Procedure and House Affairs Committee on March 18th, 2011

[Mary Corkery]

No, we weren't, and that's not the way we would frame it. That's the public engagement part of our program. We're very proud of having public engagement, and traditionally CIDA has always been very proud to fund public engagement, because it's the education in Canada that allows the stakeholders to see what their money is accomplishing.

Traditionally what Kairos will do is bring our partners here so that they themselves can speak in their own words to communities across Canada. We've done that almost every year, I would say. They talk about the issues from their point of view, and they talk about what they're doing to make change, which touches a bit on one of the things that Mr. Albrecht mentioned earlier: that we need to get aid to people, that we need to give humanitarian aid. Kairos doesn't provide food aid. We don't do emergency aid work. It's very important to do that and it's great to see that our government is committed to that.

A large part of what CIDA funds is long-term development: getting to the root causes of change and supporting those people who have a lot of expertise and skill on the ground and who we trust to carry out work. We bring those people here when we can and tour them across Canada. Yes, we do have media to advertise our events, and we have what we call an education campaign that we try to get out through the churches and through communities. That has been one of the strengths of Kairos--

[Pat Martin]

Thank you.

[Mary Corkery]

--to help Canadians understand aid.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm sorry to interrupt. I don't disagree with you, but again, we have to try to focus on what we think was misrepresenting why they scrapped your funding.

I'm a member of a group called the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism. I know that Kairos made a presentation to this committee--

[Mary Corkery]

No. Kairos did not make a presentation. My understanding is that the United Church made a presentation, but we did not.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Fair enough, and thank you for that correction.

Having dealt with the issue of anti-Semitism for the last two years with this committee, though, it strikes me that one of the most damaging and even slanderous things you can say about someone or some organization is accuse them of anti-Semitism. It's like being accused of being a child molester or something. It's in that category of hurtful things that put you in the uncomfortable situation of having to go around to those same people who heard something and deny that you're anti-Semitic.

Can you expand a bit on what impact this has had on your organization?

[Mary Corkery]

Well, you'll probably be surprised at some of the impacts. After Minister Kenney made that comment on December 16, we received a lot of media attention. The phone was ringing off the wall. But basically, people who didn't know us came onto our website to look at our program in the Middle East, our policies, and our documents, and said “That's excellent”. We got a lot of new funders and a lot of new supporters.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Well, that's interesting.

[Mary Corkery]

People know that Kairos is not anti-Semitic. It has been very affirming to us how much the public has supported us and has said that's not true. And those who didn't know are looking up our work, examining it, and saying “No, it must be something intended to silence you when you're speaking out about human rights issues”.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Martin.

Mr. McGuinty, for five minutes, please.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mrs. Corkery, thank you for being here.

I want to follow up on my colleague's questions.

Mrs. Corkery, isn't it a condition of the grant application at CIDA that you must show how you will conduct engagement and outreach, as a salient part of the application and the granting process? Isn't that one of the top five priorities at CIDA?

[Mary Corkery]

You know, those priorities keep changing, so I'm not sure today, or at any one day, exactly where that is. Traditionally, though, it has been a very important part.

CIDA too depends on having an informed electorate, an informed citizenry. I know that people refer to Canadians as taxpayers, but we think of--

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Citizens.

[Mary Corkery]

--citizens participating democratically.

So yes, it's always been important, and I believe there was a time when it was required. I'm not sure if that's the case at this moment.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Okay.

Mrs. Corkery, you rhymed off the groups that are involved, the churches and so on. I'm sure you would find a reflection of all of those churches and groups in probably every caucus, every party in the House of Commons.

Can you help Canadians understand roughly how many million Canadians would be in the umbrella group represented by these churches at Kairos?

[Mary Corkery]

There's been no recent census on this. The last census that actually gave us any information on that, on people's declared affiliation with churches, was in 2001. At that time, those people who indicated support for the Kairos churches would have indicated a support of approximately 18 million people.

Now, that's a long time ago.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Sure.

[Mary Corkery]

That's ten years ago.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

We can round it up or round it down, but it's still 18 million people, right?

So when Minister Kenney stands up and gives a speech that is....

Let me just go back for a second.

Mrs. Corkery, I recognize your last name, and I'm sure you might recognize my last name; I think we come from probably similar Irish ancestry. If there's anything that Canadians of Irish ancestry understand, it's the scourge of sectarianism that ripped Ireland apart for 450 years.

I want to just go back to the speech Mr. Kenney gave, where he levelled extreme charges against your group and, through your group, the 18 million Canadians who are represented by the churches.

I'm going to ask you this straight up. I know how divisive this kind of sectarian talk can be, so I don't ask this question flippantly, Mrs. Corkery. I want you to answer it as honestly and as deeply as you wish. Are you anti-Semitic?

[Mary Corkery]

No.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Are your members anti-Semitic?

[Mary Corkery]

No, not to our knowledge.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Is your board of directors anti-Semitic?

[Mary Corkery]

No.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

What could possibly lead this government, after your support from the Trudeau government, the Mulroney government, the Campbell government, the Turner government, the Chrétien government, the Martin government, and five years of the Harper regime...? What could possibly possess this government, this regime, to turn on a dime and not make the announcement here--not have the courage of their convictions to make the announcement on Canadian soil--but to do it in Israel; what could possibly possess Mr. Harper to instruct his Gobot Mr. Kenney to make such a speech and slander 18 million Canadians?

I'm sure you've had months, if not a year, to think about this. What could possess them to do this after 35 years of service?

By the way, I worked with Kairos. When I was in Africa in 1988 to 1990, I saw the work on the ground in villages. I saw the health care clinics you were helping to support. I'm not sure about my Conservative colleagues, but I saw it on the ground when I was working for UNICEF.

What could possibly possess Mr. Harper to have done this?