One last chance for Ms. Oda

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2011 (5671 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadians may never know, precisely, why Kairos, a church-based aid organization, was cut off from federal funding in 2009. But they should know who made that decision. For months, MPs have tried to pry that truth from International Development Minister Bev Oda, who has misled them about her hand in the matter and the advice of bureaucrats.

Rather than forthrightly apologizing, Ms. Oda this week asserted in the House of Commons that she never said it was a Canadian International Development Agency decision to cut off Kairos.

Can Ms. Oda get her story straight? Last April, she tabled a signed response to an MP’s question in which she stated “The CIDA decision not to continue funding Kairos was based on the overall assessment of the proposal… “

It was not the only troubling expression from Ms. Oda in this affair. Speaker Peter Milliken, in a ruling last week, concluded anyone reviewing what had transpired “would necessarily be extremely concerned, if not shocked.”

Some facts are clear. Senior CIDA officials, including its president, signed a document approving Kairos’ $7-million funding in September 2009. That paper was later “doctored,” as Mr. Milliken said, to insert a scrawled “NOT” and reverse CIDA’s recommendation. Ms. Oda signed it in November.

She recently told a House committee she didn’t insert the word “not,” and didn’t know who did. On Monday, she said it was written in on her direction.

The Kairos story was murky from the get-go. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told an Israeli audience in 2009 Kairos was cut off for leading a campaign to boycott investment there. He later retracted that, when the Canadian group said it did no such thing, suggesting it was confused with Kairos Palestine, which did call for a boycott.

Cabinet ministers have variously declared Kairos was cut off because it did not meet the objectives, criteria and priorities of CIDA. Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the decision belongs to a minister who must watch where money goes.

Ms. Oda’s real transgression was that, to escape accountability, she obstructed the job of the opposition and impugned the actions of bureaucrats. She has disrespected the democratic process. The Speaker, if presented with the record of the House committee officially, would likely say as much.

She should save herself from censure and resign. If she does not do the honourable thing, Mr. Harper must fire her.