The Secret Christian Zealots Behind the Oda Affair

Call it the Da Vinci Code explanation.

Kudos to Frances Russell at the Winnipeg Free Press for coming up with a unique explanation for the Bev Oda affair this late in the game. She says Oda’s decision to defund interfaith pro-Palestinian aid group Kairos is at heart a religious matter. “Neither the Conservative government nor the Christian right thinks taxpayers should fund advocacy for social and economic change,” writes Russell. That the Harper government is motivated by religious convictions held by a minority of Canadians is certainly an explosive idea, but given the lack of movement on files like the abortion issue the Newsroom finds it much less plausible than the more mundane explanation that funding Kairos ran counter to Harper’s pro-Israel foreign policy.

As others have done before her, the Vancouver Sun’s Barbara Yaffe says its impossible not to view Oda’s obfuscation in the wider context of “the secretive, controlling communications strategy preferred by Harper,” reminding us that the prime minister has twice prorogued Parliament, and been criticized for the way his party handles access to information requests. Similarly the Toronto Star’s Carol Goar writes that the truth behind Oda’s miscues as merely the latest in a string of “things Prime Minister Harper doesn’t want you to know.” Her long list of issues on which the Conservatives have been less than forthcoming includes the G20, tax cuts, crime legislation, Afghan detainees, and border security. “You’re being kept in the dark about what’s happening to your tax dollars and your country,” she warns.

What’s notable about the Oda affair is that virtually nobody is taking the actions of a relatively obscure minister as an isolated incident. Pundits and politicians alike see them as part of a larger pattern of government behaviour dictated by the prime minister, a perception that Harper has contributed to by defending Oda against credible allegations of contempt of parliament. More surprising is that while the prime minister appears content to open himself up to serious accusations of undermining democracy, his party is still way head in the polls, suggesting his opponents have yet to find a way to explain the issues in a way that captures’ Canadians’ attention.