OTTAWA, December 18, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Another Conservative MP has blasted the Justin Trudeau Liberal government for requiring employers to attest to their support of abortion and gender ideology in order to receive summer job grants.
Ontario MP Bev Shipley posted a Facebook video Saturday criticizing the new policy, which will be officially unveiled December 19.
“Simply put, it would appear that if your organization has a pro-life belief contrary to the Liberal government’s mandate, you would not be approved for funding under this year’s Canada Summer Jobs program,” says Shipley.
“This is wrong.”
Non-profit groups, small businesses, and public sector employers can apply for funding through Canada Summer Jobs program to create jobs for students from 15 to 30 years of age
Under the Liberals’ new rule, employers seeking Canada Summer Job grants must attest that both the job and their own “core mandate” respect human rights.
But the “attestation” defines these rights as “including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other rights. These include reproductive rights and the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.”
Canadians “have always had the privilege of holding a different political view than that of the government of the day,” noted Shipley, a four-term MP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex.
“This new requirement will directly affect all program applicants who do have a different core value than the Trudeau government,” Shipley said.
“Many organizations depend heavily on our Canada Summer Jobs funding to run their summer programs and their seasonal businesses. Students are going to lose out on opportunities for employment or experience.”
Watch Shipley criticize the policy:
Saskatchewan MP Brad Trost first raised the alarm late last week about the program after all MPs received an information package on the new requirements.
The package included the “attestation” that all employers must agree to in order to qualify for summer job grants.
Moreover, the Liberals appeared to believe the “attestation” is necessary to protect youth from corruption.
The “changes help prevent youth (as young as 15 years of age) from being exposed to employment within organizations that may promote positions that are contrary to the values enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and associated case law,” according to the information package.
The “attestation” will also “prevent Government of Canada funding from flowing to organizations whose mandates or projects may not respect individual human rights, the values underlying the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and associated case law.”
Since then, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer criticized the policy through spokesman Jake Enwright.
“Canadians should be very concerned that the government of Canada is basing its funding decisions on whether or not you hold a certain belief,” Enwright told LifeSiteNews.
The Charter “exists to ensure that the government does not discriminate against you based on your beliefs,” he added. “It’s not the government’s tool for protecting itself, it’s your tool to protect you from the government.”
Jack Fonseca, Campaign Life Coalition’s senior political strategist, lauded Shipley.
“We’re pleased that two MPs now have spoken out against this discriminatory and bigoted policy by the Trudeau Liberals, plus a spokesperson from Andrew Scheer’s office,” he told LifeSiteNews.
READ: A quick list of Justin Trudeau’s tyrannical acts against life, family, and Christians
“We hope that the voices of opposition will grow from all corners country so that the Liberals feel unbearable pressure to retract this discriminatory policy.”
Formerly, it was up to individual MPs to assess and approve funding applications from groups in their ridings.
But after media firestorm in April year over revelations Liberal MP Iqra Khalid approved summer job grants to pro-life groups in 2016, Trudeau’s government decreed in 2017 no Liberal MP would do so again.
Moreover, the official word from Liberal Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Patty Hajdu at the time was that that she would change the program to make sure no pro-life group would be approved in the future.
Campaign Life has condemned the move and launched a petition, as has LifeSiteNews.