Evidence of meeting #51 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was decision.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
It could be either. It could be either we funded them before and don't support them now, or that we have never given them funding but we respect their work and we collaborate with them--we do research together, we discuss issues, do education.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Mr. Young, I'm very sorry, but your time is up. Thank you.
Mr. Paquette, the floor is yours.
Bloc
Pierre Paquette Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for coming here, Madam.
What is KAIROS' overall budget?
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
It depends. Our budget keeps changing. Right now our budget is--
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
--about $2.5 million. But in 2009, when we were supported in part by CIDA, it was almost $4 million.
Bloc
Pierre Paquette Bloc Joliette, QC
You mentioned a grant of $7 million. So were you asking CIDA for more money?
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
No, actually that proposal was over four years.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
The proposal was 2009 to 2013, and the proposal included CIDA support of $1.6 million per year, a contribution of $500,000 per year in cash from Kairos and our supporters.
Bloc
Pierre Paquette Bloc Joliette, QC
So the loss of the contribution from CIDA is a heavy blow for you. Do you receive any public funding other than CIDA's?
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
Yes. In fact we have raised more funds this year than probably ever before. So our partners are the ones who have lost out the most.
We raise money from all of our member churches and organizations who make contributions. That's our core funding. We receive funding from religious communities; from foundations; from individuals, many of whom are monthly donors; from community groups; and from unions. And we have a fund we call the justice fund, begun by religious communities but on which others are assisting, which provides a capital fund and we have the interest from that. So we have quite a diverse source of funds, especially to fund our work in Canada, which isn't funded by CIDA.
Pierre Paquette Bloc Joliette, QC
When you were called on November 30, 2009, you were told that KAIROS no longer met the criteria.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
My recollection was that the statement was that it has been decided that Kairos no longer fits CIDA's priorities.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
That was the statement on that day.
Bloc
Pierre Paquette Bloc Joliette, QC
So, contrary to what Mr. Young said, it can be clearly shown that your application did fit CIDA priorities before. In fact, CIDA's two senior officials had accepted and signed off on the grant application. So the criteria that KAIROS did not meet were those other than CIDA's. Have you been told what those criteria were? Have you received a document providing details of the inadequacies in your application, have you received anything substantive, and in writing?
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
No, that's the problem, and we were certainly waiting. As I've said, the first letter from the minister, which was dated December 3, did say there would be a follow-up letter from CIDA, and we assumed that would be a substantive explanation. That is the confusing thing, what you've mentioned. The fact is that everything about our audit, our evaluation, and the CIDA recommendations seems to indicate that we do meet CIDA's fundamental priorities.
When we learned of the new themes CIDA was working under, food security, youth and children, and economic growth, we did submit another application a year later--which is already a year old, March 10--that addressed those.
What the CIDA evaluator pointed out are the fundamental priorities that frame what Canada's aid program is to fund, and that is outlined in the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act, as reducing poverty, incorporating the perspectives of the poor themselves, and ensuring human rights, and--
Bloc
Pierre Paquette Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you. Your testimony shows precisely the confusion that the minister has created and why we think there must be disciplinary measures against her.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm still looking for places in your proposal or in the evaluation of your proposal that might have set off Minister Kenney, or anyone in the Conservative government, to this wild conclusion that you're somehow anti-Israel. I do notice in your evaluation—I think I found the clause you are making reference to—that the Middle East and the North Africa bureaus of the Department of Foreign Affairs commented on your proposal, and they say this:
Canada is committed to the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, including the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel. Kairos projects in the region are a step in the right direction.
That doesn't seem to be critical at all. It seems to be that the Middle East office and bureau, and the North Africa bureau, think that you're doing positive work.
I notice later in appendix B, given in the memorandum to the minister, it talks about Gaza and the West Bank. It goes on in depth about that. But at the bottom of that paragraph, it says:
Kairos proposal focuses on human-rights-based projects of four Palestinian and Israeli peace organizations of the Jerusalem Center for Women, Bat Shalom, Falastiniat, and Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center.
Are any of these four organizations known to be controversial or extremist, or anti-Israel I suppose is my question?
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
No, they're not anti-Israel or extremists.
I think what the issue may be is that they work on human rights. They do name issues of criticism in terms of some of the actions of the Israeli government, not the right of the Israeli state to exist, which certainly Kairos has always supported and our partners have always supported.
It has happened that there have been critiques of groups that speak out as Kairos has. Kairos has called for an independent and viable Palestinian state--
