No public funds for “NDP at prayer”
If there is any good to come out of the Haiti earthquake disaster, it may be that relief organizations and other non-government organizations (NGOs) have shone in what they do best: doing good. Canadian NGOs, in particular, seem to have excelled in their quick and effective response to so much pain in this poorest of poor nations.
This is good news indeed. Prior to the Haiti disaster, it is safe to say that many Canadians had reason wonder whether taxpayers should have been funding NGOs at all in the wake of the controversy over federal cuts to some groups whose work seemed to focus more on politicking than relief and development.
The federal government's decision to cut funding from the Canadian International Development Agency to some NGOs whose activities seemed at odds with the government's policies brought out the predictable hue and cry from left-wing church and "social activist" groups about the Harper government's "neo-con" agenda.
Officially, the feds say foreign aid priorities have changed. The government isn't crazy about funding groups like Kairos—an umbrella organization for Christian groups with a social justice agenda—and the Montreal-based human rights group Alternatives. These groups say they are being punished, not because of the quality of their work, but because they dare to criticize Israel.
Whether or not such groups deserve to receive public money for their so-called social justice work is an important question.
It's fair to say that Canadians will respond whenever a great need arises. The federal government's pledge of $135 million to the Haiti relief effort flowed directly from more than $40 million donated by Canadians to the massive Haitian relief effort at the time of this writing. So no one's going to argue against opening up our wallets to provide clean water, food, shelter and medical aid when a natural disaster happens. We saw the same generosity in 2004 in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami (although one should remember that the Liberal government of Paul Martin dithered through the early days of the disaster, in sharp contrast to Stephen Harper's quick response on Haiti).
Ordinary Canadians are saying they don't care about politics when it comes to relief efforts. But, when we talk about supporting on-going development in poor countries, it gets stickier.
Kairos may or may not be effective at what they do. But because their work seems to rely so heavily on effecting "social change" through "advocacy, education and research programs in Ecological Justice, Economic Justice, Energy and Extraction, Human Rights, Just and Sustainable Livelihoods, and Indigenous Peoples,"—to quote their website—they are wide open to criticism from government types and taxpayers who suggest Kairos is less an aid group than an advocacy organization pushing a specific, left-wing ideology. In other words, Kairos is wide-open to charges that they are the NDP at prayer.
Is that fair to Kairos? Probably not. Nothing is ever black and white, including what happened in the relief and development world. But what is needed is a non-ideological look at what should and shouldn't be funded by taxpayers.
As a Christian, I am fully behind funding NGOs who bring immediate relief to the poor, at home and around the world. Digging a well? Right on. Delivering seeds and agricultural know-how so poor farmers in Africa so they can feed their families? I'm with you. Bringing medicine to dying children? Count me in.
But aligning yourself with unions and "pro-Palestinian" groups to denounce Israel and paint Hamas as guys in white hats? Not one penny from the public trough for you.
That doesn't mean that Christians who put blinkers on about the Islamists who run Hamas can't go off and raise funds to undermine Israel. It doesn't even mean that we should censor the often anti-Semitic rantings of such groups. But do it with money from people who share your ideology, not from the Canadian taxpayer.
The federal government needs to put its foot down when it comes to NGOs whose work promotes an ideology. Just as Christian missionary groups should only rely on their fellow Christians for financial support for their work in spreading the gospel, Christian groups who wish to spread another "gospel"—the gospel of the NDP at prayer—should rely solely on their fellow ideologues for support (or perhaps seek it from fine democrats like Hugo Chavez or Raul Castro).
Now, step back from the public trough, NGOs.
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