The Harper government
established an office to monitor religious freedom in various countries. It is
interesting that, to the best of my knowledge, Canada was not among the nations
to be monitored. Why do you think that was? No problems with religious freedom
in Canada? Are you kidding? Many of the previous posts hint at restrictions on
religious freedom in Canada, but it’s not usually identified as such and so no
one recognizes it. I will try to make that more clear as we go along. In the meantime, think about or even check
out various earlier posts and see if you cannot find evidence or instances of
it.
The Trudeau government has
closed down that office and merged the concern for religious freedom with a new
Office of Human Rights, Freedoms and Inclusion. No more special attention for
religious freedom; only freedom in general. Marie-Danielle Smith wrote a piece
about this development in which she summarizes and quotes various statements on
this merger by Andrew Bennett, formerly in charge of the Harper office. I
encourage you to access it at this URL:
Pay special attention to
Bennett’s critique of the new situation. The concept of inclusion in the merged
office is, he said, “ill defined and thoroughly vague” so that it “could muddy
the water and distract from specific religious persecution issues faced by
minorities abroad. More training is
needed for the staff, “because there is a ‘relative ignorance’ of religion in
the public-service ranks and a ‘false understanding of separation of church and
state’ still seems prevalent.
Ask yourself what Bennett said
about ignoring the public role of religion. Yes, the office’s attitude is out
of step with recent scholarship. It used to be said that religious issues were
basically a sub-set of economic and political. You solve the latter two, and
the religious issue will be solved as well. It is now widely recognized that
this is not the case: religion is an issue in itself.
What is “historically
inaccurate” according to Bennett?
What are Canada’s allies wondering
about with respect to our government?
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