Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, the member of Parliament for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, waded into the murky waters of the Canada Summer Jobs program “attestation” issue during an interview Tuesday for our Coast Beat podcast.
“I have not heard from any religious or faith-based groups in the community” on the issue, Goldsmith-Jones said. “Several received funding for programs they run in the summer and hired summer students, which is great. I have heard from slightly less than 20, I think, emails from individuals, worrying about whether this is a slippery slope. But I would say, if we look at the employers who are asking for government funding for summer jobs, they have an obligation as an employer not to discriminate – and that’s really the essence of this.”
The controversial change in the Canada Summer Jobs program is a requirement that applicants declare that “both the job and my organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, 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 sex, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, mental or physical disability or sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.”
Critics, and they include some normally Liberal-friendly voices in the media, say the requirement could violate that same Charter, trampling on freedom of conscience and religion by discriminating against Canadians who do not agree with Liberal values.
Goldsmith-Jones defends the measure, saying there have been abuses of the program in the past. “For instance, a summer camp where LGBTQ campers were discriminated against, were made to feel unwelcome, and that’s not what our country stands for.”
Employment Minister Patty Hajdu has tried to calm the waters by assuring faith-based groups that the attestation is not aimed at their beliefs or values, only “the activities of the organization and the job description.” But some religious leaders were quick to reject her explanation, saying that’s not what the words on the form actually mean. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said Tuesday that the attestation and hypothetical examples given by the minister “still amount to the government’s coercion on matters of conscience and religious belief.”
Asked what she would tell potential employers who feel they can’t in good conscience check off the box on the form, Goldsmith-Jones said: “Well, first of all, I am here to represent a community and it has not come up through religious or faith-based groups, as yet. It may. Certainly we go out of our way to meet all of those who apply and, as I said before, there are several groups – churches – who have applied and it’s gone extremely well.”
Listen to the full Goldsmith-Jones interview on Coast Beat at coastreporter.net.
