The religious aid organization at the centre of the controversy surrounding International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda is an unlikely focus for a political bun-fight.
Yet KAIROS, the ecumenical aid group started up by 11 Canadian churches and religious organizations, has been at the eye of a parliamentary storm over allegations that Oda misled to a House of Commons committee about how and why the group was denied $7 million in federal funding.
Mary Corkery, executive director of KAIROS, admits to being a bit perplexed as to how her organization found itself in this position.
"We have all these people sitting around asking why we were denied (funding): the media, the opposition parties, us," she says in an interview with CTV.ca. "You would think we'd have some answers … but there's nothing."
"There's nothing on the table that's credible to answer that question."
The group's name is the ancient Greek for "the right moment," ironically as events transpired out says Corkery.
"It's been exhausting: I'm quite worn out by all of this," she admits. "But we don't have the time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves."
"We can carry on without that funding – we'll find a way."
KAIROS was founded in 2006 as an umbrella organization for a host of church-based aid groups, some of which had been working in some of the poorest corners of the world for almost 35 years.
Its member groups include the Anglican, Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran and United churches, as well as the Canadian Quakers society, the Mennonite Central Committee of Canada and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
It sponsors 21 programs in more than a dozen countries and proclaims its mission is to: "Defend dignity and human rights for all."
During the recent referendum in South Sudan, KAIROS worked with local organizations to monitor voting and ensure people were aware of their democratic rights.
Other groups supported by KAIROS include Héritiers de la Justice, a women's legal clinic in the Congo, an Indonesian human rights group and Organizacion Femenina Popular, a Colombian women's organization promoting development, education and health and legal services.
"We bring together a lot of issues," Corkery says.
But KAIROS is also involved in environmental issues, proclaiming on its web site that it wants to "inspire Canadians to seek climate justice."
It is involved in aboriginal rights, mainly but not entirely in Canada, and promotes women's rights and actively urges corporations to "respect human rights and ecological integrity."
Before their federal funding application was turned down in November, 2009, Corkery says the group had decided to focus their limited resources on "human rights and sustainability, especially indigenous peoples' rights."
When KAIROS was informed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) that its request for four years of funding for these projects had been rejected, Corkery said their programs had to be cut back dramatically.
KAIROS and its precursor organization had a funding relationship with CIDA for 36 years. That ended when Oda sent them a letter saying the group no longer met the government's aid priorities.
"We originally thought it was a mistake and that it would be reversed fairly quickly," Corkery says. "But of course, it wasn't."
She says the people who've paid the price of Oda's contentious decision were the local workers in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
"We and the churches have faced hard times in the past few years, but these people are facing death threats, daily hardships: some have even been killed," she says. "But our partners have continued to do the work … they really came through and showed us how strong they were."
"We've really been moved by the people we work with."
Although KAIROS could not give these groups the funding they had hoped to with the the CIDA funding, Corkery says last year that they were able to give them 16 per cent of what had been promised.
"And next year we hope to make that 25 per cent."
Many of the group's staff and supporters suspect that the federal Tories were unimpressed by KAIROS's work in Israel and the Palestinian Territory, apparently believing that the group was somehow involved in a boycott campaign against Israel in 2009.
In December 2009, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made a speech in Jerusalem in which he said his government was cutting funding to KAIROS for taking "a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign" against Israel.
Although KAIROS has often been critical of Israel, it has also publicly stated several times that it supports the right of the Israeli people to live in a safe and secure state, alongside a viable and secure Palestinian state.
"Our policy is right there on our web site," Corkery says. "And it's basically the same as the Canadian government's policy, supporting a two-state solution and the human rights of both Palestinians and Israelis."
Corkery says KAIROS is not holding its breath that the controversy now surrounding their funding rejection will result in a change of heart by the Conservative government.
The publicity has resulted in a surge of private donations and calls from people interested in getting involved in the aid group's programs, but she acknowledges ruefully that no one has yet come forward with $7 million to replace the lost federal funding.
"Financially, there hasn't been a silver lining to this," she says. "It's been tough."
"But we didn't choose this work because it was easy."
"We're determined to make it through: we aren't going away."
