Canadian refugees, low-income children and other minority groups are suffering under a radical new pro-abortion policy from the Justin Trudeau administration.
The policy, which has caused massive outrage throughout the country, forces participants in the Canadian Summer Jobs program to sign a form saying they support abortion on demand. The program provides millions of dollars in grants for employers to hire students for summer jobs.
Now, countless programs that support immigrants, run camps for low-income and inner city children and provide other social services could be forced to close this summer.
The Innisfil Community Church day camp is one example. According to the Toronto Sun, the camp serves low-income children and typically employs 10 to 12 students through the Summer Jobs grants. This year, the camp will close because its organizers could not in good conscience sign the pro-abortion attestation.
Innisfil mom Cheryl Vel told the local news that she sent her children to the camp every year. She said it was very affordable, and she hated to tell her children that they cannot go this year.
“It was well run and I liked the fact it was more like an old-school camp. What other camp can you have a water-gun fight? It created an environment where they could be kids,” she said.
Programs for inner-city children and refugees are suffering as well.
For the past 12 years, the Living Hope Christian Fellowship church in Surrey has been receiving federal summer grants to hire two students to run a week-long camp and a drop-in centre for youths in the Whalley neighbourhood.
But the programs are in jeopardy this year because funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program has been denied to any applicant, like the Living Hope church, that refuses to agree to a statement that in effect states support for abortion.
The federal government has faced strong and wide-ranging criticism from civil and religious rights advocates and Conservative MPs, as well as one each of Liberal, NDP and Green party MPs, but has not backed down.
That will leave the children of the Living Hope church’s congregation — made up in part of refugees from Burma, Burundi and the Congo — without their usual summertime activities, said Pastor Frank Berto.
The congregation, which has “a large component of lower-income, blended/broke single-parent families,” relies on the stability and respite of the programs, he said.
Southside Community Church leaders are not sure if they will be able to run their music, art and sports camps, either.
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“This is the second-highest immigration neighbourhood in Canada,” Pastor Cam Roxburgh told the Sun. “There is definitely not a lot of money in the area and so the hosting of camps needs to be subsidized.”
In March, a Manitoba city council also sent a complaint to the federal government about how much the pro-abortion attestation is hurting its community, Steinbach Online reports.
“A lot of these groups that cannot check the box do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of social programs, in terms of what they offer and provide to Canada,” said Steinbach Councillor Susan Penner. “So, in that way, it is concerning about what the impact will be if a lot of these organizations don’t receive the funding.”
This spring, the Trudeau administration rejected more than 1,500 grant applications that “either didn’t check off the attestation or included a clarification or modification of it,” the National Post reports. In comparison, it rejected only 126 of the 40,000-plus applications in 2017, according to the report.
The pro-abortion policy was introduced last fall for the 2018 grants.
Last week, a group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders met with Trudeau’s administration to discuss a compromise; but Employment Minister Patty Hajdu refused to consider it, according to the National Post. Sikh and Hindu religious leaders also have spoken out against the pro-abortion attestation.
“In spite of our ongoing efforts at dialogue with the government … it has been made clear to us by the minister that there will be no accommodation provided, and no changes made to the attestation for this year,” the religious leaders said in a statement after the meeting.
They may consider legal action.
For now, the oppressive new pro-abortion policy remains. And those who liberal, pro-abortion politicians claim to support – immigrants, minorities, families in poverty and children – are the ones being hurt the most by their demands that everyone bow to their political altar of abortion.
