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OTTAWA — A batch of new and anticipated court challenges against the government’s Canada Summer Jobs abortion clause shows the legal fight over the controversial program is widening, and will likely last years.

The new challenges move beyond the right to advocate against abortion, and more squarely into arguments about religious freedom and compelled speech.

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An evangelical Christian organization recently filed a case in Federal Court that marks the first time a religious group has entered the fray. On Tuesday, an Ontario concrete company filed a challenge that argues the attestation illegally forces businesses to take a stand on divisive moral and social issues.

Multiple sources, meanwhile, have told the National Post that more faith-based challenges are coming and the fight is expected to spread over the coming months to provincial courtrooms and human rights tribunals.

The attestation was added this year and required all Canada Summer Jobs applicants to declare that both the job and the organization’s “core mandate” respect reproductive rights (defined as access to abortion), as well as other rights and values underlying the Charter.