When news of the Trudeau Liberals’ alleged “values test” came to my attention last week, I admittedly was fairly stunned.
I remember the absurdity of a previous call for a Canadian “values test” by unsuccessful Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch, which was largely lambasted over the proposal.
So immediately upon seeing a Conservative petition rallying support to cry foul against some so-called Liberal values test, my curiosity compelled me to look further into this latest political row.
Turns out that the Canada Summer Jobs program’s funding requirements were at the heart of the issue.
“Justin Trudeau introduced a values test for Canadians applying for the Canada Summer Jobs program. This policy targets the personal beliefs of the individuals who run these organizations,” reads the federal Conservative party’s social media post.
Certainly sounds outrageous at first glance.
Upon searching up a few additional perspectives on the issue, I learned that more than 1,500 applicants had been rejected from last year’s 126.
That’s a substantial twelvefold leap since the government introduced new criteria for funding. They include certain caveats that have apparently rubbed anti-abortion and anti-gay groups the wrong way, as well as organizations that refused to hire LGBTQ staff, which basically no longer qualify for funding for flagrantly affronting rights and freedoms protected by Canadian law.
What we will not hear from the PCs or see posted on their social media is that unfortunately, religiously-oriented groups have reportedly used the taxpayer funded jobs program to pay students to protest at abortion clinics or make graphic anti-abortion propaganda pamphlets — not exactly the kinds of activities that should be paid for by public coffers.
We also will not likely hear from the Opposition that the federal government in 2016 announced plans to provide an additional $113 million per year for three years — essentially doubling the program’s purse, along with the number of jobs that can be funded to help young Canadians. The funding is set to expire this year if it is not renewed in the next budget.
Sundre is among the many beneficiaries of this great program.
In fact, I’m glad there will now be more funding available for additional library assistants and landscape labourers as well as for organizations that support minority groups or provide opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — more commonly known by its acronym STEM.
Seems to me like a far more productive investment in our youth than paying student protesters to propagandize against a basic human right and freedom that the Canadian government grants every woman in the country, which is to choose for herself what to do with her own body. A person does not have to agree or disagree with a woman’s right to choose, but rather merely recognize that the final decision is hers.
Any call to once again make abortion illegal in Canada — to pretend there are none is to be wilfully blind — unfortunately ignores previous data and evidence that clearly show such laws serve nothing more than to make the matter far worse by driving the market underground and creating unsafe, unsanitary back alley clinics where patients have died.
That is not something we should aspire to return to. As a Canadian taxpayer, I do not want one single dime supporting such rhetoric.
The summer jobs program is still going to help fund somewhere in the vicinity of 70,000 positions that help Canadian youth foster growth on their path to becoming contributing members of their communities and country.
That should be applauded, not derided.
