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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday there’s no problem with a Canada Summer Jobs grant that will fund anti-pipeline activism, arguing his government must stand up for the principle of free expression and advocacy.

That may surprise the religious organizations who have been battling the government for months over the same summer jobs grants, thanks to a new clause that requires them to attest their “core mandate” respects reproductive rights, defined as the right to access abortions.

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The issue dominated a fiery question period in the House of Commons Wednesday, as the Conservatives hammered Trudeau over the fact the British Columbia-based Dogwood Initiative was approved for federal government funding that, according to a job posting, will be used to hire an assistant to “help our organizing network stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker project.”

The summer jobs grant is normally a feel-good program that allows MPs to prioritize groups in their ridings to get funds to hire students. Dogwood spokesman Kai Nagata said the group has received summer jobs funding every year since 2010 — including when the previous Conservative government was in power, though their applications have always gone through Vancouver and Victoria ridings held by Liberal and NDP MPs.