Advocate says education is key as Summer Jobs debate continues

A pro-life advocate says that he hopes a recent nation-wide debate will open the door to education.

Cameron MacDonald is the executive assistant at Life's Vision, a pro-life resource centre in Winnipeg that is "dedicated to providing life-affirming education to Manitobans."

Recent changes to how groups in Canada access grant money from the government to hire summer students has sparked a debate across the country. In order to qualify for funding, employers and employees are now required to sign an attestation.

The attestation says that you agree that your core mandate is to respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values in the Canadain Charter of Rights and Freedoms. You also have to respect other rights, including reproductive rights and the right to not be discriminated based on sex, religion, or sexual orientation, among others.

Many have said that this will put faith-based groups of any religion out of the running for funding. For MacDonald, however, it's a chance not for political debate, but for educating people.

"I don't want to focus on politics and arguing what Canada should be or shouldn't be, or what true diversity is and how that relates to everything," he says.

"We can definitely transform our society to become a culture of life"

"We're not about politics, we're about education. We're about changing our culture, restoring the culture of life, and promoting the potential of every human person from conception to natural death."

MacDonald says, for Life's Vision, focussing on those things "will make our society a better place."

MacDonald was born at just 29 weeks gestation and has cerebral palsy. It's part of what makes him passionate about the rights of the unborn and helping educate others on the realities of abortion and assisted suicide.

Donating to groups like Life's Vision so they can continue their education efforts, MacDonald thinks, is a perfect way to respond to the changes of the Canadian Summer Jobs Program if you do not agree with them. "If we do well in our education efforts then we can definitely transform our society to become a culture of life that respects all life. Whether that's prenatal people or [people with disabilities considering euthanasia]."