Catholic Vancouver March 27, 2018
Kamloops businesses, parishioners protest Summer Jobs attestation
By Agnieszka Ruck
Parishioners in Kamloops are signing petitions during the ongoing debate about the Summer Jobs program. The federal government imposed new requirements this year requiring those applying for program grants support “reproductive rights,” including abortion.
She has never applied for funding through the Canada Summer Jobs program, and now small business owner Nancy Simms might never do so.
Simms runs a housecleaning business with 20 employees in Kamloops. So far, she hasn’t needed to ask the government for funding to hire a summer student. But, when she heard the Liberal government introduced an attestation that required anyone applying for funding to be in favour of abortion and other ideologies, she was shocked.
“As a Catholic employer, it upset me right away,” said Simms. “I haven’t used (Canada Summer Jobs) in the past, and now it’s taking away my decision to ever use it.”
She was so troubled by the issue she wrote a petition stating access to abortion is “not enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms” and that requiring people to agree with it before they can receive government funding on it denies their rights.
Simms brought her petition to the Catholic Women’s League council at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kamloops to see if it would get some traction.
“They were very, very supportive,” said Simms. Within one week, she had 160 signatures from community members and fellow parishioners as troubled as she was by the ideological test on summer jobs funding.
Simms delivered the signatures to Cathy McLeod, the MP for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, and shared the petition with other Catholic churches in B.C.’s Interior.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Kamloops was one of the communities that picked it up.
“Whether it’s our church, or the Anglicans, or the Lutherans, or the businesspeople, it affects us all,” said Doreen Gowans, a CWL member.
In one weekend, a few dozen Our Lady of Perpetual Help parishioners signed a copy of Simms’ petition. Many of them, including several CWL members who run local catering companies, felt personally affected by the new policy.
“We are not going to sign an attestation where the federal government wants us to say that we are in favour of abortion,” said Gowans.
The CWL has also spoken out on the issue on a national level: president Margaret Ann Jacobs sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Feb. 17.
“The league implores you to understand that to ask someone to deny their faith or their beliefs in order to receive funding from the government is simply undemocratic, unconstitutional, and unethical.”
A Conservative motion to drop the attestation was defeated 207 to 93 in a vote March 19.
Despite that defeat, the debate about the Summer Jobs attestation is still ongoing, and Simms says while that’s true, her group won’t stop trying to tell politicians what they think of the change.
“All of us feel really strongly that we need to continue to voice our concerns on this matter because our rights are being trampled.”
Her CWL group has been meeting weekly to write letters to politicians about various issues they’re concerned about. In addition to the summer jobs issue, they’ve also been advocating for conscience rights for health care workers who oppose assisted suicide, and for reliable blocks to protect children from accessing pornography online.