If you wanted to tick off the Roman Catholic Church, the mainline Protestant denominations and Evangelicals while undoing a longstanding relationship that has fostered improved human rights and strengthened sustainable development opportunities around the world, what single step could you take as the Government of Canada? Until Monday of this week, that was a question that hadn’t occurred to anyone. But on Monday, Bev Oda, Minister for International Cooperation, delivered the answer by ending a 35 year relationship with KAIROS with a phone call.

KAIROS received funding as an ecumenical initiative (Catholics and Protestants of all stripes working together) that facilitated Canadian engagement on matters of human rights and sustainable development through partnerships with faith-based organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. This is an organization that lives and breathes cooperation – religious, domestic and international.

The renewal agreement with KAIROS had been waiting in Minister Oda’s care since mid-summer when senior CIDA officials confirmed funding would be forthcoming for this long, beneficial and productive relationship.  The existing agreement expired September 30, however the government continued funding for two months following while the contract continued to sit on the Minister’s desk. On Monday, November 30, by means of a phone call, the relationship was halted immediately, without warning. The explanation? KAIROS’ activities no longer fall within the priorities of the Government of Canada … although the funding proposal was developed with and approved by CIDA staff as fitting within established priorities.

At a minimum, one would expect that terminating a long standing relationship with an international network of organizations would have warranted sufficient notice to gradually realign.

However, you may recall Minister Oda also pronounced instantaneous change in May by announcing that Canada was shifting its international aid focus away from the world’s poorest nations in Africa toward funding developing trade partners in South America. In her announcement the minister noted this would not please “Irish rock stars” but didn’t note this policy shift was an about turn away from evident human need and the existing strategic efforts of a substantial number of Canadian and international religious communities; strategic efforts that were established in cooperation with the Canadian government. At the same press conference in May, Minister Oda announced a shift in foreign aid policy to accompany the shift in location. The policy shift is contrary to the provisions of the Official Development Assistance Act (Bill C-293) which had become law in Canada only twelve months earlier, and remains the law to this day.

Canada and the world need the type of cooperative effort displayed by KAIROS. One can hope – and one can take action asking the government to change this pronouncement – that the Canadian government will revisit this decision and re-enter the relationship while any damage done can be easily put right.

When it comes to international cooperation, the Minister of International Cooperation isn’t being very cooperative.

The above article may be republished with permission in print publications. For more information contact Gail Reid: reidg@efc-canada.com. 

Don Hutchinson is Vice-President, General Legal Counsel with The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Director of the Centre for Faith and Public Life.

Originally posted on Friday, December 4, 2009 at the EFC’s ActivateCFPL blog.

Used with permission.  Copyright © 2009 Christianity.ca.

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