“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.

By Dennis Gruending 2009. Used by permission. All rights reserved

In October, I attended a fundraising dinner and auction at Ottawa church to support a legal clinic to assist women in eastern Congo. In some of their stories, captured on a brief video, the women describe how they had been gang raped and brutalized by young men who fight in armies and militias. These women were the lucky ones. They talked about how others had been murdered during their ordeals or left to die afterwards. The goal on that October evening was to raise $25,000, enough money we were told to support the clinic for one year. People that night dug deeply into their pockets for $22,000 and we were asked to sign our cheques to KAIROS, the Canadian ecumenical social justice group. Now, a scant six weeks later, we learn that Bev Oda, the minister in charge of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has cut all funding to KAIROS. The news arrived in a terse telephone call from a faceless official who said that the organization’s projects do not fit with CIDA’s criteria. Tell that to women in the Congo.

KAIROS acts on behalf of 13 of Canada’s major churches or church-based organizations, and 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. KAIROS, or its predecessor groups, have received money from CIDA for 35 years to support partners working in regions experiencing some of the world’s most serious human rights violations. The organization uses what it collects from people in its member churches and elsewhere to add to money provided by CIDA in support of 21 ecumenical and citizen’s organizations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The work of KAIROS is highly regarded in Canada and overseas.

CIDA’s “priorities”

KAIROS worked with its global partners to develop a program for years 2009-2013, focussing upon human rights and ecological justice.  The budget was for $9.2 million over four years, with CIDA contributing just over $7 million of that amount. The proposal was submitted to CIDA in March 2009, where it moved through various levels of approval before arriving on Bev Oda’s desk in July 2009. There seemed to be little cause for concern. KAIROS had received a positive audit report for its 2006-2009 work and a good evaluation. When, in September 2009, the agreement had still not been signed, KAIROS was granted a two-month extension on a previous contribution agreement. Sources say it was then that people at KAIROS began to worry. They were being told that there was trouble at the top, which meant the minister’s’ office, or more likely with this government, the prime minister’s office.

There was no communication until, on November 30, the last day of the extension, KAIROS was told that it was cut off. The organization says in a new release: “We asked for an explanation and were informed that our program did not fit the government of Canada’s priorities. This was the last day of an extension to our current proposal.  No written explanation has been provided.” In one telephone call, the Canadian government appears to have terminated a long-standing relationship between CIDA and KAIROS or its predecessor organizations. KAIROS says the decision, if not reversed, “would cut funds to 21 ecumenical and citizen’s organizations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and cut educational work that helps Canadians across the country to develop skills and knowledge in the exercise of their global citizenship.”

Minister Oda did not communicate with KAIROS — she rarely communicates publicly with anyone about her portfolio except in the most controlled of circumstances. But the “trouble at the top” may well have had more to do with the work of KAIROS within Canada than its overseas projects. KAIROS has questioned, on environmental and hence ethical grounds, the rapid development of the tar sands in Western Canada. KAIROS hosted a forum in Calgary on the tar sands in October 2008 and organized a delegation of Canadian church leaders to visit the tar sands in May 2009. The Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance, prior to their takeover of the Progressive Conservative Party, were beneficiaries of generous support from the oil and gas industry. The Harper Conservatives exist on similarly friendly terms with the carbon industry and will not hear of any proposal that would scale back rapid development – despite the environmental problems such development will cause. The criticism from KAIROS may well have excited the ire of Conservatives at the top.

Canada as petro state

The eyes of the world are upon Canada as 192 countries meet in Copenhagen to discuss measures that would start to slow the runaway train of carbon pollution that causes global heating. Canada, which used to be respected among nations, is becoming a pariah due to its stubborn insistence to do little to mitigate the production of greenhouse gases – and the Canadian tar sands are among the largest emitters. George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian in Britain, recently wrote: “So here I am, watching the astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petro-state. Canada is slipping down the development ladder, retreating from a complex, diverse economy towards dependence on a single primary resource, which happens to be the dirtiest commodity known to man.”

The treatment of KAIROS is not only a punishment; it is a warning. Citizens for Public Justice, another fine ecumenical organization, has also questioned oil sands development, albeit in a polite and almost tentative way. Might CPJ expect repercussions? The Catholic aid agency, Development and Peace, has had a multi-year campaign to bring attention to the corporate behaviour of Canadian mining companies abroad. D&P receives CIDA funding. Should the organization be looking over its shoulder?

Fighting the cuts

KAIROS and its supporters are not going down quietly.  The organization is asking its people to contact their MPs, asking to have the decision reversed. A variety of NGOs and churches, including the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, which does not belong to KAIROS, have criticized the government’s decision.

The issue appears to have some political legs as well. All opposition parties, including the Greens, who do not have a seat the House of Commons, have called for the move to be reversed. Liberal MPs Bob Rae and John McKay, as well as other opposition members, have raised the issue in Question Period in the House of Commons. As I write this, church and NGO Leaders have announced that they will convene a news conference on Parliament Hill to address what they call” the unprecedented decision” to cut all funding to the human rights program of KAIROS.

KAIROS is asking its supporters to contact their own MPs and are also ask that they write to: Prime Minister Stephen Harper, pm@pmo-cpm.gc.ca; Bev Oda, minister of international cooperation, oda.b@parl.gc.ca; and Margaret Biggs, president of CIDA, Margaret.Biggs@acdi-cida.gc.ca. KAIROS asks that those who write also copy their letters to KAIROS at info@kairoscanada.org.

According to Richard Long of NHOP – National House of Prayer Ottawa:

Faytene Kryskow and her team did a wonderful job of sharing their hearts and creating an event of impact.  The highlight of the night was their special “Hero” award to M.P. Joy Smith who championed Bill 268 against human trafficking.  Many other Parliamentarians dropped by to have some great food (thanks to Ruth Sowerby and her team) and to meet young adults from all across the nation.

Keep praying for the My Canada team as they meet 67 M.P.s and Senators over 5 days this week.

According to 4MyCanada (which does not have charitable status), the following expenses were incurred.

Costs for the Josiah Team (Please let us know if you would like to designate to one of these areas by e-mailing us at admin@4mycanada.ca after you sow. Thank you and God bless you.):

◦ Parliamentary Reception: $2000.00

◦ Gifts for MPs (given at each meeting): $1200.00 est.

◦ Team Member Costs: $525 each.

The Josiah Team is listed as 20 unnamed young people who applied for this trip from across Canada and who according to the website, paid their own expenses. (history)  Donations were solicited from readers to cover the costs of the event which also included meetings with MP’s. These appreciation nights are apparently in their 8th year.

Have you been wanting to come to Parliament on one of our teams? If so, we have good news for you. Our 8th Josiah team is heading to Parliament this Nov. 15th-21st (pending on a possible election)! This team of 20 young people, from across Canada, will be meeting with over 40 Parliamentarians to honour them and the share their hearts with them on the issues that they are passionate about. We will also hold our annual reception to honour our government during this week. These weeks are always amazing, and often historic. There is nothing like being a part of a Josiah team, really. It will change you, and this nation, at the same time.

There isn’t much on the 4MyCanada website about this event, the following was entered into the twitter account.

Debriefing after an amazing week with about 72 Parliamentarians!! Report coming. Updates:http://www.4mycanada.ca/SignUpForE-mails.html

2:13 PM Nov 20th from web Our team is in a very important meeting with Sen. Anne Cools RIGHT NOW….this would be a good time to pray, thanks a ton.

The team is debriefing on the day! So good. Talking about the Minister Moore (James) meeting right now .

3:40 PM Nov 19th from web

Just counted. We have 22 meetings today (Thursday): Cabinet Ministers, Liberal front benchers and new Senators….here we go!

5:04 AM Nov 19th from web

We are hanging with the SoCon crew @ the Manning Centre weekend to block euthanasia. Join the force.

2:51 PM Nov 13th from txt Working our fingers to the bone putting together gifts for all the MPs we will meet with next week. 66 scheduled meetings! Can’t wait.

7:32 PM Nov 12th from web

The report from the event and the subsequent meetings with MP’s does not appear to be available as yet on the 4MyCanada blog or in the magazine. An email bulletin from 4MyCanada  on November regarding the reception, the Josiah Team and meetings with MP’s say 19 team members met with 32 MP’s, with 34 meetings left to go. The email also states costs of the reception, gifts and food were running at about 4 thousand dollars and reader donations were requested:

In going through the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons, I read that elected officials are free to accept gifts of appreciation from constituents within a certain limit:

Private interest.

13.1 For the purpose of sections 12 and 13, “private interest” means those interests that can be furthered in subsection 3(2), but does not include the matters listed in subsection 3(3)

Prohibition: gifts and other benefits.

14. (1)  Neither a Member nor any member of a Member’s family shall accept, directly or indirectly, any gift or other benefit, except compensation authorized by law, that might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the Member in the exercise of a duty or function of his or her office.

(1.1)  For greater certainty, subsection (1) applies to gifts or other benefits:

(a)  related to attendance at a charitable or political event; and

(b)  received from an all-party caucus established in relation to a particular subject or interest.

Exception.

(2)  Despite subsection (1), a Member or a member of a Member’s family may accept gifts or other benefits received as a normal expression of courtesy or protocol, or within the customary standards of hospitality that normally accompany the Member’s position.

Exception.

Statement: gift or other benefit.

(3)  If gifts or other benefits that are related to the Member’s position are accepted under this section and have a value of $500 or more, or if the total value of all such gifts or benefits received from one source in a 12-month period is $500 or more, the Member shall, within 60 days after receiving the gifts or other benefits, or after that total value is exceeded, file with the Commissioner a statement disclosing the nature of the gifts or other benefits, their source and the circumstances under which they were given.

Exception.

(4)  Any disclosure made pursuant to the requirements of section 15 does not need to be disclosed as a gift or other benefit under subsection (3).

If I am understanding the ethics code correctly, gifts over $500.00 have to be disclosed by an elected official, including gifts of protocol and appreciation.
It would be interesting to know which MP’s attend 4 My Canada events.

The only M.P. publicly named as attending the joint 4 My Canada NHOP reception is Joy Smith Kildonan-St. Paul.
Several MP’s are mentioned as meeting with the Josiah Team (69 Members of Parliament, Cabinet Ministers, the Prime Minister’s Office, and Senators). Did they receive gifts of appreciation? Reading the report, it’s not clear how many elected officials met with the team, how many assistants, and who was present at the PMO’s meeting.

The National House of Prayer contributes to TheCry which is an event held by 4MyCanada. According to the NHOP 2008 tax return NHOP donated $21,595. There are no listings in NHOP tax returns for financial contributions to previous 4MyCanada Josiah Team receptions and meetings or  TheCry affiliate.

I’ve written 4MyCanada and asked the following:

Hi:

On November 16th, 2009 4 My Canada and NHOP held a banquet on Parliament Hill.

The costs listed at 4 My Canada were as follows:

Parliamentary Reception: $2000.00

Gifts for MPs (given at each meeting): $1200.00 est.

Team Member Costs: $525 each

Does 4 My Canada or  co-sponsor NHOP (corrected – see comments) have a breakdown of the reception costs available? (Food, service etc.)? Would 4 My Canada be willing to provide the cost breakdown?

It is not clear from the website which MP’s attended the reception.
Would 4 My Canada be willing to disclose that information?

It is not clear what gifts were given to MP’s attending the reception, or subsequent gifts given to MP’s (at each meeting). Would 4 My Canada be willing to disclose that information?

4 My Canada states (19?) 20 team members from across Canada paid $525.00 to attend the November 16th event and subsequent meetings. Would 4 My Canada be willing to disclose the average age and home locations of team members?
Were all team members required to pay $525.00 to attend the November 16th event and subsequent meetings, regardless of what area of Canada they hail from?

There are conflicting numbers regarding the number of elected officials which attended the November 16th, 2009 event, as well as the number of subsequent meetings.
Would 4 My Canada be willing to disclose accurate numbers?

4 My Canada states the purpose of the November 16th 2009 meeting was to honour elected officials and share issues 4 My Canada team members are passionate about. What organizations do team members belong to? (charitable and non-charitable)? Would 4 My Canada be willing to disclose other affiliations of team members?

Thank you for your time, I look forward to your response.

For a Canadian slant have a look at Canada’s C Street. Holy Pancakes at A Creative Revolution.

As I mentioned in the title, we have our own “C Street” or “Family” here too. And they too do the National prayer breakfasts. They seem to have a much lower profile here in Canada, although the agenda is almost exactly the same. When I say low key, I mean LOW key. But one does not have to do too much reading between the lines to get the complete picture of what is going on here….From the “National Prayer Breakfast” site…..

From the outset there have always been two unique aspects to the Prayer Breakfast. The first was that it should be a lay person who carries out the work. It was felt that lay people could better relate to leaders.
The other aspect was (especially around politicians) that everything should be done in a low-keyed,  behind the scenes manner. The main objective was to build relationships and this can be done most successfully in a personal, quiet, confidential way.

Have you blogged about this? Let us know and we’ll add your link.

Back before the first Conservative Party electoral sort-of victory, we lefties were convinced that the Harperite wing of the party was driven by a secret program for Canada, a list of priorities antithetical to what we thought our country was all about. No-one ever set out their “secret Conservative Agenda” fears too specifically, but if they had, I imaging it would have looked something like this.

a) The Conservatives will dismantle or choke off funding to the organizations they perceive as “feminist”.

b) They’ll start quietly trying to reverse the growing trend toward social acceptance of gays and lesbians.

c) They’ll dump the Kelowna Accord, promise an alternative and never produce one, ignore their obligations under Canada’s treaties and land claims, and covertly advance an agenda of urbanization and assimilation for Aboriginal peoples.

d) They’ll do what they can to dismantle Canada’s concept of itself as a multicultural country.

e) They’ll renege on Kyoto, dismantle environmental programs without notice or evaluation, and stall on any meaningful alternative.

f) They’ll either privatize CBC, or strangle it to death with funding cuts.

g) They’ll cut arts funding, with a special kick for programs that fund edgier or more experimental work.

h) They’ll swap Liberal pork recipients for Conservative pork recipients. No surprise there.

We missed a few things, I think – I’m not sure I would have expected sanctioning the murder of brown Canadians overseas or reversing years of Liberal surpluses to quite the degree they’ve achieved – but by and large, I’d say we got it right – I could add a dozen links for each of those bulllets.

So when Iggy finally finds his balls and decides to finally sink this ship of fools and knaves, at least the Conservatives will have one rock-solid campaign slogan.

“Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. No Hidden Agenda. Not Any Longer.”

Stageleft: life on the left side. July 22, 2009. Used by permission