Community > Politics and Government

Canadian government imposes ideological litmus test for access to grants

(1/3) > >>

dpareja:
https://www.google.ca/search?dcr=0&source=hp&ei=_11WWpS9KI7qjwPzopToBA&q=toronto+right+to+life+denied+canada+job+grant&oq=toronto+right+to+life+denied+canada+job+grant&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i21k1j33i160k1.3199.10683.0.10796.45.41.0.3.3.0.217.3514.24j12j1.37.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..5.36.3126...0j0i131k1j0i10k1j0i22i30k1j0i22i10i30k1j33i22i29i30k1j33i13i21k1.0.HS0McyJcgDA

The Trudeau government: We only respect your Charter rights if you're using them to agree with us!

Specifically, pro-life groups have been denied access to a summer jobs grant program run by the federal government because they won't sign a form saying they support women's reproductive rights (which is implied to include the right to an abortion).

This is effectively thoughtcrime and an attempt to abridge freedom of expression, and for that matter, isn't even on good footing as far as what the Charter actually guarantees: only Justice Wilson even suggested that the Charter guaranteed the right to an abortion; the other two opinions in Morgentaler were narrow and technical and only focused on how the extant law abridged Charter rights while leaving matters open for Parliament to enact new legislation without saying that it would be found unconstitutional.

(tl;dr there's no constitutional right to an abortion in Canada.)

I hope the lawsuits these groups are filing are successful, because, as the Prime Minister noted when his government settled with Omar Khadr, the Charter protects all Canadians.

niam2023:
Considering the Trump Administration's attitudes, I find this to be appealing.

dpareja:

--- Quote from: niam2023 on January 11, 2018, 06:40:51 pm ---Considering the Trump Administration's attitudes, I find this to be appealing.

--- End quote ---

I don't.

If it were the government not giving grants to religious organizations, that would be one thing. I might be OK with that, since I don't think the government should be funding religion.

But it's not that. It's the government not giving grants to organizations (that are available to other organizations) based solely on a policy disagreement. (As I noted, there is no right to an abortion in Canada--there is no enforceable federal criminal law on the matter (and the federal government has sole authority over criminal law), but provinces can regulate it as a health matter.) That sets a very dangerous precedent, if access to government programs can be denied on the basis of not agreeing with the government.

Do I agree with these groups? No. But I don't want them denied funding because of that.

Eiki-mun:
Eh, I have a hard time feeling any sympathy for right-wingers lately. They kinda deserve whatever bad happens to them, really. Especially since right-wingers here are fighting to shut down pro-choice organizations entirely.

I'm not Canadian, though, so take any words with a grain of salt.

Art Vandelay:

--- Quote from: Eiki-mun on January 12, 2018, 04:24:33 am ---Eh, I have a hard time feeling any sympathy for right-wingers lately. They kinda deserve whatever bad happens to them, really. Especially since right-wingers here are fighting to shut down pro-choice organizations entirely.

--- End quote ---
I don't think anyone's exactly crying themselves to sleep over the poor widdle conservatives. It's more concern that the Canadian government seems to want to police people's ideology all of a sudden. Let's just say it's a touch short sighted to be fine with it just because it's right now fucking over a group you don't like. After all, what do you think will happen when the conservatives are back in power?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page