Canada's Office of Religious Freedom: Notes for a Genealogy (original) (raw)
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Choice or Identity? Dilemmas of Protecting Religious Freedom in Canada
Recode Working Paper Series, 24, 2014
"Until recently, freedom of religion was interpreted by Canadian courts primarily as an individual right to choose to follow or practice one’s religious beliefs as long as doing so does not cause harm to others. The central value of religious freedom was often expressed as a right to choose one’s religious beliefs, and the central risks were understood to be social coercion and legal prohibitions on religious practices. Here, I’ll refer to this as the ‘choice approach’ and I distinguish the ‘choice approach from the ‘identity approach’. According to the choice approach, the sovereign value that the right to religious freedom protects is the value of following the dictates of one’s deepest and most personal religious commitments and thereby deciding for oneself what ought to guide one’s conscience. In the mid 1980s, the grounds for religious freedom began to shift and arguments were introduced in law and politics that treated religion as an identity. According to these arguments, religion is considered part of a person’s identity, similar to their ethnic background. As an identity, religious difference obligated states to ensure that individuals from different faiths have equal access to the benefits of citizenship even if ensuring this access goes beyond protecting their right to choose freely how to practice their faith. This paper examines this shift from religious freedom as choice to identity within Canada and also within the broader global context. It points to three implications this shift has for the treatment of religious minorities and the dilemmas for policy makers that follow from this shift."
Religion and public policy in Canada: An itinerary
Studies in Religion, 2008
Although the intersection between religion and public policy is the subject of intense interest within and outside of the academy, the Canadian work on these often fraught phenomena is still fairly modest. In an effort to clarify some of the basic issues underlying this relatively new subfield in religious studies, in this article I address three questions. First, how is religion currently framed by existing Canadian laws and policies? Second, is there evidence that policy-makers are actually interested in academic perspectives on religion and public policy? Third, which problematic issues might merit scholarly attention in the near future? Although religion is framed in quite a positive manner in the federal policies I review, until very recently Canadian policy makers have been reluctant to engage critically the problematic social and political issues in which religion is intimately involved. However, as a result of five "source tensions" in our society, policy makers and other elite members of our society are increasingly interested in a discursive realm in which religious studies scholars have something unique to contribute.
Freedom of Religion and Canada's Commitments to Multiculturalism
In this article, the author explores the Canadian law of religious freedom in light of Canada's commitments to multiculturalism. Though these commitments are aspirational and imprecise, the author argues that two stable notions emerge from Canada's Constitution and legislated multiculturalism policies: recognizing minority cultural communities and fostering inter-cultural dialogue. The author goes on to examine the Canadian case law on religious freedom, arguing that there are at least three recurring themes that run through the prevailing decisions. First, the courts' treatment of religion is individualistic, using the individual litigant's sincerity of religious belief as the touchstone of whether a particular practice will benefit from constitutional protection. Second, the courts are highly concerned with the prevention of coercion and subjecting members of minority groups to the “tyranny of the majority.” Third, in justifying their decisions, courts rely heavily on the discourse of tolerance. Using each of these themes as a springboard for critical analysis, the author argues that the legal doctrine of religious freedom is inconsistent with Canada's multicultural ideals. The individualism of the case law fails to take into account the collective and public dimensions of religious experience, and thus fails to recognize important aspects of the identities of minority groups. The strong incentive to adopt particular language in order to be successful may coerce litigants into adopting arguments that are inconsistent with their religious views. The language of tolerance may subtly reinforce social hierarchies by implying that minorities are tolerated rather than full members of Canadian society and impede cross-cultural dialogue by essentializing and marginalizing members of minority groups. The author concludes that these “side-effects” of well-intentioned judicial doctrines are worth taking seriously in order for Canada to make good on its multicultural promises.
Religious Freedom in Canada: A Crucible for Constitutionalism
Modelli atlantici di libertà religiosa, 2018
This article examines three axes around which contemporary Canadian debates on freedom of religion are turning: the status and protection of group and collective religious interests; the emergence – and instability – of state neutrality as the governing ideal in the management of religious difference; and the treatment of Indigenous religion. Each is discussed as a key thematic and doctrinal development emerging from recent activity in the freedom of religion jurisprudence in Canada. Each is also an instance, the article suggests, of religion doing its particularly effective work of exposing the fundamental tensions and dynamics in Canadian constitutionalism more generally.
Canadian demographic trends indicate that the number of religious adherents from various faith groups is on the rise. Despite successful integration of some religions into mainstream Canadian society, discrimination against some faith groups persists. Christianity is the dominant religion in Canada, the minorities being Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The mainstream media are considered a main driver of social cohesion in Canada because they construct ideologies and define communities. They are a key lever in shaping debate about religion in the public sphere; however, debates exist on how religion is portrayed in the media. Despite the vast religious diversity in Canada, media organizations commonly ignore religious minorities, deeming them insignificant, unfavourable, and sometimes invisible. This chapter reviews and compares research findings on Canadian media depictions of these faith groups over the past few decades. Canadians of various faith groups have expressed a wide array of sentiments toward their representations in the media. Vast differences in media depictions exist; however, dominant discourses and representations prevail for each faith group: Christians are the normal group; Muslims are in discord with Western societies; Jews require sympathy; Buddhists are peaceful; Hindus are friendly; and Sikhs are extremists. It is suggested here that considerable research needs to be conducted on Canadian mainstream media patterns of coverage and portrayals of interfaith activities within Canadian society.
Hanging in the Balance: The Rights of Religious Minorities
Supreme Court Law Review, 2016
In recent years, Canada, like many other western countries with high immigration, has experienced the social impact of its rapidly changing demographics. One particularly notable line of cleavage has seen the claims of religion tugging on the fabric of Canada's liberal-democratic rights structure. Such claims have challenged majoritarian values and pushed the cultural limits of legal tolerance. 1 This highlights one of the paradoxes of the liberal state's recognition of robust multicultural protections: When rights are invoked to shield beliefs and practices that directly contradict majoritarian values, particularly those concerning sex and sexuality, the protection of minorities becomes an onerous burden for the liberal state. Such tensions underscore the interconnectedness of culture and morality, while testing the seriousness of liberal commitments to normative pluralism and diversity. The strongest claims of religion today tend to be made by members of minority communities, whether from religions that are relatively new to Canadian society 2 or minority sects within established religious communities. 3 With the role of religion in both public and private life in steady decline, 4 the growth of minority communities who publicly manifest