Home front is battlefield for religious persecution fight

By 
  • April 26, 2011
A Christian man shouts while holding an image of Christ during a Jan. 4 protest in Cairo. Angry protesters battled police as they demanded more protection following a New Year’s Day bombing at a Coptic Orthodox church. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised to fight religious persecution abroad. (CNS photo/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany, Reuters) OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s promise to fight religious persecution abroad has won applause from religious freedom advocates, but some would like to see more attention paid to religious freedom on the home front.

In Mississauga April 23, Harper told a diverse crowd that included many who came to Canada after fleeing religious persecution that he would establish an Office of Religious Freedom to ensure the defence of persecuted religious minorities remained a priority of foreign policy.

“While we are thankful in a country that spares us such tests, we must not let our comfort be an excuse to shirk our commitment to the cause of freedom,” he said.

Harper praised the memory of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Roman Catholic Pakistani minister of religious minorities who was assassinated March 2 for his defence of Christians unfairly targeted by that country’s blasphemy law. 

“This is very good for the religious minorities of Pakistan and around the world,” said Peter Bhatti, the founder of International Christian Voice and older brother of the slain Pakistani minister. “This office will highlight and monitor the situation of what is happening to religious minorities.” 

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff also supports taking on religious persecution on foreign shores.

“We think an initiative like is the kind of thing that ought to have the support of all sides in politics,” he said at a news conference in Toronto April 23. “When you see in Egypt peaceful members of the Coptic community being attacked, when you see Baha’is being persecuted in Iran, when you see Jews being persecuted, when you see Christians unable to practise their religion freely in China, I think all Canadians believe in the importance of both defending religious freedom at home but also defending religious freedom abroad.”

But while recognizing religious persecution is “a serious problem,” Catholic Civil Rights League executive director Joanne McGarry pointed out “there are some trouble spots at home.”

“We would like to see some attention to that, notably through the repeal of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.”

Section 13 is the so-called “thought crimes” section of the Act that makes any statement that could be “likely to expose” any member of an identifiable group to hatred for contempt. Provincial human rights acts have similar provisions that have seen many Christians, including Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, defending themselves against human rights complaints for publicly upholding Catholic doctrine. Catholic Insight, a small-circulation magazine, has spent $40,000 defending itself against complaints under the act. Provincial equity policies are also encroaching on Catholic educational rights, McGarry said.

“I’m not pretending for a moment that our problems are like the bloodshed we see in other parts of the world,” said McGarry. “But nevertheless it is a real problem. It has presented significant challenges for expression of religious belief.

“It’s really going to need a change in the human rights code to address that,” she said, noting that it can be extremely costly to defend one’s self or one’s organization against complaints even if they are later dropped, dismissed or overturned by a higher court.

Religious freedom expert and constitutional lawyer Iain Benson praised the religious freedom promise.  

“Canada has lagged behind various countries in its public recognition of the extremely important role that religions play in our society.”  

But he, too, would like a more robust defence of religious freedom at home in Canada. 

“I see an overseas-only approach as strange since Canada could use deeper thought about and encouragement for religions within Canada.” He said he hoped “a domestic approach will be added soon.”

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) also supports the initiative, noting that it has been engaged in raising awareness of religious persecution for over a decade. 

“It’s exciting to see this issue hit the agenda of federal party leaders,” said EFC’s Centre for Faith and Public Life director Don Hutchinson in a blog post. “Purely by the numbers, Christians are the most persecuted body on the planet today. There are over 200 million Christians facing persecution on a daily basis around the world, simply because of their religious beliefs.”

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