"We have de-funded organizations, most recently, like KAIROS who are taking a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign" against Israel, [Kenney] told the Global Forum for combatting anti-Semitism.
...is denied by KAIROS executive director Mary Corkery here:
Corkery, who said she was shocked by Kenney’s comment, said her group has been critical of some of Israel’s actions but has not supported a boycott.
Furthermore, the notion that KAIROS might have had questionable unacceptable political leanings is rather belied by the very good reviews that Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), its funding body, has given it over the years, including February of this year.
The 2nd article above from the T.O. Sun hints at who the Tories might be pandering to with this decision: B'nai Brith and Charles McVety's gang at the Canadian Christian College. Both organizations have targeted KAIROS for years now. Here's a recent clip of McVety denouncing the group as "leftist ideologues".
This, plus KAIROS criticism of Alberta tar sands development, probably left them cruisin for a bruisin.
47 comments:
I don't know what their mandate is, or their political focus is, but why would the government fund any political lobby group? What does this group care about the Alberta oil sands? Why do they care what Isreal does across the pond?
If you look at the causes they have championed over the years they just look like a left wing political organization. That's fine, but they can be all those things without taking government money.
They'll have to find real jobs now.
Sorry folks, but different strokes for different folks. Each government has the right to call the rules whether we like it or not.
KAIROS is not part of the Tory vision of things. We can howl till the cows come home but as long as it forms the government it chooses who to fund. Instaed of sour grapes I urge working towards change.
That noted KAIROS is either being disingenuous about its position on BDS on this website is lying http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10943.shtml what's the real truth?
Sorry folks, but different strokes for different folks. Each government has the right to call the rules whether we like it or not.
Spoken like a true enemy of democracy.
Since when does a government have the right to lie to the public about its reasons for cutting funding? Since when it is allowed to denounce people for holding political opinions (antisemitism being of course, a complete fabrication)?
That noted KAIROS is either being disingenuous about its position on BDS on this website is lying http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10943.shtml
How is that position paper (Kairos Palestine Documented) associated with Kairos Canada? Did you read the article first or did you just paste it in dutifully when you were instructed by "The Lobby" do do so?
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles.php?type=about
NGO Monitor
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/kairos_factsheet
KAIROS frequently joins other anti-Israel NGOs in accusing Israel of “war crimes” and “collective punishment.”
That 10% was clear the CPC have moved to a stronger support for Israel.
http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=958
By comparison with the interview and the point made, which are unequivocal in nature, statements made by earlier Liberal leaders, and senior Liberals today like Ignatieff, pale in comparison.
Time to give the CS the heave-ho, BCL. He can post the talking points he gets straight from Velshi on his own blog.
Time to give the CS the heave-ho, BCL. He can post the talking points he gets straight from Velshi on his own blog.
I second that. You're a saint when it comes to giving conservatives space BCL, but CS is no better than a spambot.
Look at that list of leftist ideologues that are member organizations of KAIROS:
The Anglican Church of Canada
The Christian Reformed Church in North America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
The United Church of Canada (the church I’m a member of)
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Canadian Religious Conference
The Mennonite Central Committee of Canada
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF)
That list would include Canada’s seven largest Christian denominations, and is a mixture of theologically conservative, moderate, and liberal Christian groups and organizations.
That's quite a wide Christian segment that MCVety is calling "leftist ideologues". It shows how much of an ultra right-wing theology he espouses.
Scott,
The membership list does not excuse the actions by the Group.
The UN membership lists reflect despots and dictators responsible for genocide.
TG, CR disciples of the CRU?
NGO Monitor
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/kairos_factsheet
NGO Monitor... Some of those examples NGO Monitor has are fairly cherry picked. On the same letters where they found Kairos criticizing Israel there were also condemnations of the rocket attacks by the Palestinians on civilian targets.
NGO Monitor has been criticized by the Jerusalem Post for critiquing peace related NGOs and ignoring right-wing NGOs (something Yossi Alpher notes as well), and for lacking transparency in their own funding.
Obvious biases here.
Sharon I never suggested the NGO is the only authority.
I gave a link of an organization that shares my opinion.
Not everyone supports the government of Israel and their policies.
We are just trading talking points regarding the Kairos Organization.
Some of us think the current gov't is more pro-Israel, some don't think so either.
Sharon how do you feel about deleting dissenting opinions?
That list would include Canada’s seven largest Christian denominations, and is a mixture of theologically conservative, moderate, and liberal Christian groups and organizations.
....
That's quite a wide Christian segment that MCVety is calling "leftist ideologues". It shows how much of an ultra right-wing theology he espouses.
To be fair to McVety, all those groups follow some long-haired hippie guy. ;)
Ti-guy, your comment on Gus Williams was unwarranted. I disagree with him as do many but to suggest he is part of some conspiracy simply makes you look silly. By defendi9ng him I suppose I am also part of the conspiracy too huh?
I disagree with him as do many but to suggest he is part of some conspiracy simply makes you look silly.
Who said anything about conspiracy?
And what brought you here, all of sudden?
I repeat: What brought you here, Yariv?
Im happy that the government cut money to a religious group. I don't really care what its agenda is or whether its anti-semetic or not. I dont want my tax dollars funding religion.
I gave a link of an organization that shares my opinion.
There's no problem with doing that as long as what they say is accurate. Your mileage may vary on this, but I find NGO Watch a bit suspect.
Not everyone supports the government of Israel and their policies.
The argument is where are the lines drawn in defining support. Sometimes the line can be drawn too finely. For example, if you say you hate war this shouldn't make you an enemy of the United States (currently involved in two conflicts -- Iraq and Afghanistan).
Sharon how do you feel about deleting dissenting opinions?
Actually, they wanted to delete you because they think you're a troll... but since you're still around, why worry about it?
Im happy that the government cut money to a religious group. I don't really care what its agenda is or whether its anti-semetic or not. I dont want my tax dollars funding religion.
Legitimate point, but I don't like how the government is handling it. They're walking away probably because of funding reasons, and then when Kairos kicked up a fuss, they decided to smear them. Someone should give the government a book on diplomacy.
Im happy that the government cut money to a religious group. I don't really care what its agenda is or whether its anti-semetic or not. I dont want my tax dollars funding religion.
Another hero of democracy: "I don't care if the government lies to us, as long as, in doing so, it accomplishes something I agree with."
You're a one-note wonder, KC.
BCL, thank you for highlighting the connection between McVety's band of christofascist haters and the slashing of CIDA funding to KAIROS.
It's evident Harper's government is placating its base of fundamentalist christian zealots. Is the Reformatories' next step to fund initiatives that emulate Rick Warren's model of development?
For what it's worth, when KAIROS came to Alberta on its oil sands inquiry, we asked some of our best (and busiest) people to brief them and take questions on impacts on air, land and water, and on health and social issues. These were people involved directly in monitoring and investigating the impacts, not flacks like myself.
I have been told that most of the delegates were open-minded and interested, had done some prior research and had probing, relevant questions. There were one or two who, we inferred, had already reached their conclusions and were suspicious, even hostile. But overall, not a group of NGO delegates with an entirely closed agenda.
We have no stake in or opinion on whether the group should receive federal funding or not. As with any group that takes the time to travel here to see the impacts of oil sands development first hand, we gave KAIROS the best access to the best people we could offer. And, we'd do it again.
- David Sands, for the Government of Alberta
Sharon,
I don't worry about TG, CR (clown posse) who post insults 24/7, call for censorship, requests sexual acts on every Liberal blog.
I asked you specifically if you support deleting comments. If you did what criteria would you use?
I have only found a few blogs where censorship, deletion is done on a regular basis without offensive language as justification.
I am in agreement with BCL that the CPC may have had Kairos on a 'short list'up for review and decided the taxpayers dollars were not going to continue for various reasons.
In my opinion this is another trap set in HOC.
The Liberals, NDP, Bloc jumped all over it and took the bait in QP. They defended the organization and it leave the CPC to point out the questionable activities.
The CPC have been consistent and stronger supporters of the state of Israel (less nuanced) than the Liberal Party.
Some of the bloggers, apologists from the Liberal Party have a problem with that fact.
Sid Ryan former Cupe President also has a different position than CPC. Sid's Union and allies are free to share their views in support of more 'balanced' approach.
No one is calling anyone 'anti-semite' because they are not as supportive as the CPC. It was overblown for political points.
Thanks again for your feedback.
I don't worry about TG, CR (clown posse) who post insults 24/7, call for censorship, requests sexual acts on every Liberal blog.
Ew!
He doesn't know the difference between degradation and insult and flirtation?
Creepy.
You're a troll, CS, and everyone knows it. Sharon just hasn't burned out her supply of goodwill yet, but she will.
CS doesn't seem to respect property. I supposed he/she would call a newspaper's refusal to print an op-ed to be censorship?
No one's stopping CS from publishing on his/her own blog.
I supposed he/she would call a newspaper's refusal to print an op-ed to be censorship?
Or maybe "playing hard to get." I'm not quite sure with him/her.
"Usually, Ti-Guy limits his contribution to nearly any convsersation to offering third-rate attempts at sophomoric insults of anyone he disagrees with -- particularly when it so happens that he's losing."
http://nexusofassholery.blogspot.com/2009/11/its-matter-of-character.html
Yes, we've been there before, troll.
Ti-Guy - Im not praising the government. Im just happy there funding is cut and look forward to see more cuts of funding to religious groups. I have no interest in contributing to belief in sky fairies.
KC said...
Ti-Guy - Im not praising the government. Im just happy there funding is cut and look forward to see more cuts of funding to religious groups. I have no interest in contributing to belief in sky fairies.
6:56 PM
---------------------------------
Then you clearly can't support the present government, since they do not even try to hide their ties to christofascists like the Focus on the Family crowd.
Im not praising the government. Im just happy there funding is cut and look forward to see more cuts of funding to religious groups.
That's not going to happen. They're just going to fund even more religious groups that operate in line with their politics. The kind of religious groups you atheists really, really really hate.
Remember: A Christian college in Edmonton got 4 million dollars from the stimulus. I wonder I much of that is going on?
Yariv is entirely correct Ti-Guy. Your demand to know why he came to this blog was uncalled for.
As well your tactic of namecalling is more used by the likes of Ezra Levant and his crew. Your choosing to adopt the "LeRant method of argument is seriously questionable
Man oh man what's happening here?
Ti-Guy chill out fella. These guys may be dead wrong but everyone has a right to surf the blogosphere. And what exactly are you inferring about Yariv, that he is part of a blogger campaign in support of Israel or anti-Kairos? And if so who cares? He can be whoever the hell he wants here...sorta like you "Ti-guy".
So let's get back to using our noggins to debate and not become as Gus suggested the "liberal Ezra Levants" of the net.
Yariv, Gus, Mitka, in quick succession.
Where's Sue?
I'm implying you're all communicating with each other somewhere and comment here for very narrow, focused reasons. There's nothing wrong or necessarily conspiratorial (convergence of interests is good enough) but you don't show up for any other topics, so I find it, at best, unimpressive. We should have more in common than these issues. We're all Canadians here, after all.
Oh and yes, I'm implying this as well:
"that he is part of a blogger campaign in support of Israel or anti-Kairos?"
Not about anyone in particular, but that there are online campaigns to increase the volume of online chatter that suggests greater public support for Israel than what is there naturally. It's not exactly a secret.
Most Canadians know as much about Israel as they know about Narnia, so it's highly effective.
Narnia is where Liberals spend time, taking photos, thinking thoughts.
Israel is the only democracy in the middle east that has a free press, allow freedom of religion, does not murder people for being homosexual.
Need more examples?
Sux to be schooled by your peers TG?
Screw you Ti-Guy ...I for one have been posting here for quite a while on a whole host of issues. You open your trap just to stick your bruised toes in Ti-Guy?
As for the others, more power to them. Whatever they do and whatever their interetsts...I guess we can't all be as well rounded as you now can we??
I guess we can't all be as well rounded as you now can we??
I guess not.
Your rudeness is completely out of proportion, Mitka. I've been nothing but civil to you. And you *know* that's not something I put a lot of stock in.
Need more examples?
What about the Rabbinite of Jerusalem's campaign of urging a boycott of businesses that have Christmas displays? It's the only Western-style liberal democracy that's doing that as well.
Where Israel is located on the globe has little do to with the standards we hold liberal democracies to.
And notice I'm not even touching illegal occupation, second-class citizenship of certain Israelis, Israeli apartheid or war crimes.
Are we funding this person with taxpayers dollars?
Is this person speaking on behalf of the government, an official position?
You can raise any issue you don't about like about Israel.
Try that in the neighbouring countries.
Can you list how many countries in the middle East have a Free Press?
Freedom of assembly?
Can you link me an article from Kairos critical of abuses in the middle EAST (not Israel)or extraction of resources in countries (not Canada)?
Thanks.
The dollars give to KAIROS were not funding "religion". I would object to that too.
They were funding a broad group of Christians from diverse backgrounds.
These Christian Canadians have been attempting help people who need help through the real time application of Christian beliefs.
Anyone who could cut funding to such an organization is out of touch with reality.
Nuff said.
Thanks.
You're welcome.
Ti-guy, perhaps I over-reacted but when you claimed "you don't show up for any other topics, so I find it, at best, unimpressive"...I took umbrage with it. It was unfair and you should have known it.
Well, Mitka, what do you think about BCL's current post, in which the city of Kapuskasing is allowing a Catholic group to impose its values by erecting a monument on public land?
It's a significant issue.
Ti-Guy: " What about the Rabbinite of Jerusalem's campaign of urging a boycott of businesses that have Christmas displays?....
...And notice I'm not even touching illegal occupation, second-class citizenship of certain Israelis, Israeli apartheid or war crimes...."
What are we going to get next here on BCL? Is Ti-Guy going to start quoting the Protocols or rant about how 911 was an inside job by the Mossad?
First of all, that business about boycotting displays referrs to an intensely orthodox religious area in Jerusalem. Very limited and very specific to that place.
Secondly, Israel is not an apartheid state. That's an outright antisemitic libel.
There's more. But I think that's enough for now about this nice fellow.
BCL are you going to challenge the above remarks or let this kind of antisemitic crap stay on your blog?
TG posts
...the city of Kapuskasing is allowing a Catholic group to impose its values by erecting a monument on public land?
It's a significant issue.
So is it "allowing" or "imposing" a democratically elected Municpal Government giving up some space in public space are serious issue?
http://www.kapuskasing.ca/portal/en/kapuskasing/ourtown
http://www.kapuskasing.ca/files/files/things_to_do_kapuskasing.pdf
I could not find this "serious" issue.
Can you show me a link of 6-7 liberal protestors outside Tim's to verify the veracity of your claims?
Correction TG believes this is a
"significant" issue
I used "serious".
I stated earlier this was a trap for the opposition who have jumped to the defence of this organization.
Their defence will be used in 10% demostrating again the "best friend" of Israel is the CPC.
Another opinion on Kairos Cuts
Cutting through the semantics and carefully couched language, that all adds up to a federally funded humanitarian agency taking a leading role in divestment, sanctions and targeted boycotts of Israel – which is what Kenney said.
And that is why the Tories have defunded KAIROS.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/741315--dimanno-agency-s-anti-israel-role-is-obvious
These Christian Canadians have been attempting help people who need help through the real time application of Christian beliefs.
Anyone who could cut funding to such an organization is out of touch with reality.
Thats what folks who promote abstinence only education and de-programming homosexuals say as well. Not buying. No money for religious groups regardless of how fluffy and nice their version of religion is.
"Nuff said"
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