Before I do anything else, I want to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year, and thank you for taking the time to let me share with you throughout the past year.
It’s in our best interests to celebrate each upcoming year, rather than waiting until decades have passed by.
After six decades of marriage, an elderly woman tried to get her husband’s attention as he watched television. Finally, she said, “You told me you’d spend your whole life trying to make me happy!”
Her husband replied, “I didn’t expect to live this long.”
On a similar note, I hadn’t expected to write about so many political issues during 2017 but I just couldn’t remain silent.
Law enforcement always tell people they have the right to remain silent and here’s a tag line to add to it: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do or say may be taken out of context, misquoted, posted on YouTube within the hour and used against you.
Nevertheless, in 2018 we can’t afford to remain silent.
Let me explain why. It concerns the government changing the rules. Shocker right?
The government is changing the rules around which employers can qualify for funding to hire students through the Canada Summer Jobs program to ensure that groups advocating against abortion rights will not be able to get funding. To be eligible, applicants will have to attest that their organization supports abortion rights.
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A news article reports Liberal government officials were astounded upon discovering groups with pro-life values had received federal summer job grants in 2016, and began looking at options on how to change the program to prevent that from happening again.
The employment minister believes this is a move in a positive direction.
And what direction is this new ruling moving towards?
Well, Minister Patricia Hajdu leaves no doubt about the ultimate goal of this ruling, as she called for the government to go further and revoke the charitable status of groups that advocate against abortion.
It was also mentioned that organizations that support the LGBTQ2 community will be given priority under the 2018 program, and the government is doubling the size of the program (using our tax dollars), thus doubling the number of jobs it can fund in the new year.
It almost sounds like pro-lifers are being taunted, because the government is shutting them out and increasing funding at the same time.
But what would happen if the tables were turned and applicants for funding would have to attest that their organization is pro-life? Can you imagine the explosive response?
A petition has been started by the Campaign Life Coalition protesting the use of taxpayer money to coerce the nation into accepting abortion.
In an effort to address this issue, our member of Parliament is instructing applicants to state they “fully support the rights found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” on their application, and inform the office of our MP so they can work to ensure no students in our constituency are punished because of this forced values declaration.
The employment minister assured MPs that the changes will not make churches or religious and faith-based organizations ineligible for the program. That sounds to me like a feeble attempt to pacify Canadians into keeping quiet. Especially, when you’ve been made aware that their ultimate goal is to revoke the charitable status of groups that advocate against abortion.
You may not care about any of this if you’re pro-choice, and I sincerely hope any charitable group you belong to is successful in obtaining government funding.
But at the same time, all those groups that hold pro-life values and received government funding last year made positive contributions towards helping Canadian students and children. They deserve equal treatment.
After all, last time I checked, we lived in a democratic nation.
Yes, we have the right to remain silent. But if we want to live in a happy, healthy and prosperous democracy, we can’t afford to cash in on that right. On New Year’s Day 2018, let’s make a toast to a happy, healthy and prosperous democratic Canada.
Joan Janzen is a freelance opinion columnist.
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