War on Christianity - The Trudeau Government Still Refusing Funding for Christian Summer Camps for Kids

Group to go to court after Bible camps denied

federal summer jobs grant

Applications are refused if the organization's activities

'work to undermine or restrict' abortion rights

Michael Tutton · The Canadian Press 

The federal government is being sued over its denial of a Canada summer jobs grant to Bible camps

in Ontario and Nova Scotia. (The Associated Press)

A legal group is taking Ottawa to court over its denial of jobs grants for Bible camps in Ontario and Nova Scotia, with the camp's operators suggesting the rejection is due to their evangelical beliefs.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said it will seek to overturn the federal refusal to fund summer counsellors for the two Bible Centered Ministries camps in Cooks Brook, 70 kilometres northeast of Halifax, and near Omemee, Ont., west of Peterborough.

John Carpay, the founder of the Calgary-based centre, said Tuesday the group will ask Federal Court to declare that the rejection unreasonably "interferes with the camps' rights to religious freedom." The application is expected to be filed this week.

The official reason given in the rejection letter from Service Canada is that the camps did not demonstrate "that measures have been implemented to provide a workplace free of harassment and discrimination." The letter said there's no possibility of appeal.

Abortion issue

However, Phil Whitehead, executive director of the camps, said in a telephone interview the camps provided comprehensive copies of discrimination and harassment policies, including its anti-bullying measures. He said he suspects Ottawa is refusing the two camps' applications for funding of about eight counsellors because it has an evangelical Christian background that includes opposition to abortion.

Last December, the federal Liberal government was pressured into dropping contentious wording in its summer jobs program that tied pro-abortion beliefs to funding eligibility.

Instead, Ottawa reworked the 2019 version of the program to require that groups show neither their core mandate nor the jobs being funded actively worked to undermine constitutional, human and reproductive rights.

Legal action

Employment and Social Development Canada declined comment on the camps' specific application and argument. It said in an email Monday that applicants in general were given the opportunity to provide added information on their projects and "needed to demonstrate that they didn't include ineligible activities."

Carpay said his group will ask the court for a declaration that the minister's decisions were unreasonable. He said the camps had received funding for close to a decade before Ottawa introduced its new policies last year. Carpay also said his group decided to take the case to court because the government's decision was considered final.

"The only way to deal with it is to go to court," he said. "The government had more than a fair chance to provide clear reasons for its denial ... there's no intelligible explanation that's come with it."

'We're here to minister to kids'

Whitehead said the camps will proceed regardless of the funding, drawing on funds raised privately by his group. He said more than 600 children aged between eight and 15 attend the two camps annually.

Bible study is included in camp activities, but the topics of reproductive rights and sexual orientation are not part of the curriculum, Whitehead said. "Summer camp is not about that," he said.

"We're here to reach kids. We're here to minister to kids. Nowhere on our website, nowhere in our material do we even address that [abortion]."

I wonder if it has less to do with abortion and more to do with LGBTQ rights? In any event, it is an obvious thrust by the far-left Liberal government of Canada to elevate LGBTQ and abortion rights over freedom of worship, specifically evangelical Christianity.

How the Imprisonment of a Rabbi Two Centuries Ago Holds a Lesson for Today

By Batya Shevach 

“He loveth righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the lovingkindness of Hashem.” 

Psalms 33:5 (The Israel Bible™)

Illustrative (Photo: Shutterstock)

Two-hundred and nineteen years ago, the first rebbe – founder and leader – of the Chabad Hassidic movement in Russia was miraculously released from jail. He credited his liberation to the heavenly merit he earned through collecting charity to support  the poor, widows and orphans living in the Holy Land at that time through his organization Colel Chabad. The repercussions of Rebbe’s imprisonment and release continue to affect the world, and the wellbeing of Jews in Israel even today.

On May 8, 1798, a fabricated complaint against Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, known as the Alter Rebbe, claimed that the illustrious Torah scholar was in fact an anti-Russian revolutionary. He was accused of sending money to Turkish-controlled Palestine and engaging in subversive activities against the Russian government.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman (Wikimedia Commons)

An investigation of the Rebbe began in August 1798, and the Czar himself took a personal interest in the case. He knew that the Rebbe had over 100,000 followers, with many living in recently occupied Polish territory. If the Alter Rebbe was a true insurgent, he might lead a full blown revolt against the Russian regime.

During the week-long Sukkot holiday (Feast of Tabernacles) of 1798, an armed officer was sent to Liozna to arrest Rabbi Shneur Zalman. The Rebbe heard about the officer, and decided to follow Biblical advice, “Hide yourself for a brief moment.” (Isaiah 26:20). The officer returned to his commanders empty-handed. After contemplating his fate for several hours, the Rebbe decided that if the officer returned, he would surrender himself and leave peaceably.

The officer did come back in the evening of the last day of Sukkot, and the Rebbe was taken away in the “Black Mary” – a carriage reserved by the Czarist regime for transporting the worst criminals. The carriage had no windows and was covered with heavy, black metal panels. It instilled terror in anyone who saw it.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman was held in the fortress of Petropavlovsk, a well-guarded political prison. During the intensive investigation numerous documents were sent back and forth between high ranking government officials. The Rebbe testified orally and in writing about his personal activities and his Biblical teachings. His handwritten testimonies were translated from Hebrew to French, and then into Russian.

The investigators found no incriminating evidence. Disguised as a simple clerk, the Czar visited the Rebbe in prison to see the infamous Jewish leader for himself. The Rebbe immediately stood up in a show of respect. The Czar asked the Rebbe why he stood. “For truly you must be the Czar!” answered the prisoner.

Paul 1 was Czar of Russia in 1798. He was the son of Catherine the Great and possibly her lover.

“Our sages teach us that ‘sovereignty on earth, is similar to the sovereignty of the Heavens.’ As the fear before God is great, so too did I feel an unusual awe when you entered. Such a feeling I never experienced with any of the officials that have come here. Therefore I conclude that you must be the Czar.”

The Czar saw through the lies spread about the Rebbe and decreed that he was certainly no traitor. On Tuesday, the 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev (November 16, 1798), 53 days after his arrest, Rabbi Shneur Zalman was cleared of all charges and set free. Furthermore, the Czar ordered the Governor of Lithuania to release the Rebbe’s followers, arrested at the same time.

In the Alter Rebbe’s first letter after his liberation, he attributed his freedom to his acts of sending charity to the poor in the Land of Israel. He wrote to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev: “Who am I, a lowly person as I am, that God has brought me this far and Heaven’s Name was sanctified through me…. But it was God who gave us this privilege by virtue of the Holy Land and its residents, and may He help us at all times to broaden our borders, and extricate us from dire straits.”

“For the poor shall never cease out of the land; therefore I command thee, saying:

‘Thou shalt surely open thy hand unto thy poor and needy brother, in thy land.”

Deuteronomy 15:11 (The Israel Bible™)

Just as the Alter Rebbe did over 200 years ago, Colel Chabad continues its mission to help the Holy Land’s poor and provide assistance to needy residents until today.   Ongoing immigration, difficulty earning a living, and the constant threats of war and terror still cause many in Israel to question where their next meal is coming from.

Rabbi Lipsker, administrator of Colel Chabad, commented, “After the Alter Rebbe’s demise in 1813, each subsequent Rebbe in the chain of the Chabad movement’s leaders diligently oversaw the Colel Chabad activities in Israel. The Alter Rebbe’s initiative ensured the survival of the Holy Land Jews before any other formal organizations cared for them.”

Colel Chabad is the oldest charity organization in Israel, with 24 soup kitchens around the country, holiday food packages for poor families and senior citizens, summer camps and afterschool programs for underprivileged children, wedding and bar mitzvah celebrations arranged for orphans, and special programs for hospitalized children. It’s work continues to be crucial even today.

To donate to Colel Chabad, please visit here.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27