Religious groups unsure about Aeroplan program
OTTAWA, ON - Are religion-based charities eligible to pool their Aeroplan miles or not? It's not entirely clear.
Aeroplan's Charitable Pooling Program focuses on local community efforts, enabling groups to receive loyalty reward miles collected by their supporters, which can then be used towards air travel. But Aeroplan's attempt to be a good corporate citizen is raising some hackles.
On April 18, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) vice-president Don Hutchinson wrote open letters to Maclean's magazine and Aeroplan, expressing "shock and dismay" that the charitable pooling form used by Aeroplan stated "evangelical" causes were among those not eligible for the program.
"What is most shocking about the blatant discriminatory exclusion of evangelical groups is the fact that, unlike Aeroplan's broad and general disqualification of political, government or sports organizations, the only religious group prohibited by the program is evangelicals," he wrote.
"In one fell act of discrimination, Aeroplan excludes support for The Salvation Army, Compassion Canada and World Vision."
Aeroplan responded within three business days, amending the form by dropping the word "evangelical" and changing the exemption to "religious causes."
According to Hutchinson, that just makes matters worse. In a second open letter released May 17, he says the EFC is "somewhat perplexed by the response taken by Aeroplan to our concerns. Instead of adopting a more inclusive regime for the charitable pooling program, it seems that Aeroplan has made the decision to maintain a discriminatory policy...
"It should be noted that some of the leading charities in the world, doing much of the work of caring for the poor, sick, vulnerable and war-ravaged communities are religious in nature."
However, in an e-mail to ChristianWeek, Christa Poole, manager of external communications for Aeroplan, says religious groups requesting a charitable pooling account for a community initiative or cause are welcome to apply for the program.
She says Aeroplan thanked the EFC for pointing out an "error" on their application form, and says Aeroplan apologized immediately to the EFC for the mistake.
"It is not and has not been Aeroplan Canada's intent to discriminate against any specific religion. Rather we hope that the initiative continues to set an example of support and engagement for communities, and our members enthusiasm for charitable causes, through the donation of Aeroplan Miles," she says.
Since the Aeroplan Charitable Pooling Program was launched, some 57 million miles have been pooled for more than 430 groups.
The Aeroplan charitable pooling program implies a distinction between religious causes and the non-religious charitable activity of groups that may be religiously based. How the distinction will be managed in practice remains to be tested. Can a community church, for example, apply for the program to assist with its local anti-poverty work?
And what if the church is affiliated with a "national" denomination? The Aeroplan guidelines also specifically exclude "national or international organizations," which would seem to render the EFC, World Vision and Compassion ineligible regardless.
Hutchinson says the EFC engaged the Aeroplan issue to ensure religious freedom was upheld. "The EFC has a long-standing history of engaging on matters where religious freedom is being challenged," says Hutchinson. "In this instance what we saw appeared to be a clear violation of the Canadian Human Rights Act."
ChristianWeek invites readers involved with religious groups that applied for this program to let us know if they got in or were deemed ineligible. Call 1.800.263.6695 or e-mail editor@christianweek.org
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