Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has unified Canada’s faith community in opposition to his promotion of abortion. A letter Thursday from more than 80 religious groups, from evangelical Christian to Muslim, condemned the Trudeau government’s insistence that all organizations applying for Canada Summer Jobs funding agree to support “reproductive rights” or abortion.
The letter states that the alliance calls on Trudeau “to amend the Canada Summer Jobs guidelines and application process so that it does not compel agreement or belief, and allows religious organizations to stay true to their communal identity and beliefs. The new application requires each organization to give non-negotiable and unqualified affirmation of certain beliefs held by the current government.”
At a news conference Thursday held in a Toronto suburb, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada president Bruce Clemenger said, “We want to ensure that Canadians continue to benefit from the collaboration between government and faith-based organizations, working together for the common good of our country.”
But he said the current government policy makes that impossible
“We are unable to give non-negotiable, unqualified affirmation to undefined values and other rights … At the risk of losing funding or programs themselves that benefit so many Canadians, the government has placed us in an untenable situation.”
The government is still refusing to budge, with Labor Minister Patty Hadju advising that “the advice that we received was to have groups attest to the fact that they would, in fact, not ask students to conduct activities that undermine basic Canadian rights.”