Edited notes from a presentation to the global Religious Liberty Partnership consultation in Toronto, Canada on 9 April 2024.
Canada has fostered several expressions of secularism. Right or wrong, shortly after his Liberal Party formed government in 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in a New York Times interview, “There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.”
Despite our relatively small population of 40 million, Canada’s vast geography has encouraged regional distinctives, as have demographics of age and ethnicity in a nation dependent on immigration for its economy.
Although the Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted “secular” to mean the state is to be neutral in regard to the religion or non-religion of citizens and accommodating of diverse religious beliefs and practices in societal participation, the broader cultural understanding of secularism seems the rejection of religion and religious influence. Canadian secularism further roots itself in uniquely Canadian experiences, including: cultural rejection of American Christian conduct recast as behaviour of the Canadian Church; denunciation of Church influence in a reimagined history; and, condemnation of a now considered oppressive non-Indigenous colonial presence associated with the historic influence of the Church.
The American Influence―Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of our current prime minister, said in a 1969 visit to Washington, D.C., “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast… one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” The effects of American media, politics, and purportedly Christian behaviour are continuing factors in Canadians’ understanding of ourselves as well as perceptions and treatment of Christians in Canada.
Reimagining History―Contemporary imaginations of Canadians have been captured by a variety of pseudo-nostalgic desires that reframe or redefine Canada’s history or evoke a past that never was.
Despite surrender of New France to Britain in 1760, Quebec remains what has been called a distinct society within Canada. Under the slogan maîtres chez nous―masters in our own house―Quebec’s political Quiet Revolution of the 1960s set a path toward greater provincial independence within the confederation. Quebec’s government moved aggressively away from longstanding political influence of the Roman Catholic Church, established diplomatic ties with secularist France, and set the course which would lead to political divide between sovereigntists seeking independence from Canada and nationalist federalists promoting a distinct society within Canada.
Regardless of more than two centuries of dissimilar cultural development, one recent offshoot of a reimagined Quebec-France relationship, with distinctly Québécois manifestation, is 2019’s Bill 21, An act respecting the laicity of the state. Bill 21 legislates a form of laïcité that prohibits wearing of religious symbols by people employed by government―such as teachers, police officers, and judges―as well as people attending to receive government services.
Recognizing Bill 21 violates constitutionally protected freedom of religion, it was enacted using the notwithstanding provisions of both the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to evade scrutiny by the courts where it is nonetheless currently being challenged, along with political and public protest.
Equality for the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual communities in Canada also progressed beginning in the 1960s. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau decriminalized homosexual acts in 1969. In 1995, the Supreme Court of Canada decided the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides equal protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation, a ground not explicitly stated in the constitution. In 2005, Parliament legalized same-sex marriage. In 2019, Parliament lowered the age of consent to sodomy from 18 to 16 years.
Recent widespread acceptance of transgender orientation has resulted in amending human rights legislation to extend protections beyond “sexual orientation” to provisions for “gender identity” and “gender expression.” In 2022, Parliament criminalized “conversion therapy,” essentially making it illegal to counsel an adult or child seeking advice about gender questions that conformity with their chromosome-determined sex at birth is the preferred option.
LGBT politics have resulted in changes to education curriculum and debate about gender pronouns―he, she, they, zir and more. In Ontario, a Catholic student was suspended by his Catholic school and the Catholic school board for stating in a classroom discussion that there are only two genders, male and female. Governments in New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and Alberta face or are threatened with legal action to challenge provincial regulations requiring parental approval if a child under 16 wishes to identify in school by another gender or seek gender affirming medical intervention.
LGBT politics have also influenced theological opinions, causing division within the Church.
Colonialism―Indian residential schools in Canada were a nationwide network of federal government funded boarding schools for Indigenous children, most operated by Christian churches. These mandatory attendance schools were to prepare Indigenous children for integration into Canadian society. The first school opened prior to Canada becoming a country. The last school closed in 1997.
A 2005 agreement between Prime Minister Paul Martin’s government and former residential school students settled tens of thousands of abuse claims. In addition to financial compensation, in 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an official apology on behalf of the Government of Canada―supplementing apologies made by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and United churches in the 1980s and 90s. Per the agreement, Mr. Harper’s government also launched the Indigenous led Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
The final report of the TRC was delivered to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December 2015. The report concluded the purpose of the residential school system was cultural genocide, a finding which Prime Minister Trudeau accepted and has repeated.
In May 2021, Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation announced ground penetrating radar had identified 215 anomalies on the property of the former Catholic run Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, potential grave sites. The initial 500-word Canadian Press article proclaimed 215 children’s bodies had been found in a mass grave, shaping media coverage and Canadians’ perspective. Within days, a church building was vandalized. Within weeks, two dozen churches had been vandalized or burned down. The number is now over 100. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated burning churches was “unacceptable and wrong,” adding it was “understandable” because of the trauma and anger.
The Church―With the Church cast frequently in the role of villain, both historic and contemporary, what does it mean for life as a Christian in Canada?
The best advice I offer the Church is to be the Church. The Bible instructs Christians to live life, individually and in community, following the teaching and person of Jesus; loving God, loving one another, and loving neighbours.
Canada’s constitution and decisions of its Supreme Court recognize the freedom of the Church to persist in our sincerely held beliefs and the practices connected with those beliefs.
It is a danger to the Church when we respond to cultural pressure with fear. Fear tends to drive in one of two directions. Christians may treat religious beliefs and practices as private, creating for ourselves a sense of embarrassment that we, like Peter in Pontius Pilate’s courtyard, are stepping away from following Jesus. Or, Christians may become defensive, fighting against a sense of being victimized, and embracing a reimagined history of our own―a Christian nation that never was. The fight-back response tends to be outspoken and aggressive; behaviour that in turn motivates a fear of Christianity in neighbours and the state, creating a kind of doom loop.
Instead, Christians in Canada are encouraged to take the opportunity that continues to be ours to participate and advocate in the public arena as equal citizens, as happened in some recent challenges, such as: a federal requirement to declare not to oppose abortion in order to receive funding otherwise available to businesses and charities; and, inconsistent treatment of churches under Covid-19 health guidelines. These situations stimulated groups of Christians who peacefully confronted government as well as Christians who had conversation with government. A current challenge is federal Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, which would establish a mechanism to prosecute historic, then acceptable, statements which have become culturally unacceptable because of societal transition in attitudes. C-63 also creates criminal sanctions for potentially harmful comments not yet made that police and the courts are apprehensive might be made in the future. Biblical principles out of step with cultural opinions might be a prime target for such Orwellian government action.
Neither confrontation nor conversation has been effective in efforts to have Christian principles and practices about human life respected societally or merely for Christians and Christian institutions, most recently in regard to government imposition of medical assistance in dying (physician administered death) protocols in Christian senior citizen’s residences and a Christian palliative care hospice in British Columbia; a reminder that government funding comes with strings attached.
We participate as equal citizens but must not consign our faith to politicians or government.
Neither do we put our faith in the courts, but Christians do participate and advocate as equal citizens there as well, despite setbacks such as the 2018 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada which invented a new constitutional concept to prevent a Christian university from opening a law school, raising questions about cultural influence on Canada’s independent judiciary.
Thanks to Christian Legal Fellowship and others, Canada is experiencing an increasing number of legal academics and lawyers willing to take on the cultural and courtroom battles involved in sustaining what remains a contested but robust freedom of religion.