Question Period Note: Funding to Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC)

• Racism in any form has no place in our society and no place in Canada.

• Funding to the Community Media Advisory Centre through the Anti-Racism Action Program has been suspended and their funding agreement terminated.

• The Department is seeking repayment of all funds paid out to the organization under the Anti-Racism Action Program.

• We have made changes to the program to ensure that organizations and individuals that espouse racists, antisemitic and or other forms of hateful content will not be eligible to received government funding.

• Canada has the fourth largest Jewish community in the world, with a population of over 390,000, comprising 1% of Canada’s population.
• On January 13, 2020, CMAC, a first-time applicant to the Department, submitted a funding application under the Anti-Racism Action Program (ARAP) for the project “Building an Anti-Racism Strategy for Canadian Broadcasting: Conversation & Convergence”. The project aims to address employment-related barriers facing racialized communities, Indigenous Peoples and religious minorities in Canadian broadcasting and media.
• The project with CMAC was approved on July 30 for $133, 822.
• On August 19, Minister Hussen suspended the funding to this organization and requested that it provide detailed information and measures on how it will address the situation.
• On September 23, Minister Hussen rescinded and terminated the project.
• Canadian Heritage is now seeking repayment of all monies paid to CMAC for the project.
• The Department has implemented a number of measures to strengthen the programs that fall under Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy (the Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives and the Anti-Racism Action Programs) to ensure that organizations and individuals that espouse racists, antisemitic and / or other forms of hateful content will not be eligible to received funding.
• The Department has made changes the application guidelines, the declaration and attestation section of the application form and the contribution agreement template designed to strengthen and clarify responsibilities and expectations for applicants and recipients under the programs. These changes were posted to our website and online application portal on December 14.
• New training has been provided to all program advisors on the importance of each step in the evaluation process, as well as on the new advanced assessment / re-assessment criteria for applicants and recipients that include parameters on in-depth environmental scans (October 14, and 17).
• Training sessions were held with all program advisors on anti-racism and antisemitism in Canada, including on the IHRA definition, hosted by UNESCO (October 21 and 27).
• A review of the active contribution agreements (approximately 350) and the applications received since August (over 200) under the Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives (CSMARI) and the Anti-Racism Action Programs (ARAP) has been completed, to ensure that there is no public information of concern that would undermine Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Human Rights Act.
• Funding to active projects under these programs, which was temporarily suspended while the review was underway, is resuming for the activities and projects that comply with the requirements.

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