A new requirement from the Canadian government mandating support for abortion is causing countless organizations to find alternative ways to hire summer employees or shut down altogether. The Canada Summer Jobs Program has long been the way that many organizations across Canada have been able to create summer jobs for Canadian teenagers. Museums, churches, and camps have all enjoyed the benefit of hiring summer help that the grant money allowed them. Now, however, more than 1,500 of those organizations have been denied their funding for refusing to check off a box on the application that says they support abortion. If the box is left unchecked, the application will be considered incomplete, and therefore, automatically denied funding.
“The government is saying, ‘We’re right and you’re wrong and that’s that. Believe what we believe or don’t bother to apply for money,” Daniel Peacock of Camp Jordan in Nova Scotia, a Baptist-run camp that has relied on $4,000 in federal grant money to hire a student camp counselor for the last four years, told CBC News. “Our Baptist foundation told us that unless we check the box off, we would be ignored.”
At least 50 organizations in Nova Scotia alone were denied their funding because they didn’t check off the box. CBC News is reporting that across Canada, over 1,500 organizations have lost funding to hire summer employees because they won’t agree to the assertation.
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Community Pentecostal Church in Orléans hires students each summer to run programs including an arts camp, a Bible school, and a free barbecue and block party for more than 1,500 people.
“We couldn’t hold our integrity and check off the box about the reproductive rights,” said Jeff Hillier, lead pastor at the church. “[…] The fact that monies would be withheld from us based upon not agreeing with our prime minister’s position to me is appalling. I’m quite concerned about the freedom of religion and where this will lead us.”
Lawyer and director of legal affairs at the Canadian Council of Christian Charities, Barry Bussey told CBC News that the government’s mandate is unconstitutional and violates Section 2a of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which protects freedom of conscience and religion, as well as Section 2b, which protects freedom of belief and expression and Section 15, the equality right.
“We have received literally hundreds of messages from our membership who are very upset about the treatment they’ve received from the government with respect to this,” he said. “Many of them want to pursue a court action.”
In addition to faith-based camps, the Bruno Cherry Sunday set for August 12 was affected by the new rule, canceling the annual event directly because of the new government rule to pledge support for abortion.
“For the past 15 years, the Bruno Cherry Sunday Festival […] has hired a full-time summer employee through the Canada Summer Jobs Program to coordinate the event. This year, our application for a summer student was denied because we could not, in good conscience, agree to all aspects of the application’s newly added attestation requirement,” The Bruno Cherry Sunday Committee said in a statement. “[…] This is a loss to our community. Cherry Sunday was a community and cultural event that over the years has attracted thousands of people to our small town, stimulated the local economy, and provided opportunities for various local clubs and volunteer organizations to fund-raise through food sales and other opportunities.”
READ: Canadian judge disallows pro-life ad, claims it could cause ‘psychological harm’ to women
Live Action News had previously reported that a Canadian sawmill museum was actually forced to close its doors after their application for the summer jobs grant money was denied.
“We’re a museum. We’re not involved in the business of ideological questions of abortion and so on,” said Gerald Comeau, member of the board for the Bangor Sawmill museum. “So we came to the decision that we could not support that clause.”
The local Liberal MP, Colin Fraser, agreed that the sawmill’s purpose of business has nothing to do with abortion, and said that if they had only checked the box in support of abortion, they would have received the money. However, by refusing to check off the attestation box, he said the museum did not technically complete the application and were therefore not approved.
It seems that in Canada, the “right” to intentionally kill preborn children through abortion has become so idolized by the liberal government that anyone who disagrees — or merely chooses to remain neutral — will suffer the wrath of that government. And the Canadian government is apparently willing to destroy small community businesses and jobs beneficial to its own citizens and economy all in the name of abortion.
