Religion in CanadaConcerning the freedom of religious
groups & individuals to discriminate
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Conflicts over religious freedom in past centuries:In western Europe and colonial North America, conflicts used to involve prohibiting:
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Minority faith groups from teaching their beliefs and practicing their rituals, or
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Individuals from holding unorthodox beliefs or performing unauthorized
religious practices.
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The church and state once burned people at the stake, hanged them, pressed them to
death, and used other punishments to wipe out heresy and enforce religious
orthodoxy. Religiously motivated wars wiped out up to a third of the population
of some countries in Europe after the Protestant Reformation. Over about three
centuries, in excess of 50 thousand innocent people -- mostly women -- were
accused of Satan worship and executed as heretics.
Religious freedom achieved:The scene changed. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ended the
religiously-motivated Thirty Years' War in Europe and created a degree of
religious freedom there. During the latter half of the 20th century, Canadian individuals and religious
organizations have been able to use the federal constitution to widen the area of
religious freedom. In recent decades, due to legal challenges in Canada:
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Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Quebec has ended, |
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First Nations (Native Canadians) have been allowed to practice their Potlatch
and other rituals freely, and |
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Inmates have been allowed relative freedom of religious practice in
penitentiaries. |
A new type of conflict over religious freedom:Recently, a series of disputes have surfaced in North America relating to
conflicts between:
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Religious groups' freedom to:
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Discriminate in their employment policies on the basis of gender,
sexual orientation, gender
identity, religion, etc.;
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Mount campaigns to limit the human rights of groups within society,
including those with minority sexual orientations and identities;
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Limit women's options in sexual health, including
abortion access.
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Preventing women from attaining of positions
of authority in the family, church the military and business; and
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Promote specific political candidates and parties by name and denigrating others, while
still retaining their tax exempt status.
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Individuals' freedom to not be discriminated against on the basis of
their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity,
religion, degree of disability, etc.
In Canada, faith groups are generally allowed to
discriminate against individuals in employment, in ordination, hiring of staff, performing
marriage ceremonies, etc. For example, fundamentalist and other evangelical
denominations, the
Roman Catholic Church, and some other faith groups freely
discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, and gender
identity in ordination
and employment, with little or no opposition from the state. The more liberal
faith groups, including the United Church of Canada
and Unitarian fellowships and congregations, do not
discriminate. The Anglican Church of Canada has ordained female priests
for decades and is now debating whether or not to bless
the relationships of loving, committed same-sex couples. There is little
doubt that in the near future, they will experience a major internal conflict
over whether to actually marry same-sex couples. Other more conservative
denominations have not yet seriously engaged in debate over these matters. Conflicts also
surface with para-church organizations. These are typically charities identified with a
specific denomination or group of denominations who wish to continue to
discriminate in hiring and retaining its employees, providing services to the
public, etc. This section will describe some recent conflicts in Canada involving
allegations of hate and discrimination by individuals and para-church groups.
Topics covered in this section:
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Copyright © 2008 to 2017 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
First posting: 2008-APR-29
Latest update: 2017-NOV-30
Author: B.A. Robinson
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