Family business sues Canadian Gov’t after losing funding for refusing to support abortion

May 1, 2018 by Jill

from LifeSite:

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms today announced that it has filed a court application against the federal Minister of Employment, Workforce and Labour Patty Hajdu, on behalf of small, family owned-business providing agricultural irrigation services in southern Alberta.

Their application to provide a summer position for a student interested in water conservation or environmental sciences through the Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) program was rejected because they refused to comply with the new 2018 attestation, which requires applicants to express agreement with the Liberal governments’ views on abortion and sexuality.

Starting this year, charities and small businesses must express their support for abortion being legal if they wish to access a grant through the Canada Summer Jobs program, which provides federal government grants to hire summer students. Further, charities and small businesses must express agreement with the idea that abortion is a Charter right, in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R. v. Morgentaler that Parliament can legislate to protect unborn life.

The applicants, Rhea Lynne Anderson and William Anderson, are a married couple residing near Brooks, Alberta. The Andersons are the sole owners of A-1 Irrigation & Technical Services (“A-1”), which offers ecologically responsible irrigation services to local farming operations.

Believing that they could provide a quality summer job to a qualified student, the Andersons submitted a CSJ application on January 24, 2018. However, the Andersons submitted their 2018 CSJ application without checking the “I attest” box, because they object to being compelled to express their agreement and respect for ideological positions as required by the new attestation requirement, which reads:

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Legal fight over summer jobs abortion-rights clause escalates as new challenges are filed, National Post