Canada at a tipping point on freedom

It was a timely visit by Father Deacon Andrew Bennett to Trinity Western University last week, when he delivered a talk entitled The Christian and the Public Square: Truth and the Messy Business of Citizenship.

There he was, the former religious freedom ambassador for Canada, whose office was dismantled by the current Liberal government, speaking at TWU, which could become Ground Zero for religious debate in Canada in coming years.

Delivering the annual Mel Smith Lecture, Father Deacon Bennett (he’s an ordained deacon in the Ukrainian Catholic Church) emphasized the importance of religious liberty in Canada, offering warnings about the encroachment on conscience rights taking place in Canada.

He told his TWU audience they must “reject an illiberal totalitarianism in the public square that seeks to establish socially correct and acceptable beliefs, treating any peacefully held contrary view as deviant or something to be silenced.”

Indeed, the quashing of TWU’s law school, “bubble zones” restricting free speech, the introduction by force and stealth of euthanasia into care homes, the coercion of medical workers to be complicit in procedures they oppose, the requirement that summer job applicants attest to something they disagree with … these are all cut from the same cloth.

Unfortunately, this is one of those instances of no evidence being required for those who believe, and no evidence being sufficient for those who don’t. You either feel the tightening grip around free speech, religion and conscience in Canada, or you don’t.

Father Deacon Bennett clearly does, and it’s something he believes so strongly in that he’s now working to replicate the U.S.-based Religious Freedom Institute in Canada.

He’s concerned about the dearth in Canada of the type of organizations and think tanks  – plentiful in the U.S. – that specialize in sparking and leading conversations and research on important issues. And in his case, there’s nothing more important than religious freedom.

In fact, he said at TWU, “Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants must now make the defence of upholding religious freedom for all people the primary concern in our public lives in Canada.”

Unfortunately as the deacon points out, it’s easier for culture to influence institutions than vice versa, which is why the TWU case is so critical. The Supreme Court of Canada decision on the law school could come at any time, and like the court's 2001 decision that the B.C. Teachers College had no right to exclude TWU grads, the new ruling could be precedent setting.

It will certainly be a barometer on whether social change has affected legal thought in nearly two decades. Will Canada’s highest court continue to recognize not only individual rights but also the rights of faith-based institutions – schools, churches, hospitals, associations – where individuals live out their faith?

Whatever the court rules, the new Cardus Religious Freedom Institute will have an important role to play, reminding Canadians that freedom of religion and conscience are our first Charter rights, and that they’ve been central through Canadian history, recognized by governments and courts since Confederation.

Ironically, even as his own office of religious freedom was being shut down, Father Deacon Bennett was being invited to join the new Commonwealth Initiative for Freedom of Religion and Belief, which is studying ways to reverse the global decline in freedom of religion or belief. It seems the Canadian perspective is of interest to our broader Commonwealth.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if at the very moment other countries are looking for role models on conscience protection, Canada became a cautionary tale of a once-great nation founded on human rights that threw it all away.