of marriage but whose primary activities reduce social isolation among seniors applies for funding to hire students,” website said, noting the programs the student employees developed would be available to all seniors, no matter their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

A summer camp that does not allow LGBTQ youth, however, would not be eligible for funding to hire students as camp counsellors.

Julia Beazley, director of public policy at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, said she welcomed the explanation and thinks it could help some groups figure out whether they should go ahead and submit their applications.

Still, she said discomfort remains with the government being the one to define those terms.

“As faith-based organizations, we are defined by our beliefs, by core values, by missions,” she said, “so, while a core mandate may delineate activities, it flows out of those beliefs and values and identities.”

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement Tuesday saying they remain unsatisfied. — With files from Peter Goffin