By Lloyd Mackey

LAST WEEK, in exploring the honour killing issue, I postponed comment on the dustup over the federal government's decision to decline slightly over $7 million in funding to KAIROS. That is a national organization described in its sub-title as encouraging "Canadian ecumenical justice initiatives."

According to KAIROS briefing notes, the organization had submitted a four-year program proposal to Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), focusing on human rights and ecological sustainability. CIDA was being asked to fund $7 million out of the project's total cost of $9.211 million. The $2.2 million gap would come mostly from supporting church agencies, representing Catholic, United, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Mennonite, Christian Reformed and Quaker denominations.

Noting that CIDA had funded KAIROS since 1973, the talking points maintained that "this decision, if not reversed, would cut funds to 21 ecumenical and citizen's organizations in Latin America, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East - and cut educational work that helps Canadians across the country to develop skills and knowledge in the exercise of their global citizenship."

The CIDA decision came apparently rather suddenly, on November 30, with a brief explanatory letter following on December 3, from international co-operation minister Bev Oda.

Suggesting that a realigned ministerial direction had been guiding CIDA's work since the Conservatives took office in 2006, Oda noted that: "A critical element of our effectiveness agenda is to focus our resources both geographically and thematically, on our three priorities of food security, children/youth and economic growth."

Oda pointed out that CIDA also was expected to ensure that projects "make a real difference to the lives of those living in poverty."

She added: "This greater focus on priorities and results means that some project proposals will not be supported, even if they were in the past."

As I indicated last week, Oda and CIDA have not been saying much for the record, and the minister's brief letter only barely cracks open the opportunity for further discussion between CIDA and KAIROS.

Meanwhile, the Liberal opposition and, to a lesser extent, the NDP, have been mounting a campaign suggesting, among other things, that the government is using the rejection to punish KAIROS for allegedly disagreeing on matters involving human rights and the environment.

Toronto-area Liberal MP John McKay's critique has been particularly pointed - if only because he is his leader's point-person in rebuilding the party's relationships with faith groups.

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In a December 14 press release, in which he pointed out that none less than South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu was speaking out against the funding cut, McKay added that:

"The Harper government is sending a signal to NGOs [non-government organizations], that if you dare criticize them or hold them to account, you will be punished. This is flagrantly un-democratic. The decision mocks freedom of speech, and is an insult to the faith communities of Canada that do critical work both at home and abroad."

For its part, KAIROS is being a little more careful in its criticism of Oda. In a press conference last week, KAIROS executive director Mary Corkery made the point that her organization was affirming both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Bev Oda, in recent statements they had made about human rights. Particularly, the KAIROS people were supportive of the stance that Harper took during his recent visit to China.

I expect that, in due course, KAIROS and CIDA will sit down and talk about what has changed and what remains the same, about the agency's grant approval process.

That the government has chosen to be guarded and prudent about its stance, so far, might indicate that it does not want to make enemies with Canadian churches.

But I am prepared to step out on a limb and suggest that if there is anyone else that needs listening to, at this point, it might be a Zambian Harvard-produced economist named Dambisa Moyo.

Her two recent books, Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa (Penguin 2009) and soon to be released How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly - And the Stark Choices that Lie Ahead (also being published by Penguin).

While I have not read the books, I have checked out excerpts that have appeared in major Canadian and American publications. And I have noted the criticisms of her work that have come from people who would maintain that she has exaggerated the African situation.

I would suggest, cautiously, that it would be prudent for both right and left leaning decision-makers on such matters as international aid, human rights, economics and the environment do more that simply ignore Moyo's contribution to the discussion.

By maintaining the balance, KAIROS and CIDA could well find that they have more in common than they might have thought.

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006); More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005); and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

December 17/2009