TO THE SOURCE ON KAIROS

What many people realize on their own, I learned in university: it's  more useful to go to primary sources than to rely on second-hand material to determine what's closest to the truth (at least for the protagonists in any situation). It's more illuminating, for example, to read Napoleon's letters to the Directorate than to read others' accounts of his Italian campaigns. Problem is, busy lives don't always offer that luxury. (I do see the irony in that, as a journalist, I get to go directly to primary sources for a living, while those who read my work are reading  second-hand accounts. In my defence, I always give as much context as space allows and, increasingly, we use our website to offer first-hand information - whether minutes of meetings, international reports, transcripts, video or links to primary sources - to accompany our stories.

In that vein, I offer a copy of the speech Jason Kenny made last week in Jerusalem in which he explained why KAIROS lost funding. It's worth a read because it gives the full context of the immigration/multiculturalism minister's speech, including other examples he cites. (It's taken from Conservative MP Rick Dykstra's website.)

Here is my colleague Les Whittington's story on the reaction from KAIROS.

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My question is not original: Why didn't CIDA - or more appropriately Minister Kenny - tell Canadians the real reason funding was being cut for KAIROS? Instead, International Development Minister Bev Oda blamed CIDA's "shifting priorities."

Surely a decision apparently taken on priniciple doesn't require flimflammery. It rather debases the point, don't you think?

Comments

[Ozy3]

I am so confused. First of all, why does any questioning of the Israeli government's policies result in cutting off Canadian taxpayer funds to a Canadian charity? What's the connection? KAIROS can criticise the Canadian government under the Charter's section 2 protection of free speech as long as it doesn't result in hate speech (i.e. incites violence against an identifiable group). Any attempt by the government to cut off funding for questioning its *preferences* results in an automatic entitlement to a court challenge of such punishment. Note that Harper hasn't "defunded" anyone for critiquing the Vatican and its stance on safe sex, abortion, homosexuality, etc. But questioning Israel's government gets you punished, notwithstanding section 2 of the Charter?
As for the charges of anti-Semitism, is the Government of Israel the religious and cultural representative of all Judaism? If so, then how is the latter the "only democracy" in the Middle East? Kenney is contradicting his claim by practically criminalising the questioning of a democratic government's policies and behaviour.
Further, does Israel "defund" its charities if they question or criticise Canadian policies? What makes it okay to punish questioning of Israeli policies (not Jewish beliefs) while simultaneously condoning depictions of Islam's prophet as a "terrorist" or as a dog under the banner of free speech? Am I missing something here? So, we can't question Netanyahu's policies but we can draw his head on a dog's body and call him a terrorist? Is that what Kenney is saying? I'm so confused.
And why is his government using *our* money to punish *our* citizens for criticising a foreign country? Where is Israel's sanctity enshrined in our *secular* Constitution or any other Act of Parliament? After all, we've seen this argument used to ban George Galloway and "defund" the Canadian Arab Federation, so is this censorship now a law in Canada?
Ironically enough, even Canadian Jews like Judy Rebick who disagree with Israeli government policies are at risk of repercussions from Harper's government. I wouldn't be surprised if Canada next pulled out of paying our UN dues on charges that the UN is an anti-Semitic organisation. We're losing our democracy to support Harper's personal ideology, which has nothing to do with Canadian values, history or priorities. We can't allow this hijacking of our country to continue unabated. We must follow the Canadian Arab Federation's lawsuit and George Galloway's libel suit against this government to see how the courts view such abuse of our rights.

[I'll turn this country around...]

Thank you so much for posting this. Partisans are turning every inch of this site into a battleground. But every now and again you get to have a face to face conversation with someone about an important issue. At times like those, it's useful to be able to ask, "have you actually READ what Jason Kenney said in Jerusalem?"

Ozy3, the previous commenter, really nailed it. But boy, this Jason Kenney and anti-Semitism thing is out of control. I'm going to write a one act play about it.