Faith-based
groups hoping for an Easter-like miracle from Parliament over the summer jobs
grant attestation issue were disappointed on March 19.
That’s
when a motion from the Conservative Party to end the requirement for groups to
attest to respecting abortion and LGBTQ* rights was defeated 207-93.
About
the same time, information released by Employment Minister Patty
Hajdu’s office showed there was an increase in groups requesting money—42,647
applications this year, compared to 41,961 in 2017.
Of those applications, an estimated 1,400 were rejected for
failing to check the attestation box.
Included in that number were churches and other groups in
Winnipeg.
I reached out to a number of groups that received funding in 2017 to
see if they were getting money this year.
Of the 15 groups that responded, ten were rejected for failing to
check the box. Four checked it, and are awaiting word on their applications. One—Harrow
United Church—didn’t apply again, but not because they didn’t support the
attestation.
Groups that checked the box included St. John’s Cathedral and
three evangelical congregations—which didn’t want to be identified for fear of
what their denominations might think of their actions.
Between them, they applied for a total of 11 student positions.
One that checked the box
indicated it did so because “the ask
is for our respect, not our agreement. This is quite a distinction.”
Another
replied that “we were comfortable signing the
attestation because it simply asked us to not infringe upon the legal rights of
individuals through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Paul Johnson, Rector at St. John’s, indicated they signed
although “some of us, including me, may disagree
with the Liberal Government’s political gamesmanship.”
At the same time, “we as a church organization
have a wide diversity of opinions and positions on almost any issue of
importance or interest, and must be very careful about any form of advocacy in
which we engage.”
One
evangelical group that was open to signing the attestation was the Salvation
Army. Its national office gave its churches across the country permission to check
the box.
“The Salvation Army
respects individual human rights and the values underlying the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms,” says John McAlister, the National Director of
Marketing and Communications.
“Although our beliefs
may differ from others on certain matters, such as reproductive rights, we
respect the legal rights afforded to all Canadians,” he notes, but adds he is “concerned
that the attestation may be interpreted as requiring individuals and
organizations to set aside their freedoms of religion, expression and belief,
principles also foundational to the Charter.”
The ten groups in
Manitoba that told me they were rejected for not checking the box were Donwood
Manor and Bethania Mennonite personal care homes, Ness Baptist Church, Athletes
in Action Manitoba, My Church, New Hope Ministries, Child Evangelism
Fellowship, Whyte Ridge Baptist Church, Heartland Community Church, and the
Archeparchy of Winnipeg.
Between them, they hoped
to employ as many as 60 students for kids clubs, camps and administrative work
and, in the case of the care homes, recreational and therapeutic activities for
residents.
The groups are now
considering their next moves, which could involve fundraising to make up for
the missing funding, or cutting back on their programs.
Looking ahead, what’s
next for this issue?
For Rick
Hiemstra, who directs research and media relations for the Evangelical
Fellowship of Canada (EFC), the result is “disappointing and troubling.”
The EFC “had hoped some
accommodation would be made for groups unable to sign the attestation,” but isn’t
surprised at the outcome.
Barry Bussey,
who directs legal affairs for the Canadian Council of Christian Charities, believes
the issue shows that Canadians “need to think long and hard” about the larger
implications of the issue.
“Government
has made it very clear that it has no problem with compelling speech of
applicants for funding,” he says, adding that this could become an issue in the
future for other groups that want other kinds of government funding.
Both agree that a legal challenge is an option on the table. “There is a lot of
discussion about that right now,” says Bussey.
In the end,
despite the ruckus raised by many faith groups, the government seems to have weathered
the storm—although it remains to be seen if there will be consequences when the
next election comes along.
As for those
who disagree with the government’s action, they can do something right now: Donate
to one of the groups which had its request for funding rejected. It sounds like
they could use your help.
From the March 31, 2018 Winnipeg Free Press.
* * *
I didn’t have enough room in the column to
include quotes from groups that responded to my query about the summer job grant
issue. Here are quotes from some of them about what signing, or not signing,
meant to them.
Faith groups that
checked the attestation box
“We were
comfortable signing the attestation because it simply asked us to not infringe
upon the legal rights of individuals through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Evangelical
church that doesn’t want to be identified.
“The
ask is for our respect, not our agreement of the
Charter of Rights and this is quite a distinction.” An evangelical church that did
sign and doesn’t want t to be identified.
Faith groups that did not check the attestation
box
“We
respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but we cannot, in good conscious state
that we agree with reproductive rights because it conflicts with our belief in
the sanctity of life . . . it is disappointing that our current government
would take a program like Canada Summer Jobs, which has been a benefit to
students, communities, and charitable organizations for so many years, and
politicize it in this way.
One would hope that it was not their intent to
purposely segregate the country as either on-side with their ideology or not,
but that has been the outcome.” Andy Woodworth, lead pastor, Heartland
Community Church, Landmark.
“The attestation is vague enough
that it could give room or suggest that government funding only goes to to
groups that support the ruling parties mandate. But the government should be
neutral and they should find another way to engage the groups that they were
originally intending to without affecting the protected religious rights and freedoms
. . . even though I understand why they enacted the attestation, they should
have considered other ways to approach that without infringing on the protected
rights of religion and religious groups.
They are playing on the trust people
had on them by doing things like this and refusing to back down when the first
outcry was heard.” Ibukun Akin, provincial director, Child Evangelism Fellowship, which
did not get funding.
“We
were not satisfied with their definitions of what constitutes ‘core values,” ‘respect,’
and ‘undermining.’ These key words that are used in the attestation are highly
subjective . . . we ultimately decided not to apply because we do not believe a
further ‘values test’ is appropriate or constitutional for an already
recognized charitable organization.
We understand that we are not ‘owed’ this
money, but if it is being offered, all charitable organizations that are
recognized by the government of Canada should have access to it. Also, this
idea of "reproductive rights" is legally incorrect.” Jeremy
Olfert, lead pastor, Ness Ave. Baptist Church.
“To me, the whole thing is so simple. If the
Federal Government did not want abortion literature (one way or the other)
distributed, all that was required was that people sign that they would not do
so. To tie the abortion issue to a sports camp is absurd; the two have
nothing to do with each other.” Dallas Williams, Athletes in Action Manitoba.
“We requested an accommodation under the Charter as
we believe that this attestation was a violation of our constitutional rights.”
Todd Poirier, Operations Pastor, My
Church.
Not
getting the funding will have a “huge, detrimental impact. It means less
activities for our residents, less outings. It’s also unfortunate for students,
who are probably not paying attention to this, who will look for jobs with us
in April and there will be none. . . . the abortion attestation has nothing to
do with the care of the elderly.” Nina Labun, CEO Donwood Manor Personal Care
Home.
“We
usually ask for three position through the program for therapeutic recreation
and research . . . [the attestation] painted us into a corner. We would never
make any declaration on this. We want the government to respect our charter
rights . . . not getting the funding means we can’t have an enriched program
for our residents, or fill-in staff when regular staff take holidays . . . [the
who process] was upsetting, the board was disturbed, trying to force us to
attest to something the government has no right to do.” Gary Ledoux, CEO Bethania Group.
“I could not agree to the statement on the reproductive rights.
Our organization does believe that life begins at conception... I hold to the
same conclusion. Our core mandate is not opposing abortion, however, we believe
a unborn child has rights and the line was too broad for us to sign.” Tim
Enns, Senior Pastor, New Hope Community Church.
“We cannot not support the
attestation as it was worded. We respect all human rights including the rights
of the unborn . . . it infringes on our freedoms as given in the Charter
of Rights.” Grace Elke, Director of Children’s Ministry, Whyte Ridge Baptist
Church.
“We
could not agree with being forced to take (declare) a position on matters for
which we have our own developed and compassionate understanding and approach;
and which would probably not even arise within the work detail or programs
concerned (and if they did, they would be handled in a manner considerably more
honest and compassionate than perhaps what some others might suggest).
The
Federal Government’s stipulation becomes a blatant curtailing of our right to
religious freedom and conscience rightfully enshrined in our Charter of Rights
and Freedoms. It is a patently political and divisive intrusion into the realm
of our faith and conscience.
The sad aspect, again, is that the Liberal government
is demanding that we violate our consciences in matters that have little or
nothing to do with the actual programs that we are providing. It is a blow to
our program, but we cannot agree to the decidedly illiberal stipulations. Fr. Michael Kwiatkowski, Chancellor,
Archeparchy of Winnipeg.
