Planning for the 2019 Bruno Cherry Fesitval is a go. Vicky Serblowski with the Bruno Cherry Sunday committee says she is very happy the federal government dropped controversial wording in the Canada Summer Jobs program. The 2018 form tied pro-abortion beliefs to funding eligibility. The 2019 version of the program requires applicants to declare they don’t work to infringe on any Canadian’s legal rights.

Serblowski says as a Christian organization they did not feel they could morally say that they were pro-abortion in order to obtain summer jobs funding. Serblowski also says they had been trying to figure out a way around not having a summer student and notes that last summer they were deluged with disappointed calls starting with quite a few local community groups which lost out due to not having revenue from things like food sales.  She used the local fire department as an example pointing out the firefighters took in 3 or 4 thousand dollars a couple years ago on the burger sales which they could use for equipment they needed.

Federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu says the government has been working to make sure it stands up for the rights of Canadians, but that it also works closely with faith-based groups and others so that they can see how they fit into this program.

The program’s eligibility criteria has also been tweaked to disqualify any project or summer job that tries to restrict access a woman’s ability to access sexual or reproductive health services.  (with files from Canadian Press)