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Religious intolerance
In Canada
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A general religious and legal overview:
Approximately 77% of Canadians identify themselves as Christians. This is close to the US figure. However, there are major religious differences between the two countries:
 | Canadian culture is more highly secularized. The percentage of adults who say that they attend regular church, circle, mosque, synagogue or temple services is only about 20% and is dropping 1% point per year. In the US, about 40% of adults report attending regular services; that number is fairly constant. (Recent studies have revealed that these numbers are about double the actual number). |
| The percentage of adults which are Roman Catholics is much higher in Canada (42%) compared to the US (28%). |
| The two main Protestant denominations are liberal (United Church at 19%, Anglican at 15%). The largest Protestant denominations in the US are conservative Christian. |
The high ratio of liberal to conservative Christians is probably responsible the current status of "hot" religious topics in Canada. These differ significantly from the US:
| There are few active protests against women's access to abortion. Women can obtain abortions in every province except Prince Edward Island. The cost is born by the universal health care system. Canada has no legislation limiting abortions. However, individual provincial medical associations do have regulations which restrict late-term abortions. There is an apparently a lone criminal who attempts to murder physicians who perform abortions. He/she has been responsible for three attempted murders in recent years. |
| Of the ten provinces, 7 have civil rights legislation that guarantee equal rights for gays and lesbians; two are planning to introduce legislation shortly, and only one (Alberta) has no plans to expand civil rights. Canada gives special rights to heterosexuals in terms of marriage. Criminal sexual behavior is defined across all provinces by the Federal Criminal Code. It has decriminalized sexual behavior between any two consenting adults, including that by both heterosexuals and homosexuals. |
| The province of British Columbia recently passed legislation which recognizes committed gay and lesbian and grants them the same privileges and responsibilities as unmarried, cohabiting heterosexual couples. In 1999-MAY, Quebec announced that it was amending all of its legislation that now affects common-law heterosexual couples so that the laws will apply equally to homosexuals and heterosexuals. |
| Canada has been spared many of the excesses of the anti-cult movement which targets new and emerging religious groups., and of the counter-cult movement which attacks minority Christian groups with non-traditional beliefs. |
Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion, peaceful assembly, association and expression (including freedom of the press and other media of communication). Some results of the Charter (and previous constitutional documents) are:
| Most Canadians enjoy considerable freedom of religion. |
| Although bigamy is theoretically against the Criminal Code, the Attorney-General of British Columbia recently decided to not prosecute members of a splinter Mormon group which practices polygyny. He felt that the province would probably lose a constitutional challenge because of the freedom of religion guarantees of the Charter. |
| Separate religious schools have been guaranteed and financially supported by various provincial governments since Confederation. |
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Typical examples of religious intolerance:
| Anti-Semitic activities continue at a low but rising frequency. |
| Economic and physical attacks by individuals against Neopagans, who are open with their religion, continue at a rate that probably makes them the most persecuted religious group in Canada, on a per-capita basis. The vast majority of Wiccans and other Neopagans do not go public with their religious beliefs. They keep their faith secret, in order to avoid attacks. |
| From time to time, battles are fought in the courts over child custody by separated or divorced parents. A parent sometimes ends up being prohibited from teaching his or her religion to their child. That spouse usually has a minority religion, like Jehovah's Witnesses or Wicca. |
| Under pressure from the Roman Catholic church, the government of Quebec withheld the vote from women until the mid 1940's. This made the province the last political jurisdiction in North America to eliminate special rights for men, and extend the vote to all adults. The Roman Catholic church made an sincere apology to the women of Quebec on the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage. |
Recent examples of religious tolerance, freedom & intolerance:
| 1997-NOV-8, Blainville, Quebec: Michel Pynard, a Jehovah's Witness was preaching door-to-door with his wife and daughter and three others. 1 Five of the group, presumably the adults, were fined on the spot for breaking a city bylaw which prohibits knocking on doors and preaching without a permit. Blainville is located about 30 minutes northwest of Montreal |
| 1995-1998, Newfoundland: Until recently, this province had four, government supported, religious school systems, but no secular public school system. Two public referendums and a constitutional amendment finally terminated government support for religious systems. Public schools in the province are now secular. The most recent referendum was held in 1997. 73% of adults voted in favor of the change. More details |
| 1998-SEP-9, Nova Scotia: 229 people died in the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off of Peggy's Cove, NS in 1998. On SEP-9, an inter-faith memorial service was held to comfort the families and friends of the victims. Carolyn Nicholson, a minister of the United Church of Canada, was selected as the Protestant clergy to take part in the service. She maintains that the Federal government's protocol officer asked her and a Roman Catholic priest, to submit their parts of the service to the protocol office for advance approval. She believes that she was told to make no references to Jesus Christ, and to not use any readings from the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). 2 A Native Canadian was permitted to speak of her people's beliefs; a Jewish Rabbi read from the Hebrew Scriptures; a Muslim read from the Qu'ran. But she and the priest read only from the Hebrew Scriptures. The Prime Minister stated on 1999-JAN-17 that no Federal employee restricted the content of the service. The situation remains a mystery. |
| 1999, Quebec: The province has historically operated two school systems: one Protestant and the other Roman Catholic. This arrangement was scrapped and replaced by two secular school systems: one French, the other English. This is viewed by many Christians as a restriction on their religious freedom. It is seen by many secularists as a major improvement, as they will no longer be forced to send their children to a religious school system. |
| 2007, Humbolt SK: Humboldt and surrounding communities had previously agreed to contribute $13 million for construction of the new Humbolt Uniplex, a large medical center that will replace the local 85 year old St. Elizabeth's hospital. The municipalities later decided to withdraw their support, if the new hospital is run by a Roman Catholic board. Although there might have been some religious bigotry involved in this decision, the main concern was over the Church's prohibition of family planning clinics, tubal ligations, vasectomies and other fertility-related topics. The Saskatchewan Health Region decided that Uniplex the will be run as a public institution rather than by Saskatchewan Catholic Health Corporation. 3,4 |
| 2008, Toronto ON: Miss Canada Plus 2007 was invited to be a judge at the Miss Toronto Tourism pageant. The invitation was cancelled because the pageant directors considered her interest in Tarot cards to be un-Christian. More details. |
Related essay:
| Separation of church and state in Canada |
References used:
- Canadian Press, "Five fined for preaching," 1997-NOV-9
- Various articles, United News, at: http://www.rockies.net/
- Lana Haight, "Rally hears of woman's tubal ligation fight. Debate over hospital includes fear-mongering, doctor tells crowd," The StarPhoenix, 2007-MAR-01, at: http://www.canada.com/
- "Catholics won't be allowed to run hospital," The Toronto Star, 2007-MAR-08, Page A8.
Copyright © 2002 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2002
Latest update: 2008-FEB-01
Author: B.A. Robinson
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