Saturday, February 11, 2012

Harper Defunds Mennonite Church Group

 Dennis Gruending predicted it in his last outing:

CIDA will soon abandon a number of its long-standing development partners among Canadian NGOs, including a number of church-based organizations. Reliable sources say that a number of those groups will see their funding ended or curtailed this year.

And indeed the axe has begun to fall:

The Conservative government’s shoe is dropping on some long established foreign aid groups while it privileges others. Mennonite Central Committee Canada reports on its website that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has turned down MCC’s proposal of $2.9 million for each of the next three years to provide food, water and income generation assistance for people in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Haiti, Bolivia, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

In this case, too, the MCC is left wondering what its crime might have been.  Alleged anti-semitism? Criticizing the tar sands?  No.  In this case it looks the the MCC referred to Canadian mining companies as a "mixed blessing".  And boom!  they're outta here!

7 comments:

Omar said...

Did you change the font size on your blog here? I can barely read it.

bigcitylib said...

It changed itself somehow. Looks OK on my tablet though.

Timothy Friesen said...

As an MCC supporter I know that many other MCC supporters would have been in favour of a Harper majority government in Canada. It makes me wonder what they think of a Prime Minister that will (on a whim it seems) defund the good work of an organization with such a positive world-wide reputation. MCC came about in the early 1900s and helped many of its current older constituents and supporters escape to Canada and the United States from the oppressive regime in Russia.

Holly Stick said...

Thanks for keeping track of this BCL. The Harperites seem to have a policy of diverting funding from good organizations to purposes those organizations oppose, as with CIDA funding, and environment funding going to destructive tar sands PR. Follow the money.

When I use Google Chrome to post at the BnR forum, it always messes up the font size and I have to fix it.

Meir Weinstein said...

I think it is a good thing that MCC does not receive tax funding. The MCC Mid East Web site compares Jews in Israel to the KKK. That is an outrage. Let me be clear, the Land of Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish People, not the Arabs. Also, the MCC should understand that Jesus was a Jew and not an Arab. One more point, Jesus went to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and not a Mosque. Not a cent should go to the MCC becase they spread lies.

Holly Stick said...

You mean this Meir, the only reference to the KKK there? You're an idiot.

A blog post about a march someone was on:

"...It is 12:51 a.m. my time. I fidget with google earth, check settings on my skype account, hope to be able to glimpse the action taking place, and the call comes. I waste no time, I want to be certain and see all, I want to fully be, and hold all in my heart, I am with dear friends and family; I am with relatives. After a few moments the media and distance disappear, and I, and all those memories beside me, are there. After greetings, I was oriented to the other marchers, the KKK feature, which seriously disconcerted me. I understand why it is there but the image is something I did not want to see or acknowledge. The policies in Israel toward Palestinians deserve this label, but it is difficult to admit that one is victimized; also, the KKK robe is a symbol that I refuse to associate with, anywhere, and for whatever reason. For me I wanted the homecoming, and beyond that brief encounter, it certainly was..."

http://mccpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/palestinian-refugees-at-the-human-rights-march-in-tel-aviv/

Meir Weinstein said...

The MCC also promotes the KAIROS document which calls Israel an apartheid state.