Canada Summer Jobs: The Round-Up (for now)

I'm still laughing about this.

Visitors to DJ! over the past two or so weeks may have been bored to tears by noticed my rather compulsive compilations of apparently religious outfits that appear on the Canada Summer Jobs list of successful employers, i.e. groups that signed the evil abortion clause.

My point, of course, was to demonstrate that many, many religious organizations understood perfectly well what the government was trying to accomplish with the attestation despite the shrieking and spin from Conservatives, media, and the Church. The point was made by Michael Coren who had access to "official documents."

Official documents show that of the 2,728 faith-based organizations that applied for summer jobs funding this year, 58 per cent were willing to sign the attestation. Of the 115 Anglican groups that applied, only 10 refused so sign, and only two of the 199 United Church-affiliated organizations refused. Even more startling, none of the 89 Jewish or 130 Muslim groups withheld their support. Which leaves evangelical groups and, of course, Roman Catholics.

Opposition to abortion has become an absolute of conservative Catholic opinion even though, it should be noted, Canadian Catholics in general do not share this view and progressive Catholics have a far more nuanced approach.

Also, there is far more ambiguity in the Catholic response to the program than we have been led to believe. Contrary to what many critics of the policy have claimed, of the 365 Catholic organizations applying for funding, the overwhelming majority signed on, with less than a third (32 per cent) refusing to do so.

Indeed, the Catholic website, LieShite did their own compilation and came up with the number "157 identifiably Catholic groups" who checked the box.

“We didn’t start this controversy,” [Cardinal Thomas] Collins told Vatican Radio in February. “We’re trying to be cooperative, but we cannot check off the box.”

But despite this, at least 157 identifiably Catholic groups have done just that, according to the database of Canada Summer Job grant recipients for 2018, available online for some weeks.

Of these, the majority — 107, or 68 percent — are parishes, but charities, school boards, religious orders, hospitals, a day care, and care homes are also listed.

And even Jesuits!

LifeShite links to a PDF documenting who's keeping the dough, who's returning it, and who didn't bother to respond to LieShite's demand for explanations.

The site says that 30 groups intend to return the money. But sadly, not before:

They have now disappeared, but not, unfortunately, before a pro-abortion blogger gleefully displayed a screenshot of their names, with the derisive comment: “Make up you [sic] mind, guys.”

Of course that was me here. The typo was gratuitous.

The same day LieShite broke the news that 157 Catholic groups wanted the dough more than the martyrgasm, it also published a story about people "knowingly" ticking the box.

So, it looks like the evil-doers are getting spanked in public. I wonder if we'll ever know if they do actually return the money.

I've checked out the whole country now and I must say that we have an impressive array of do-gooders and entrepreneurs out there. As Coren says, not only Catholics, but other Christians, Jews, and Muslims will hire students with government help this summer.

In my perusal, I found Buddhists in Thornhill, atheists (!) in Lanark, and Knights of Columbus (!!!) in Miramichi and Sydney-Victoria. Coren doesn't mention a large number of Sikh groups, mostly in BC and Ontario.

Remember, this all started with Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada volunteers examining Canada Revenue charitable tax filings then matching the "government" funding up with Canada Summer Jobs.

Here are the info sheets. Funny, but absolutely nobody has picked up on the fact that ARCC also identified dozens of groups who did not properly report government funding. There is also a searchable PDF of which anti-choice groups got CSJ money, in which ridings, from which MPs and parties.

Finally, I'm happy to report that only one (maybe two) identified anti-choice group -- a fake clinic in Kitchener -- got approved this year. (The maybe second one is a maternity home partnered with a fake clinic in Calgary.

A friend had noted anti-LGBTQ groups that got CSJ money previously. They were happy to report that only three such groups succeeded this year, including Echo Lake Bible Camp in Saskatchewan.

So. The attestation is working as intended. We are pleased.

ADDED: Lists of religious groups getting Canada Summer Jobs money by province.

Ontario religious groups, part 1

Ontario, part 2

Alberta religious groups

Saskatchewan

Nova Scotia

Newfoundland and Labrador

British Columbia

Manitoba

PEI and territories

Nova Scotia

Quebec

New Brunswick