Is the Harper government funding christian missionaries abroad?

According to this reportage in La Presse, more and more CIDA funds are being directed towards christian groups and projects that have a mandate to proselytize. Few have solid experiences with humanitarian aid projects as well regarded as Kairos; most have no international credibility.

While reducing financial support to many international cooperation agencies, the Harper government is now providing more subsidies to religious NGOs, especially those that have a mission to spread the faith.

This is what emerges from research conducted by François Audet, Director of the Canadian Research Institute on humanitarian crisis and aid; its results should be published this spring in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies.

His team of researchers combed through the tax returns of 198 Canadian NGOs who shared in 2010 a budget of $366 million in funding from CIDA.

Their conclusion: from 2005 to 2010, subsidies to secular NGOs have increased by 5% - from 226 to 237 million. During the same period, the annual budget for religious NGOs increased from 90 to 129 million - an increase of 42%.

The lion's share of this increase went to a dozen NGOs in Western Canada, which received $50 million in 2010, against 29 million five years earlier - an increase of 72%. However, in addition to their humanitarian mission, these NGOs are openly dedicated to evangelization.

Some examples: Africa Community Technical Services received $ 655,000 from CIDA in 2010, almost three times more than in 2005. On its website, the NGO says it carries out its duties "under the authority of the scriptures" and "seeks to glorify our Lord Jesus."

Cause Canada says: "We pray that our identification with Jesus, our concern for justice and our practical demonstration of God's love [...] attract people to Christ," on its website. This Alberta NGO received $ 483,000 from CIDA in 2010, an increase of 32% compared to 2005.

Rough Google translation of Agnès Gruda's text.  Radio-Canada is also reporting on this; CBC will no doubt soon produce a document in English.

Would receiving humanitarian support and the benefit of clean water, education, health care and other necessities made available through international aid projects be conditional upon conversion to fundamentalist religious christian beliefs?

It seems as though Fantino and his accolytes are enforcing have adopted the hospice model developed by Mother Teresa for the Vatican Taliban - a choice between having your soul "saved" or dying miserably in the streets.

BONUS: Dennis Gruending's post about the Office of *Religious Freedom* in John Baird's Foreign Affairs. Would there possibly be a connection to the CIDA funding?

Update regarding the CPC partisan documents Fantino did ^NOT post on the CIDA government website, at The Sixth Estate. 

Update: Montreal Simon wrote this in December.

Photograph found here.

Seeing / Hearing / Comprehending Nothing.

After reading Canadian Cynic: The irony is just crippling we suggest that Sandy Cruxiform - indeed, any and all species of blogging Con jobs - slap this picture on to to their sites, as a warning to readers who stumble upon their site, a visual reminder of the flips and spins and reversals and contradictions and sheer stupidity that constantly besiege them in these most perplexing times.

Because not all of them are capable of memorizing the PMO speaking points in order to be an effective Attack Parrot™© like John Baird and his fellow ReformaTories.

Why KAIROS matters.

L'union fait la force. Together we stand, divided we fall.

Alliance-busting is one of many Rovian tactics that the ReformaTories have developed to undermine their opponents and to pre-empt legitimate criticism of Stevie Spiteful and his bullies' way of doing business.

The Con's biggest and most recent target is KAIROS, a compassionate alliance of Canadian religious organizations who work together to bring peace to parts of the world ravaged by conflicts, through a number of humanitarian projects.

In November, KAIROS was told in a desultory way by Minister Oda that its CIDA funding had been cut.

Then two other ReformaTory attack parrots, Toews and Kenney piled on the justifications to justify their government's savage coup bas.

From here:

The speech of Jason Kenney in Jerusalem December 16, tagging peace and development group KAIROS as anti-Semitic and bragging about de-funding it, was so grotesque that it must have left many in the established Jewish community feeling slightly ill. Can they really be comfortable with the accusation that an organization composed of Canada’s major Christian churches are Jew-haters?

Are they willing to let KAIROS lose its projects in the suffering nations of the global south because, though it believes in Israel’s right to peace and security, it also thinks Palestinians have rights too? [...]

After 35 years of CIDA funding, KAIROS will lose $7 million project money ending its support for the peace process in Sudan, for victims of violence in Indonesia and the rights of women in warring Colombia.

Kenney now claims his remarks were misunderstood. I think that he “mis-spoke” by expressing these views publicly, in a venue where his comments were recorded. But it wasn’t accidental. There’s a pattern there, and a tightly scripted, repressive trajecTory being charted by the rightwing socon theocrats in the PMO.

There are many progressive bloggers who have been researching, writing about this grievous assault on KAIROS and making strong points about the Con nature of such pernicious and loathsome political tactics: Scott Tribe, bigcitylib and Dennis Gruending, to name a few. We have to keep blogging about this, and to stand in solidarity with peace-loving organizations today, December 25th and every day of the year.

Toews on message; Kenney not so much.

When we posted this, it appeared at the time that the ReformaTories were going overboard in their efforts to tar, feather and ride KAIROS out of any future international development projects.

Since the Con s--t hit the fan, more information has trickled out.

First it appears that Kenney either mispoke or deliberately lied when he conflated KAIROS with Kairos.

And it appears that Toews, MP for Provencher/Bible Belt, has revealed in his homespun way, the ReformaTory template for decades to come. Funny how "accountability" has become an urgent and primordial concern with regards to policing organizations that do not share the same fundamentalist religious ideology that the ReformaTories are trying to impose on Canada.

C.C. illustrates what those who shape policy in the PMO believe, here. Montreal Simon directs us to this Toronto Star article. The implications for Canadian secular institutions, and those who do not cleave to the christian theocratic agenda are ominous.

Some choice quotes from Darrel Reid:

"Only God can make Canada a truly Christian country... We are called to speak biblical truth to seek justice – and that obviously has implications for our political life."

"Welfare provides incentives for single moms to have another child and to avoid marriage."

"I think every Christian is under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical
values."

Let me repeat that quote from Reid:

"I think every Christian is under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical values."

What's next for Canada then? Biblical Christian sharia laws engineered by Reid and Paul Wilson?

the lie has become ... a pillar of the State.

In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State - Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Jason Kenney let the other penny drop, when he accused KAIROS of supporting the enemies of Israel.

"We have de-funded organizations, most recently, like KAIROS who are taking a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign" against Israel, he told the Global Forum for combatting anti-Semitism.

Amazing. We speculated here that Stevie Spiteful and his Harpocrites had slashed KAIROS' funding in order to placate their fundamentalist religious base of Con supporters. That theory may still hold water, but it would seem that Kenney used an opportunity to repurpose that Con tactic and exploit it to gain points with a different, yet also powerful lobby group. One with deep pockets too. One that sunk Paul Martin's ship of state in the 2006 election when it withdrew its support and gave it to the CPC.

KAIROS responded to this crude attack:

Executive director Mary Corkery said Kenney's statement was based on incorrect information about her group's positions and raises serious questions about the Politicization of the aid process by the Conservative government. "If any group that criticizes an action by the government of Israel is called anti-Semitic by the government of Canada, that's very serious." ...

KAIROS was stunned by Kenney's remarks because International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda told the public and Parliament the group lost its funding because of shifting priorities at the Canadian International Development Agency.

Corkery denied that KAIROS favours a boycott of Israel or advocated divesting funds from Israeli corporations. "We have taken positions that critique actions of the Israeli government, as have people in many organizations," Corkery said. "We have raised issues that we think cause suffering among people. But we have never spoken out against the state of Israel or tried to harm Israel."

For an excellent overview on the falsifying, groveling and pandering tactics of Stevie's bullies, read Dr Dawg's informal series of blogposts here about CPCCA - the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism.

Update: Bingo! In his blogpost, bigcitylib provides the missing link to the christofascists: "docter" Charles McVety.

Although it seems that Vic Toews isn't using Kenney's speaking points regarding Kairos, here he lays out the classic rightwing goon, union-busting tactic the Cons are rolling out - divide and conquer.

[...] several of KAIROS’ member organizations continue to receive separate funding from CIDA [...]

Many Canadians respect KAIROS' international development work over the decades. Hopefully this, as well as the Harper government maneuver to shift responsibility to the troops (regarding Afghan prisoners of war) could be the tipping point.

Two models of church-based international development.

Dennis Gruending has researched and written about the lobbying efforts that neocon fundamentalist religious organizations have directed against progressive and ecumenical groups in Canada and in particular, those working in international development.

Kairos, for example, and earlier this year Peace and Development. The fear, the anger and the hatred that religious rightwingnuts of all christofascist tendencies have directed towards their humanitarian work is quite savage.

There's been much speculation about what motivated Stevie Spiteful and his merry band of Harpocrites to cut CIDA funding to KAIROS.

The most obvious and clear reason would be its role in facilitating discussion about the Alberta tar sands.

But I think there's another reason. In November, the PMO issued a statement condemning the blood-thirsty homophobic laws the Ugandan parliament may ratify. This was consistent with previous statements he made that his government would not reverse Canadian laws that recognize equal rights for gay men and lesbians with respect to marriage.

So the Con/reformaTory "base" is seething with discontent and malevolence because its fundamentalist religious initiatives are not receiving the government support they claim as their due for electing Harper to power. And it's not a stretch to imagine the model of international network building these rightwing religious fundamentalists would emulate.

Thus Stevie Spiteful's only recourse, in order to appease those hostile grassroots astro-turf christofascist groups is a grand and dramatic gesture - ergo, a MASSIVE slash & burn cut to Kairos' funding.

As a bonus, he reaps the benefits of re-directing that money towards his own narcissistic the PMO public relations needs or any other purpose.