My latest Calgary Herald column looks at the church-state debate unfolding in two communities in Canada - one here in Alberta and another in Quebec:
Surely the vast majority of Canadians would agree with the Charter affirmation of freedom of religion as one of our “fundamental freedoms”.
However, if we are to be a country in which that freedom thrives then we should be alarmed when the state grants a single religion primacy over all others.
The premise that freedom of religion is best served by the religious neutrality of the state has been confirmed on more than one occasion by the Supreme Court of Canada.
In the 1985 decision striking down the Sunday shopping ban, the court declared that “the protection of one religion and the concomitant non-protection of others imports a disparate impact destructive of the religious freedom of society.”
Three decades previous in a case involving the rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the court noted that “in our country there is no state religion … it would be distressing to think that a majority might impose its religious views upon a minority.”
Yet we can see such distressing scenarios presenting themselves both here in Alberta and thousands of kilometres away in Quebec.
In Saguenay, Quebec, Catholicism might appear to be the official state religion, except that it isn’t. Despite that fact, city council chambers features both a crucifix and a statue of the Sacred Heart. On top of that, a Christian prayer is recited prior to the start of each council meeting.
A Quebec human rights tribunal recently ordered the city to remove the religious symbols and to end the practise of prayer; a rather obvious and reasonable request.
However, the city’s Catholic mayor vows to fight the ruling, and is appealing to Canadians support his crusade. It’s easy to do – just head to Saguenay’s website and click on the image of Jesus (yes, really).
Mayor Jean Tremblay has certainly claimed the mantle of victimhood with statements like: “why is it us Christians that always have to bend?" and “I am the first mayor in the history of the world to be punished for reciting a prayer.”
That your religion is being denied special status hardly constitutes persecution and it is absurd to portray this as a free speech issue. The religious expression of individuals is completely separate from whether a specific religion is state-endorsed. Do Tremblay and his supporters understand the distinction?
Coincidentally, it is also Catholicism at the heart of another controversy here in Alberta.
Like other provinces, Alberta features a public school system and a “separate” Catholic system – both publicly funded.
In one town north of Edmonton, however, the Catholic schools are the public schools.
Morinville falls within the jurisdiction of the Greater St. Albert Catholic School Division, which is quite open with regard to its subservience to the Church.
Last month, the board flatly rejected a request for a secular public option because doing so, it said, would violate their values and policies.
According to the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association, attending a Catholic school entails receiving “a wholly-permeated Catholic education based upon Catholic doctrine, philosophy and theology."
And they mean it. One family told me of how their young son came home from school with such questions as “Am I a good person even if I’m not Catholic?” and “Am I going to burn in Hell?”
Last week in question period, Calgary Liberal MLA Kent Hehr pressed Education Minister Dave Hancock as to why the province allows this situation to persist. Hancock agreed the situation was unacceptable, but called it an “anomaly”.
That’s no excuse for inaction. It is one thing to have state-funded schools indoctrinating kids with religion where the parents are at least willing participants. It’s quite another to have state-funded schools indoctrinating kids with religious beliefs whether the parents like it or not.
These situations in isolation might seem trivial. But once we start tolerating a state-endorsed, special privilege for a specific religion, freedom of religion is at risk. Unfortunately, those fighting to maintain the status quo in Saguenay and Morinville seem to be under the belief that they are fighting to preserve their own freedom of religion.
In reality, that freedom is best served by when the state takes no sides.
