How come I can’t get a copy from Chapters Indigo?
It’s a fair question I posed to a clerk from my local outlet.
(The book is available at independent booksellers)

The clerk was unaware The Armageddon Factor was out in paperback and told me that their shipping takes about 3 weeks, which is normal for this time of year.  Because Chapters Indigo is a chain, the stores put the books out when everyone else in the chain gets them.

She offered that as far as she knew her employer was waiting on the publisher to ship them.

Okay. Chapters Indigo is owned by Heather Reisman (CEO). She is married to Gerry Schartwz who is the Board Chair, President and CEO of Onex. They are friends of Stephen and Laureen Harper, and have been Conservative Party backers since 2006.
Nigel Wright, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, is on loan to Harper by the Onex Corporation. Wright’s appointment is noted in the afterword of the updated and revised trade paperback.

Given the paperback was updated and out in time for the election I have a question.
Where is it? Is the revised edition sitting in  Chapters-Indigo warehouses?  The chain is in approximately 131  cities across Canada and I can appreciate delays, but the next obvious question is this.

Is Chapters Indigo holding back stocking this book until after May 2nd?
As asked in the post headline. Is this bookstore chain playing politics?

How would you like to help out? Give the nearest Chapters Indigo store a call and ask if the paperback is in. If it isn’t ask why not.  If you have an independent bookstore in your location, give them a call and see if they have it on the shelves, or if they can get it to you within the next few days and post your findings in the comment section.

The e-book is available, since, as far as I can tell Random House released it, and online sales aren’t held up in warehouses. The paperback edition is also available from Amazon Canada. The unrevised hardcover is also available at my local store.

Unfortunately the Chapters Indigo non-fiction blog does not allow comments, so readers willing to find out if their Chapters Indigo has the revised edition on their shelf will have to leave their information in the BDBO comment section.  When you use the online store finder, every location you can key in, lists the availabilty as 0. Zero. Go ahead, try it.

Given the kerfuffle with the hardcover release of The Armageddon Factor last year, the delay reaching Reisman’s bookstore shelves deserves an explanation.

If you were able to purchase a copy of the paperback from a Chapters Indigo outlet, pop into the comments and let us know.

I have posted several pieces over the past year about the Harper government’s decision  to deny project money to the ecumenical social justice group KAIROS. I have also  written about CIDA Minister Bev Oda’s deceitful behaviour in the whole matter. For  months this story was in the back pages of the newspapers and nowhere on television,  but now the parliamentary chickens have come home to roost. Oda lied to a  parliamentary committee in December and now the political opposition is demanding  that she be fired and found in contempt of parliament. There is a longstanding tradition  that ministers can duck, bob and weave in what they say but they cannot tell outright  lies. Minister Oda and the government spent the week of February 14th trying to ride this  out until the parliamentary break. What happened here, what does it mean and does it  matter? KAIROS is an inter-church coalition that has been around for a long time. It is  well respected and does good work internationally, particularly on social justice and  human rights issues. KAIROS also has a habit of speaking its mind on public issues. It has offered criticisms of Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. KAIROS has also raised questions about the rapid development of the tar sands in Alberta and of certain environmental and human rights practices of Canadian mining companies working in developing countries.

Brief history

In November 2009, CIDA cut off funding to KAIROS and neither the organization nor Minister Oda would explain why, beyond the generalization that CIDA’s priorities had changed and KAIROS did not meet them. However, in December 2009, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney spoke at a conference in Jerusalem and said that KAIROS was cut off because it was an anti-Semitic organization and that it was promoting an economic boycott of Israel. KAIROS and a number of its member churches hotly denied both allegations but Kenney’s comments had elevated the issue to a new and particularly nasty level.

Skip ahead to October 2010. Someone provided to Embassy magazine in Ottawa with a copy of a CIDA document clearly indicating that the president and acting vice-president had sent a proposal to Oda recommending that the KAIROS money be approved. However, somebody made a crude hand-written notation in the text inserting the word “NOT” into the final sentence. As a result, the document read as follows: “Recommendation:  That you sign below to indicate you NOT approve the contribution of $7,098,758.” The news story blew Mr. Oda’s cover about its being CIDA and not she who had refused the grant, and it reinforced suspicions that the decision was political payback by the Harper government — bullies who do not like KAIROS and who will not tolerate criticism of any kind.

Oda testifies at committee

Ms. Oda, along with CIDA president Margaret Biggs, was called in early December 2010 to testify before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs committee. Ms. Biggs admitted under questioning that she had recommended that the KAIROS proposal be approved. She testified that the word NOT had not been in the document when she signed it and sent it to Minister Oda for her signature. Oda then told the committee that she doesn’t know who altered the memorandum by adding the word NOT. She also said it didn’t really matter.

Here is a brief bit of the exchange at the committee meeting between Ms. Oda and Liberal MP John McKay:
McKay: You were the one who wrote the ‘not’.
Oda: I did not say I was the one who wrote the ‘not’.
McKay: Who did then?
Oda: I do not know.
McKay: That’s a remarkable statement.

MPs later asked House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken to rule whether Ms. Oda had misled them. When he responded on February 10, Milliken was highly critical of Oda but said a procedural technicality prevented him from ruling on whether she misled the Commons and breached its rules. Oda’s parliamentary secretary, Jim Abbott, had earlier apologized for telling the Commons that CIDA turned down the KAIROS request because they found it didn’t meet their priorities. He said he did not know that was untrue when he said it.

Parliamentary firestorm

All of this has occasioned a parliamentary firestorm, with opposition MPs using Question Period to call for Oda’s resignation. She did not respond to questions. That task was undertaken by Prime Minister Harper and cabinet minister John Baird. They defended Oda’s right to overrule her officials on projects and Harper said that no organization (read KAIROS) has an automatic right to be funded. That line of defence deliberately ignored the question of why Oda had implied for long months that it was CIDA officials who made the decision to cut off KAIROS, and the even more important question of whether she lied to fellow MPs. On February 15, Oda finally read a statement in the House of Commons in which she said: “The ‘not’ was inserted at my direction.” That was contrary to what she had told the Foreign Affairs committee on December. This admission has fuelled calls for her resignation but the opposition is also claiming that Oda’s orders most likely came from Harper himself. The opposition is attempting to turn this episode into a critique of Harper’s style of governing: bullying, secretive, anti-democratic and dishonest whenever the occasion requires.

What of Kairos?

What of KAIROS and other aid groups in all of this? KAIROS submitted another application for funds months ago but has heard nothing. The silver lining for the organization (if there is one) is that more Canadians will now have heard about it than ever before. KAIROS is even selling a T-shirt with an inscription that reads: KAIROS is (not) going away”.  But other groups that have been critical of aspects of the government’s policy — including the Canadian Council for International Co-operation — have been cut off as well. And earlier in February newspaper reports indicated that Keith Fountain, Ms. Oda’s policy director, warned an aid organization that its policy positions were under scrutiny. “Be careful about your advocacy,” Mr. Fountain is reported to have said. He has since left Ms. Oda’s office. Cheryl Curtis, executive director of the Anglican Church’s Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, said government officials have not warned her organization, but that other aid organizations have reported such messages.

A flawed process

This indicates not only a measure of vindictiveness and arrogance on behalf of the government but also a seriously flawed way of determining public policy. An Access to Information request regarding KAIROS indicates officials from CIDA and other agencies found its work to be exemplary and indicated that its presence could make a difference in some of the world’s most troubled countries. So it would appear that a respected and effective organization was cut off simply because the Prime Minister or Jason Kenney don’t like them. That’s no way to run a railroad.

Pulpit and Politics

I hope that Faytene Kryskow, after that damning story that ran last night on the Radio-Canada news program Enquete, has her Laroussse’s at hand.

If she was hoping to build support amongst francophones for her work, she may now be hard pressed to do so, as the Radio-Canada story was pointed and critical.

An apology in advance. I’m not fluent in french, but happily, I was remembering some of what I learned in high school as I watched. But, I went over the tape again and tried to take careful notes. So, what I will be doing is lots of summarizing, except when the anglos are talking, and I can make out what they originally said.

You can find the story “A la droite de Harper” (“To the Right of Harper”) here at the Enquete website. It was the second of two segments on their Feb.10th broadcast.

The segment reminded Bene D of Marci McDonald’s book from last year. Me too, as it seemed that the Radio-Canada program also argued that “as in the United States” the Christian right is working to have increased influence in Ottawa.

After flashing a series of names and logos of various so-con groups in Canada, Enquete then zeroed in on Faytene Kryskow and people who work closely with her.

Bene D makes a fine point in a comment on yesterday’s post. Namely, that the mostly Quebec audience of Enquete (which translates as investigation or inquiry) would think of Roman Catholicism when they think of Christianity. Protestantism is uncommon. Evangelical protestantism more so, and Charismatics thin on the ground in comparison to English Canada.

So, when Enquete introduces Faytene Kyskow, in a church doing very charismatic things like speaking in tongues, and then having people collapse as she lays hands on them to heal them, I wondered if the Quebec viewers of the show started to have their jaws drop in amazement.

The entire segment makes heavy use of video taken from various free Internet sources. After she prays in tongues, another clip has Faytene saying to The Cry Vancouver’s audience, also praying: “Father, in the name of Jesus, we declare that you will have dominion, God, across this nation, Jesus….”

This leads Enquete to look at the significance of Psalms 72:8 in the minds of Faytene and her allies. Alain Caron, a French-speaking Gatineau minister who is first shown praying at a public charismatic event, lends an explanation.

Then, some historical background. The program argues that the 2005 legalization of gay marriage in Canada activated the Christian right. Then, Harper was elected–with a clip of him using his traditional speech ending of “God bless Canada”–leading to “born agains from Western-Canada” seeking more influence.

Two clips of Faytene are used to make this point, the latter of Faytene, on 100 Huntley Street, where she says, “God began to speak to me about the state of Canada.”

Then, we see former Tory cabinet minister Garth Turner, who has written of his fears of excessively religious MPs in the party. On Enquete, he argues that Harper’s caucus was made up of MPs who were “right wing, very conservative, very socially conservative from the start.”

Faytene is then shown, mentioning to an audience that her lobbying group members have seen 400-450 MPs and Senators–”more members than any other group in the entire nation”.

“Our objective is stop abortion”, Faytene says in yet another clip–this from The Cry Vancouver–which leads Enqeuete to look at her pro-lfe efforts. Faytene has allies to help with this, which leads to a clip of Tory pro-life MP Rod Bruinooge at The Cry Vancouver. Bruinooge’s compliment of Faytene is shown: “She’s led so many politicians to the right path.” Faytene then leads prayer for Bruinooge: “Father we says that anyone who tries to touch him goes through our shield of prayers…”

The progress of Roxanne’s Law–the main prolife bill last year–is shown. Bruinooge is seen talking in the House, in french, about the law. Faytene urges video viewers to write their MPs about the law. Nicole Demers, a Bloc MP, is shown attacking the law in the House in French (I am guessing on the grounds that the bill would deny women their full reproductive rights.)

Then, a few minutes into the item, we see Faytene directly responding to a question from someone with a microphone. This is once of only twice this happens in the piece, and she is commenting on Roxanne’s Law before it was voted down in the House.

Her sound bite is: “For me, as a young woman, you know, I’m excited for an opportunity to support a piece of legislation to protect women, women’s rights to choose life.”

Bloc MP Richard Nadeau (Gatineau) then comments, but I couldn’t catch what he was saying in French.

He may have been commenting on Faytene’s influence, as Enquete then shows a picture of Faytene and some of her interns, posing with Stephen Harper. “Madame”–not mademoiselle–Kryskow and Harper are highlighted in the picture.

The report then moves to the vote that defeated Roxanne’s Law, making the point that Harper allowed a free vote on the bill. [As far as I can tell, however, Enquete does not note--as I did in a post--that Harper ordered his cabinet members to vote against the law and most of them did as he asked.]

Following the vote, Enquete had a sit down interview with Rod Bruinooge, which we see parts of. “I think the unborn should be considered to have value,” Bruinooge says.

The reporter asks him about a giant piece of art on his office wall, with what I believe is Jesus and a giant quote of Psalm 72:8–which the program earlier addressed.

Bruinooge replies, “There is a lot of great artwork in my office, and this is one of them.”

As you know, Faytene retains a never-say-die attitude about Roxanne’s law, which is reflected in what Enquete quotes next. They show a video of her saying that “Every single prayer that was prayed will have effect…”

Next in the piece is so-con Tory MP Joy Smith, who is shown (at, I believe The Cry Vancouver) professing her faith and saying there “We’re going to take back our nation.”

The narrator notes that Smith has a Bible in her office–with a camera closeup of said Bible. Smith also gets a sit-down interview with the Enquete reporter, and is quoted in a brief sound-bite about one of her priorities–human trafficking legislation aimed to combat prostitution. “Our nation has lost its morality,” she says to the viewers.

Enquete has earlier mentioned that Faytene has “privileged access” to Parliament Hill. [This is something that she discusses--Faytene tells her audiences that she has a "volunteer pass" that she got for doing volunteer work for an MP.]

The program, I am guessing, wants to emphasize this point, as Faytene is shown by the camera leaving Parliament.

Bruinooge is asked about Faytene’s pass. “She stuffs envelopes, that sort of thing,” he says.

Cut to a shot of boots, from behind, walking through Parliament, as a narrator talks. They may actually be Faytene’s.

The program then breaks for commercials.

After the break, Enquete addresses the issue of how Faytene and her allies may be influencing Canadian policy towards Israel. As is well known, Stephen Harper is personally pro-Israel, and in this part of the story Enquete shows French clips of Harper talking about Israel in positive terms–that its existence is a “miracle” and that–in his opinion Israel’s foes can be described in terms of “good” and “evil”.

Faytene, in the second of two brief clips in this story where she is directly responding to a reporter’s question, then has this to say: “”We are really supportive of the Prime Minister’s stance in supporting Israel’s democratic right to defend themselves.”

Former Tory MP Garth Turner returns with an amazing comment. He says that at a Tory caucus meeting he attended, the topic of friendlier policy towards Israel came up. Three Tory MPs wanted to speak against the policy change, Turner says, but were not allowed to do so. This, he said, had never happened before in a Tory caucus meeting.

The story then turns to why Faytene and her friends believe as they do about Israel, and what they have been trying to do.

A follower of Faytene is shown, in a video, saying that she believes that the Bible says that “Those who bless Isreal will be blessed.”

After a brief comment by Alain Caron, David Demian, the pro-Israel preacher from Watchmen for the Nations is introduced as “a mentor to Faytene Kryskow” decrying, in a video clip an “anti-Semitic spirit” in Canada’s past.

Alain Caron goes on to explain. He talks to the viwers about the St. Louis–the pre World War 2 ship of Jewish refugees commemorated in the book and film Voyage of the Damned. The ship was refused entry to Canada, and the refugees were forced to return to Europe. Many died in the Holocaust.

The tale of the refugee ship has in recent years, compelled evangelicals to express their regret and seek to be kinder to the Jewish community. Enquete shows footage of a national meeting, organized by David Demian, to repent of the church’s wrongs towards Jews.

The story next shows various overtly pro-Israel MPs–such as prominernt Tory MP James Lunney–at a meeting. Enquete then mentions that David Demian was asked to act as a consultant to the government on one occasion.

After a brief quote from Faytene, from when she spoke at Northgate Foursquare Church, the report then turns to a critique of the pro-Israel position taken by the Tories, Faytene, and their allies.

Bloc MP Menard certainly speaks to this, but he spoke a bit too quickly for me, sorry.

Terry Greenberg, of the group Independent Jewish Voices was next. He is worried about Stepher Harper’s tendency to look at the Middle East in loaded, moral terms. Harper, he tells viewers, should put the interests of Canada first in setting foreign policy, and not that of a foreign country.

Now it is time for Enquete to sum up. And they found a doozy of a Faytene Kryskow quote from an Internet video for her last word in the program, one that I don’t recall seeing before.

Faytene is speaking to an audience at Northgate Foursquare Church. She says: “The truth is, we’re winning. The truth is one day Canada’s gonna wake and just be ‘what happened, we’re different’”

Garth Turner is again quoted, saying that social conservatives who think like Faytene in politics are “very dangerous.” Psalm 72:8 is again cited, accompanied by music which Faytene and her friends might see as ominous sounding.

The story proper finished, Enquete then says that it tried to talk to Stephen Harper, or a high level spokesman, for the story. The Tory brains trust said no, and their letter, written by Dimitri Soudas, says in part:

“Canadians from all walks have the right to visit representatives from their government.Why every year the government hosts thousands of Canadians from various sectors, whether corporate, academic, nonprofit groups or religious organizations. Because of the Federal Accountability Act by our Conservative government, there is now a public record of these meetings. Canadians need not rely on programs such as Enquete to know [about] their government meeting, they just use the Internet to see all the facts. Contrary to the insinuations of Brigitte Bureau of Radio-Canada, the government does not consider people of faith as undesirable, and continues to meet with people of all faiths. “

Two things seem clear after watching the story.

There is definitely evidence to consider Faytene and her allies’ activities newsworthy.

Secondly, as this general story gets not much play in the English press, I would hazard a guess that this would be a bolt out of the blue in the French-language press. I also guess this is something totally new to French-Canadian journalists.

“C’est incroyable!” may be something that both Enquete’s reporters and viewers may justifiably say.

Radio-Canada online – Enquete February 10, 2011. To the right of Harper

A year ago I wrote stories about the Conservative government’s ham-handed bullying of the Canadian ecumenical social justice group KAIROS. The story is now in the news again in a way that would be comic if it were not so nasty. It provides yet another glimpse into the ideologically driven spitefulness of the government, not to mention the lack of competence and truthfulness on the part of Bev Oda, the minister in charge of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Let’s begin with some background. KAIROS is an ecumenical human rights and justice organization that acts on behalf of 11 of Canada’s churches and church-based organizations. It includes under its umbrella the Anglican, Catholic, Christian Reformed, Lutheran, Presbyterian and United Churches, as well as the Mennonite Central Committee, the Quakers and others.

A 35-year relationship

KAIROS, or its predecessor groups, have received money from CIDA (the Canadian International Development Agency) for 35 years to support work in some of the world’s most troubled regions. The thinking behind such partnerships is that smaller NGOs, some of them church-based, can do things some things more effectively than government and go places where government cannot. For example, I wrote last year about attending a fund raising dinner in support of a legal clinic for women in eastern Congo. Those women have been gang raped and brutalized by marauding young men who fight in armies and militias. KAIROS was collecting money for the project.

In March 2009, KAIROS submitted a proposal to CIDA for the years 2009-13. The application moved through various levels of approval before arriving on Bev Oda’s desk in July, where it languished for months. Then, on November 30 KAIROS received a phone call from a functionary saying that CIDA would not approve the request for $7.1 million over four years. When KAIROS asked for an explanation, they were tersely informed that their program did not fit the government’s priorities. When questioned in the House of Commons, Ms. Oda would only say that KAIROS lost its funding because of shifting priorities at CIDA.

Kenney slurs KAIROS

Then on December 16, Jason Kenney, the Immigration Minister, used a speech to a conference in Jerusalem to make an astonishing statement. He accused KAIROS of being anti-Semitic, a charge that both astounded and angered KAIROS and its member churches. Many organizations and governments, KAIROS among them, have criticized the state of Israel for its long-standing and illegal occupation of Palestinian land and its continued harsh treatment of Palestinians.

For Kenney and some others any criticism of Israeli government policies is quickly branded as anti-Semitism. KAIROS said in a statement released on December 18. “Two points need to be made: Criticism of Israel does not constitute anti-Semitism; and CIDA was developed to fund international aid and not to serve political agendas.” Kenney later attempted to deny that he had made that accusation but the transcript of his remarks carried in the National Post newspaper at the time clearly indicates that he did say that.

KAIROS asked its supporters to contact their MPs requesting that the CIDA decision be reversed. The money was not restored and despite Kenney’s odd and preposterous claims the government largely stuck to its story that dumping KAIROS was the result of CIDA’s changing aid priorities. But that explanation has now been publicly debunked in a manner most embarrassing to Minister Oda and the government.

CIDA document tampering

In October 2010, Embassy magazine obtained the documents prepared for Ms. Oda regarding the KAIROS grant application. Embassy reported that in September 2009 the application had been approved and signed by CIDA’s president and also its acting vice-president. Ms. Oda’s also signed the memorandum, which was dated November 27.  However, while the memorandum recommended that the project be approved, a hand-written notation inserted the word “NOT” into the final sentence. As a result, the document read as follows: “RECOMMENDATION – That you sign below to indicate you NOT approve the contribution of $7,098,758.”

This crude procedure to alter the memo completely undercuts assertions by Ms. Oda and the government that the KAIROS proposal did not meet the aid agency’s priorities. As Embassy reports: “[The] altered memo has reinforced allegations that the decision was entirely political.” Think back to Minister Kenney’s allegation of anti-Semitism, or possibly other nasty paybacks to KAIROS for questioning rapid development at all costs in the Alberta tar sands.

Ms. Oda, along with CIDA president Margaret Biggs, were called in early December 2010 to testify on the matter before parliamentary committee. Ms. Biggs acknowledged under questioning that she had recommended that the minister approve the KAIROS proposal. Ms. Oda also told sceptical MPs that she doesn’t know who altered the memorandum by adding the word NOT.

Here is a brief bit of the exchange at the committee meeting between Ms. Oda and Liberal MP John McKay:
McKay: You were the one who wrote the ‘not’.
Oda: I did not say I was the one who wrote the ‘not’.
McKay: Who did then?
Oda: I do not know.
McKay: That’s a remarkable statement.

Liberal committee member Bob Rae said that someone’s adding the word NOT to change the meaning of the document could amount to fraud. “This is tampering with a document which leaves a completely misleading impression as to what was really taking place,” he said. Oda also claimed before the committee that she does not remember signing the memorandum – although her signature is clearly on it – and she said the signature may have made with an electronic pen.

Politicizing aid

On December 15, a coalition of aid groups held a news conference in Ottawa to warn that Canadian aid funding is getting more political, at the risk of wasting taxpayers’ money. One of the spokespersons was Gerry Barr, president of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC), an umbrella group representing dozens of foreign aid organizations. Barr had publicly criticized the government in December 2009 for cutting off KAIROS. His organization was later dropped by CIDA in June 2010 and has had to lay off most of its staff and sell its Ottawa building. Barr said at the December 15 news conference that the government chopped CCIC because their complaints weren’t welcome. The Ottawa Sun quoted him as saying: “There was an effort to apply political discipline.” He said that the relationship between the aid sector and CIDA is increasingly troubled.

KAIROS, according to its executive director Mary Corkery, has now submitted a new application to CIDA. She chose the diplomatic road in a newspaper interview, saying that it was “a wonderful affirmation” to learn that CIDA’s president had approved the 2009 project application — despite the fact that someone placed a NOT in the memorandum.

The one good thing that may have occurred as a result of this nasty farce is that KAIROS intensified its efforts to communicate with its base of support among its member churches and individuals. I plan to write another cheque this year to the legal clinic for women in the Congo supported by KAIROS. You can do the same bydouble clicking here.

Pulpit & Politics

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” Thanks to the efficient Harper government, Canadians are doing both at once.

Since 2008, there has been a spike in Christian funding by the feds–using our tax money. As reported in Straight Goods this past February (subscriber wall), Human Resources and Skills Development has been ladling out dollops of cash to right-wing evangelical groups:

In the period July 1 – September 30, 2009, for instance, 22 out of 173 grants made went to faith-based organizations, for a total of $889,016. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, by contrast, there were no grants to faith-based organizations meeting the search criteria (including in their names the word “Christ,” “Christian,” “Church,” “Pentecostal,” or “Baptist”).

While many of the faith-based organizations that received funding do not fall into the religious conservative category, most do. The Word of Truth Christian Centre in Pickering, ON, for instance, received $192,033 for a project last year. (Shouters) National Evangelical Spiritual Baptist Faith International Centre of Canada in Toronto received $198,951. Eastside Church of God, Fresh Start Program in Swift Current, SK got $84,110.

–

For some reason, since the Harper Conservatives came to power, faith-based organizations with extremist views suddenly have become responsible for delivering local employment programs in many Canadian communities. [emphasis added]

Wycliffe Bible Translators slurped up a hefty $495,600 of your money and mine. But that was dwarfed by the $3.2 million awarded to an outfit called Youth For Christ–and, while children living in poverty on a reserve in Attawapiskat have been denied a new school for years, Edmonton’s Newman Theological College was recently awarded $4.2 million of Harper’s largesse.

We’re all tithing in spite of ourselves. And you needn’t take my word for it:

For Christian universities, “It’s a historic change, and nothing short of amazing,” says Justin Cooper, president of Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ont., which received $2.9 million. The funds will help cover costs of increasing research and energy sustainability initiatives across campus.

Education funding is a provincial mandate, and Christian universities generally aren’t eligible, so they welcome the change. (Alberta and Manitoba are the exception: private colleges there have long been eligible to receive about half what a public institution might get for capital costs).

Christian universities that benefited from (the federal government’s Knowledge Infrastructure Program) include: Redeemer and Tyndale University College and Seminary in Ontario; Trinity Western University in British Columbia; The King’s, Concordia, Canadian, St. Mary’s and Ambrose University Colleges plus Newman Theological Seminary in Alberta; Providence College and Seminary and Canadian Mennonite University in Manitoba; and Atlantic Baptist University in New Brunswick.

Here’s blogger Dennis Gruending, making connections:

A story that the mainstream media both covered and missed was the Prime Minister’s promotion of two individuals to senior positions in the PMO in March 2009. Darrel Reid became chief of staff and Paul Wilson replaced him as PMO policy director. Reid and Wilson have deep roots in both religious and political organizations. Reid was chief of staff to Reform Party leader Preston Manning while he was leader of the opposition. Later he became the president of Focus on the Family Canada, a conservative Christian lobby group that has worked against public childcare, same-sex marriage, and against adding sexual orientation to a list of minorities protected from hate crimes.

Wilson has worked for Trinity Western University, which is based in Langley, B.C. and is one of the largest evangelical educational institutions in Canada. Trinity established an Ottawa “campus” in 2001 in an old mansion near Parliament Hill. It houses the Laurentian Leadership Centre, which places students as interns with Ottawa-based organizations, predominantly with MPs. Wilson co-ordinated that internship program but when the Conservatives won election in 2006, he left Trinity Western to become a senior policy advisor to Vic Toews, then the justice minister. Wilson later served in a similar policy role for Diane Finley, the minister of human resources.

Of course, we’ve been watching this shoddy theocratic drama play out for months in microcosm at Rights and Democracy. And–not to belabour the point–we’re paying for it.

Meanwhile, women die, while Harper’s conservative base celebrates. Welcome to Gilead.

It will be a long week for Ottawa’s Christian conservatives next week, thanks to former Maclean’s staffer Marci McDonald. And thanks to the fact that I have obtained her new book, The Armageddon Factor three days before its formal release on May 11, I can give you a quick peek at her book through a short summary of what she writes about. And you will know in advance why the national press will be—by my guess–running stories targeting Christian politicians and their friends in think tanks and lobby groups in a few days.

The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism In Canada seeks to argue that Canada is developing its own version of the American Christian Right, complete with various support structures and a network of influential supporters. McDonald, a winner of seven National Magazine Awards, first began to look at this subject when she wrote an October 2006 story for the Walrus magazine, Stephen Harper and the Theo-Cons, which began to look at the relationship between Harper and his conservative Christian supporters.

Although I just came from the bookstore…I shall try and hit as many high points as I can, wanting to post today.

As I used to work for the conservative Report newsmagazines in Western Canada, I suspect that I would be part of McDonald’s own personal “Axis of Evil” if the magazines were still publishing. But, in order to try to be fair to her work as I just got the book, what I will do is try to mostly report on her work in this post. At a very first glance, I fear that she will beg questions and add two and two together to make five…but what I shall do is wait until I have read the book to offer a more concrete comment, after this post.

It will probably hit the best seller list quickly. Curious? Read on…While I would probably qualify as a member of the “Christian Right”(and admittedly inclined to disagree with her thesis) , I do recognize the value of a little scoop, so I will pass on to you what I can gather from a quick overview.

McDonald approaches her subject from a position that the Christian right is likely to be scary. The introduction to her preface—I wonder if she has read Sinclair Lewis’ novel It Can’t Happen Here–reads like this:

“She stared at me across the table as if I were out of my mind. A publisher had asked me to write a book on the rise of the Christian right in Canadian politics and hearing the news, one of my closest friends was questioning my sanity for even contemplating such a task. “Why would you want to do that?” she asked. “Surely you don’t think that it can happen here. This is a profoundly different country that the United States.”

It would seem not, McDonald continues, but in her years reporting in the U.S. she found that the Christian right always develops a hidden resilience. Returning to Canada, she writes that she found clues, as argued in her Walrus feature, that there was a “burgeoning religious right [in Canada]—a coalition not limited to Christians” and that moreover the secular media—and even most non-Christians seemed not to be paying much attention to it. Her book is an attempt to redress that.

She then has a brief mention of The CRY in Ottawa introducing a friend of BDBO, Faytene Kryskow, to her readers. (What about Faytene? Please see my accompanying post.) This allows her to then talk about Stephen Harper’s born-again faith, which the media found quite odd, and Preston Manning’s role as a mentor to him. Harper’s home church is looked at. When discussing Harper’s career, there is a general sense on McDonald’s part that Harper values conservative Christian support and values, but a bit less than he values the possibility of getting a majority government.

Her political approach then leads her to looking back to the 1980s, and the difficulties that conservative Christians had passing abortion legislation. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’ s Brian Stiller was probably the most noted so-con of the era, so she speaks to him as well.  This leads naturally to a short profile of Charles McVety (who Bene D has written on) Brian Rushfeldt of the Canadian Family Action Coalition, and Joseph Ben-Ami who now do much of the same sorts of things that Brian Stiller used to do. The journey of Darrell Reid from Focus on the Family Canada president to Stephen Harper advisor is focused on.

Being from central Canada, McDonald knows about the National House of Prayer, which allows her to spend a chapter talking about what it does, along with David Demian.

The next chapter stood out to me, as it is mostly about BDBO’s “perhaps favorite youth evangelist”  , Faytene Kryskow. I’ve taken the liberty of doing a separate post about that, but I do want to mention here that McDonald does cite her dominionist views as central to the Christian nationalist movement she decries in her book. Bet that is a surprise to many of the other Christian figures I’ve cited so far, but I explain all that in that post.

And then, McDonald looks at academia and the related issue of creationism/intelligent design. What follows this is a chapter beginning with Murray and Peter Corren, two gay teachers who gained the ability to screen everything in B.C. schools, which leads to a discussion of the issue of homosexuality in Canadian schools and how the Christian right tries to have its own influence on the issue.  This leads, naturally, to the question of Ontario’s Christian schools and public funding, homeschooling, and the tales of B.C.’s Christian Trinity Western University and the Laurentian Leadership Institute.

Canada’s “electronic pulpit” leads to a talk about Canada’s religious broadcasting history including discussions of pirate TV broadcasting100 Huntley Street the Miracle Channel and Crossroads Broadcasting. (Tim Bloedow is quoted herein.)

Gerry Chipeur, a former Alberta Report source and Calgary lawyer features in the next chapter about how conservative Christians approach the courts and the judiciary. The Boisson case, naturally, is discussed, as well as the controversies about the “human rights tribunals” and their treatment of the press. (This struck me as interesting as a central figure here—Ezra Levant is not Christian—rather Jewish. Given that she says in the beginning of her book that Canada’s religious right is not uniformly Christian—why does Levant’s mention on page 303 stand out?)

Names of various Americans have been standing out in the book thus far, though, perhaps in an attempt to argue that Canada’s Christian right is an American creation.

In my quick scan of the book, I have not been able to find anything that jumps out at me as obviously newsworthy, such as “Stephen Harper, whose parents raised him as a druid…” (large ). But I think that McDonald, knowing the ways of a newsroom, realizes that reporters who have been wanting to write on a subject, such as the “Christian right in Canada” need what is called a “news peg”—a new excuse to write about a topic. “A new book…” is perfect for such a purpose. McDonald, to be fair to her, dislikes the Christian right, as would many assignment editors and reporters across the country. So, I would expect her to appear in your newspapers and on your TV next week.

The last two chapters are tailored for such a media push. The chapter called “The Armageddon Factor” targets “Christian Zionism” and links it to Stephen Harper’s friendly stance towards Israel. Instead of pointing out, as Ezra Levant has on his blog, that there are many prominent conservative Jews in the Conservative Party who have Harper’s ear on this subject, McDonald instead attributes this to the dispensationalist beliefs of some on the Christian right. She reasons that they want to hasten the return of Jesus and therefore need to hasten the events of the end of the world for this to happen—which include pestilence, famine and war. Merv and Merla Watson, two sweet Christian musicians with an interest in the “messianic” church are part of the scheme. (I’ve met the Watsons and can attest that they do not have nuclear weapons hidden in their autoharps.) (Fair warning– I will probably have issues with this chapter.)

Hinting that Christians wanting to cause the end of the work have Harper’s ear is useful red meat for the media. As is the last chapter, which discusses in a general way Christian conservative efforts to establish an institutional presence in Canadian politics—if you are a media reporter with an already skeptical bent about the Christian right, to have them be entrenched would be scary.

In Bene D’s own teaser post about the book earlier today, he writes that the book would be an encyclopedia on this subject. As someone who might have a good knowledge of all this—if not as thorough as Bene D’s—I can say at first glance that McDonald’s book seems quite thorough, and addresses the people and events that I would, were I to do a book length treatment of Canada’s Christian right. I might even say that it is comprehensive.

I fear a bias though…but will hold off on declaring that I see one, in my view, until giving the book the careful reading it deserves. (As I mentioned, I will address any comments to that effect in a comment on this post.)

I do know, however, that this book serves up this subject, on a plate, to those editors who want to pursue it. Given that the reporters will be primed by McDonald’s own unfriendly towards the right point of view on this, I can imagine conservative Christians having to face questions with a bit of a spin on this subject.

If you have a progressive view on all this, I can imagine you thinking “Rightly so!” But I can agree with you that there will be some very interesting stories sparked by this book, whatever you might think of what McDonald has to say, after you finish reading it.

One minor beef, Charles McVety being referred to as Dr. McVety.

Taken together, all this news gives heart to Canadian conservatives who vote on other matters besides budget balance. Of course, some of the biggest fights of old—over abortion, gay marriage, the death penalty—remain far outside the bounds of ordinary political debate in Canada. Social conservatives have had to content themselves with incremental victory. But it had been many years since they could expect even that. Conservatives who vote on faith, family and criminal justice felt so left out by Brian Mulroney’s governments that millions of them fled to Reform and smaller groups like the Christian Heritage party. Now they are back, rubbing elbows with power, not always running the show but never ignored. They have not had so much good news from Ottawa in half a century.

I guess the goodwill had to wear off at some point. For weeks now, as the opposition critic for international cooperation, I have been peppered with media questions about CIDA’s performance in Haiti. I’ve refused to rise to the bait, following a longstanding tradition of political cooperation in times of crisis. The CIDA minister has struggled against massive odds to provide assistance in a world of complexity, misery and corruption. The minister herself has provided me with regular updates, keeping me in the loop as to the massive effort required. There will surely come a time, as in all things political, when the Harper government’s response to that devastated nation will come under historical review, but not right now. Especially not right now. It behooves the other parties to cooperate the best they can when it’s a matter of life and death. In this spirit, the respective critics for defence, diplomacy and development from all parties, instead of criticizing, have spent their days assisting with fundraisers to help the Haitians and working on long-term policy for its future.

From Dawn thot :summary. The full 20 page .pdf can be downloaded from the link. The chart at Dawn thot is interactive. Clicking on each organization will give you a quick summary of what the organizations beliefs are.

I think many Canadian Conservatives would be dismayed if they knew the extent of the economic and ideological ties to religious right influencers in the US. The assumption is often made that Christians, particularly evangelical Christians, adhere to the rigid theocratic and dominionist beliefs of men such as James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Fawell. The harder core messages out of the US religious right is softened and fed to the Canadian public by Canadian leaders in bite size pieces under the guise of social conservatism.

While this 2006 document needs an update as key players move around, the bedrock and ties have not been broken.  Some of those named have moved into more influential positions in Canadian federal and provincial politics.

In 1997, Stephen Harper was invited to speak to the tri-yearly Council meeting being held in Montreal. His speech is one of the few to this group of about 500 which has been made public.

During the CNP appearance, Mr. Harper made a number of statements denigrating Canada and Canadians: “Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the word,” said Mr. Harper;31 “In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don’t feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance,” continued Mr. Harper.32 Mr. Harper was also critical of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “[W]e have a Supreme Court, like yours, which, since we put a charter of rights in our Constitution in 1982, is becoming increasingly arbitrary.”33

On specific policy issues, Mr. Harper demonstrated his contempt for ideas at the heart of Canadian society, including public health care and international cooperation. For example, the Charlottetown Agreement, he explained to his audience, included “some [things] that would just horrify you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution, and feminist rights.”34 Mr. Harper also showed dissatisfaction with Canada’s strong support for the UN, and the pride Canadians take in their country’s status at the UN: “This distresses conservatives like myself quite profoundly, but I will warn you, it’s a widespread view, and I will always say, one that could only be maintained as long as [Americans] basically provide us with military protection.”35 Mr. Harper also provided the CNP audience with a glimpse of his opinion of future political reform in Canada. He called the Reform Party a “conservative Republican” organization that espoused “a constitutional agenda that challenges the way our entire political system operates.”36 Most revealingly, Mr. Harper shared his view that the Reform and Progressive Conservative parties would ultimately merge and “[o]ne party is going to win out….And Reform is not going to lose that contest in the long term.”37

…“[t]he individual views of Conservative candidates matter very much in a party that promises to hold more free votes in Parliament on social and moral issues.”179 – David Laycock, Simon Fraser University.

As conservatives in Canada move to entrench their grassroots organization through social conservative leadership training initiatives like those undertaken by the Manning Centre, Canadians should remain vigilant lest social conservatives already supported by a vast network of American organizations turn their influence into government power.

Other background – US

CNP – wiki
CNP – Seek God
CNP – People for the American Way

Groups in Canada

Your twin accusations that I accused the advocacy group KAIROS of anti-Semitism and that this is why the Canada International Development Agency did not approve a cost-sharing program with the group are false.

I did not accuse KAIROS of being anti-Semitic. What I said was that KAIROS has taken “a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (against Israel).” In fact, Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno’s own research led her to the same conclusion. She wrote that KAIROS has taken “a leading role in divestment, sanctions and targeted boycotts of Israel,” and said those who deny that are “disingenuous and dissembling.”

While I disagree with the nature of KAIROS’s militant stance toward the Jewish homeland, that is not the reason their request for taxpayer funding was denied. International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda – not me – is responsible for the Canada International Development Agency. And she has been clear that a cost-sharing program with KAIROS was not approved because it did not meet CIDA’s current priorities, such as increased food aid.

Our government continues to support the many worthwhile charitable endeavours undertaken by churches and other organizations that are members of KAIROS, particularly those that make a real difference in the lives of those living in poverty in developing countries.

So what did Jason Kenney actually say at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem?
From BigCityLib Strikes Back:

What Prime Minister Harper witnessed in Mumbai, what happened at the same time in Calgary, were practical expressions of the new anti-Semitism. Even though Canada is celebrated around the world as being a successful model of mutual coexistence and tolerance, we too have seen a troubling increase in incidents of anti-Semitism. B’Nai Brith Canada publishes the authoritative registry of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada. In 2008, they received reports of 1,135 incidents of anti-Semitic instances, the highest number recorded in 28 years of the study, an increase of 8.9% over 2007.

[...]

So how have we addressed these growing incidents of anti-Semitism? Well first of all, on the domestic level, our government has worked with the Jewish community to begin a program of recognizing our own history of official anti-Semitism.

[...]

We have articulated and implemented a zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism. What does this mean? It means that we eliminated the government funding relationship with organizations like for example, the Canadian Arab Federation, whose leadership apologized for terrorism or extremism, or who promote hatred, in particular anti-Semitism.

We have ended government contact with like-minded organizations like the Canadian Islamic Congress, whose President notoriously said that all Israelis over the age of 18 are legitimate targets for assassination. We have defunded organizations, most recently like KAIROS, who are taking a leadership role in the boycott. And we’re receiving a lot of criticism for these decisions. I can’t recall how many times I’ve been sued for some of the decisions that we have taken, but we believe that we’ve done these things for the right reasons and we stand by these decisions.

The full text of the speech can be found at MP Rick Rick Dykstra’s site.

The funding would have been 40% of a four year project which effects KAIROS work in six countries. The objection is more about politicalizing aid work and not honouring government legislation.  You may chose to interpret Kenney’s remarks any way you want.  Bev Oda’s decision flies in the face of Bill C-393. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada:

If you wanted to tick off the Roman Catholic Church, the mainline Protestant denominations and Evangelicals while undoing a longstanding relationship that has fostered improved human rights and strengthened sustainable development opportunities around the world, what single step could you take as the Government of Canada? Until Monday of this week, that was a question that hadn’t occurred to anyone. But on Monday, Bev Oda, Minister for International Cooperation, delivered the answer by ending a 35 year relationship with KAIROS with a phone call.

The core groups of KAIROS are:

KAIROS Member Churches are:
The Anglican Church of Canada
The Christian Reformed Church in North America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
The United Church of Canada
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
The Canadian Religious Conference
The Mennonite Central Committee of Canada
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF)

The support is flooding in for KAIROS from all over the world and from very diverse groups across Canada.

KAIROS
Scott Tribe
Western Standard
Dennis Gruending
Pushed to the Left and Loving it: has background on Charles McVety, Canadian Christian College, Christians United for Israel (CUFI)

Charles McVety denouncing KAIROS
LifeSite: Alfonse de Valk
Ezra Levant: Would you lie for 7 million?

I have never seen Canadian protestant denominations, other faith groups, partners and citizens join together to take such a strong stand against this pathetic behavior by the Canadian Government and it’s ministers.