OTTAWA — The Conservative government ignored the advice of its bureaucrats and denied funding for a conference on the Middle East planned by a human-rights group, internal documents show.

The conference, called Global Crises and Local Challenges, was organized by Alternatives and planned to focus on environmental degradation, global economic crises and conflicts in the Middle East.

Alternatives is a Montreal-based group that promotes aid to the Palestinian territories -- positions that often put the group in conflict with Israel.

Documents obtained under the Access to Information Act show bureaucrats from the Canadian International Development Agency recommended the agency fund at least part of a $50,000 request from Alternatives because the conference matched agency priorities.

Despite the evaluation and positive response last September, the government nixed the funding and Alternatives did not receive an official response until six months after the event.

CIDA spokeswoman Emilie Milroy said the decision was based on limited funding.

"It is a competitive process and tough choices have to be made," Milroy said in an email.

At the same time, CIDA cut Alternatives' program funding by nearly 70 per cent, to about $800,000 for the three years ending in 2011 from $2.4 million for the three years ending in 2009.

Alternatives executive director Michel Lambert said his organization worked closely with CIDA staff to ensure the proposal for renewed funding matched the agency's requirements.

He said he was told the proposal was recommended for approval and sent to the office of International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda last year.

Lambert said he thinks his organization is being silenced because of its work on behalf of Palestinian causes.

"The only thing that was said of course many, many times by people in the corridors and in meetings, is that of course Alternatives was cut because of its political stand on Palestine or against Israel," Lambert said.

The NGO's new programs in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti can go ahead, but CIDA will no longer support Alternatives' work in the Palestinian territories, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Canada and will not fund a new program for work in Central America.

Lambert said the cuts are part of a pattern of depriving NGOs of funding for political reasons.

"Money is being cut from organizations which are (doing) advocacy work," he said.

"We are being cut based on the fact that we are talking, and people within this government don't like that."

Late last year, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told an Israeli audience his government had cut funding for Kairos, a respected coalition of church groups, because the NGO was "taking a leading role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign" against Israel.

Kenney later said he had nothing to do with the decision to cut Kairos' funding. He said the organization lost government support because it no longer met CIDA priorities.

CIDA's funding decisions have become increasingly political in recent years, with top-level politicians exerting influence over agency bureaucrats, said Stephen Brown, who teaches the politics of foreign aid at the University of Ottawa.

"All NGOs are feeling a chill," Brown said. "The broader pattern is that if you criticize the government, you risk having your funding cut."

The Canadian Council for International Co-operation, an umbrella advocacy organization for Canadian aid groups, announced earlier this year it would be forced to lay off staff and sell its downtown Ottawa offices because CIDA has not yet responded to the funding proposal it submitted last fall.

The CCIC was outspoken in its opposition to the Kairos funding cuts and has repeatedly criticized the government's pursuit of a free trade deal with Colombia.

Brown said the cuts damage Canada's ability to make a difference in the developing world and hurt the country's international reputation.

"All this work Canadian organizations were doing has to come to an end," he said.

"To be cutting programs that have been successful makes Canada look very bad internationally."