Religious Freedom

Judicial Idiosyncrasy

Barry Bussey

June 22, 2018

Lawyer Barry Bussey, who argued as an intervenor in the Trinity Western University hearings last winter, says Canadians must demand their legislatures protect religious freedom from a Supreme Court that seems to have lost its way.

Last Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decisions on Trinity Western University call for freedom-loving Canadians to courageously stand up and demand change to legislation governing the law societies in this country.

We need our legislatures to...

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The Charter Circle Game

Raymond J. de Souza

June 21, 2018

Some argue the Supreme Court left the Charter a wreck and a tangle with last week’s Trinity Western decision. But our Editor in Chief Father Raymond de Souza has a former Justice tell him it’s all part of making equality Canada’s concentric centre.

A Supreme Court Justice told me how the Trinity Western law school case was going to turn out. So, while very disappointed, I was not entirely surprised by last Friday’s verdict.

Convivium writers more learned in the law than I will explain...

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A Wall Between Church and Court

Janet Epp Buckingham

June 1, 2018

Convivium contributor Janet Epp Buckingham explains this week’s unusual Wall case in which the Supreme Court said judges have no business telling churches how to decide who belongs. It’s a positive outcome for religious freedom, she says, though less far-reaching than other anticipated rulings will be.

It’s one of those strange legal cases that should never have gone this far. But on Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada brought an end to the strange saga of Randy Wall and his fight with the Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In essence...

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Religion, Freedom, Citizenship

Peter Stockland with Andrew P.W. Bennett

May 22, 2018

In early May, Cardus hosted launch events in Ottawa for its Religious Freedom Institute. Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, CRFI’s director, spoke with Convivium's Peter Stockland about the kickoff and what’s to come for the new institute.

Peter Stockland: The Cardus Religious Freedom Institute was launched last week with some impressive crowds in the Ottawa office. What was your take-away from those hectic events?

Andrew Bennett: From the first event,...

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Justin's Pipe Smoke

Don Hutchinson

May 1, 2018

Prime Minister Trudeau must clear the air with Canadians about his government funding anti-pipeline activists while at the same time violating religious freedoms by denying church charities summer job funding, writes Convivium contributor Don Hutchinson.

A crowd of nearly 3,000 erupted at the Liberal Party convention in Halifax on April 21 when Justin Trudeau invoked his unending political battle with a Prime Minister now three years in Canada’s past. The Liberal leader lashed out at “Stephen Ha...

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The Law Society of Orwell

Albertos Polizogopoulos

March 5, 2018

Ottawa lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos is saying “no” to the Law Society of Ontario’s demand for a written statement of principles obliging lawyers in the province to promote equality, diversity and inclusion. Here’s why.

Every year, lawyers in Ontario are required to fill-out an annual report and submit it to the Law Society of Ontario (LSUC), the legal regulator in Ontario. The report addresses trust accounts, client identification and the scope of one’s practice. ...

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Calling For True Pluralism

Raymond J. de Souza, with Andrew P.W. Bennett, Don Hutchinson

February 2, 2018

Convivium returns to the testimonies of Convivium’s editor-in-chief and two regular contributors whose statements were highlighted in this week's Commons Heritage Committee report on a motion to combat religious discrimination.

When the Commons Heritage Committee handed down its report this week on a motion to combat religious discrimination, including Islamophobia, Convivium’s editor-in-chief and two regular contributors were among the witnesses whose testimony was highl...

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Son Set On The Charter?

Brian Bird

January 22, 2018

With the Canada Summer Jobs controversy as evidence, B.C. lawyer and PhD candidate in law, Brian Bird, sees Justin Trudeau distorting his father’s cherished Charter of Rights to justify State erosion of basic freedoms. After reading this article, check out Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett's take on these issues on CTV News Channel's Power Play with Don Martin.

Aside from the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, 2017 was also the 35th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter, since arriving in 1982, has brought about fundamental changes to Canadian society.

There has b...

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Onside Against Job Program Changes

Peter Stockland

January 10, 2018

Convivium’s Peter Stockland learns why a major Christian evangelical group and a gay rights network are both denouncing the “ideological silencing” behind changes to a federal student employment initiative

The Canadian Council of Christian Charities and the gay rights network LGBTory could not, at first blush, appear to have less in common.

The Four Cs, as the Council is known, is Canada’s largest formal association of Christian charities with more tha...

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Speaking Grace To Political Power

Don Hutchinson

January 9, 2018

As Oprah urges us to speak truth to power, a Canadian Coptic bishop teaches us to speak with powerful grace by correcting Justin Trudeau's mockery of Christians, Don Hutchinson writes

Leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church are thoughtful and selective about their direct interactions with government. On the Julian calendar’s Christmas Eve – January 6 2018 on the more widely accepted Gregorian calendar – His Grace Bishop Mina of the Coptic ...

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Canada’s Silence About Christmas Violence

Janet Epp Buckingham

December 21, 2017

Janet Epp Buckingham wants to know why the Canadian government doesn’t speak out against the evil of attacks on Christians around the world as they celebrate their Saviour’s birth

It is an evil thing to attack people when they are at worship. Canadians were appalled last January when six Muslim men were shot as they were finishing evening prayers in Quebec City. These men were targeted because of their Muslim faith. But it is shockin...

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Religious Freedom Month

Janet Epp Buckingham

December 6, 2017

Today, we release the third piece in our series of Policy Options articles that have emerged as a response to our Spirited Citizenship: Care, Conflict, and Virtue round table in Ottawa last month, convened in partnership with the Angus Reid Institute to mark Canada’s Sesquicentennial.

(Pictured: Dr. Janet Epp Buckingham, Trinity Western University Laurentian Leadership Centre)

An inflammatory statement by Canad...

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Faith Under Fire

Peter Stockland

November 30, 2017

Trinity Western University has had the first of its two days in court over its multi-year struggle to open a law school. Convivium publisher Peter Stockland recounts how the lawyer for the private, Christian school withstood a barrage of skeptical questions from Supreme Court of Canada justices.

Lawyers supporting Trinity Western University’s religious freedom rights will be further sharpening their arguments overnight after a full-court press from justices in the Supreme Court of Canada today...

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Trinity’s Fight For Religious Freedom

Bob Kuhn

November 13, 2017

On Nov. 30, Trinity Western University will argue in the Supreme Court of Canada for its right to operate a law school from evangelical Christian principles. Recently, the school’s President Bob Kuhn advised a Commons’ committee studying Islamophobia to look at the systemic discrimination suffered by TWU if they want to see anti-religious bigotry in action.

Trinity Western University is the largest faith-based University in Canada. I am privileged to serve as the President of this Christian university, which has a student population of more than 4000 students. It has ser...

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The Supreme Court’s Bad News Bear

Albertos Polizogopoulos

November 8, 2017

Ottawa lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos argues the high court’s rejection of a religious freedom claim involving the Grizzly Bear Spirit should give pause to future Charter litigants

On November 2, 2017 the Supreme Court of Canada released its long-awaited decision in Ktunaxa Nation Council et al. v. Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, 2017 SCC 54. The Supreme Court’s decision ended a 20-year dispute bet...

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Three Risks For Freedom

Janet Epp Buckingham

November 7, 2017

Dead French intellectuals, explosive growth of social media, and busybodies obsessed with “feelings” all put traditional liberties at risk, Janet Epp Buckingham recently told the Parliamentary Forum on Canadian Freedoms

It is always both fun and risky to make predictions about the future. Things in our world are changing rapidly. Who knows where they will go tomorrow, or next month or next year? Things that seem impossible can suddenly become possible.

I am going to...

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Joining Forces Against C-51

November 7, 2017

Leaders of Canada's faith communities have come together to demand the Liberal government change legislation they say assaults Canadians and international protections for religious freedom

Andrew Bennett, Canada's former ambassador for religious freedom and current program director for Cardus law, is one of more than 65 faith leaders from all religious traditions who've written an open letter to Justice Minister Jody Wilson ...

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One Hate Crime Is Too Many

Shimon Koffler Fogel

October 25, 2017

Convivium has previously published testimony to the House of Commons Heritage Committee on M-103, a motion to address religious intolerance and racism. Today, we present remarks to the committee from Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, who cautions Canada’s reputation as a welcoming land hangs in the balance between rooting out genuine hatred and leaving free space to criticize religious ideologies.

We are a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization, representing more than 150,000 Jewish Canadians affiliated through local Federations across the country.

We are committed to working with government and all like-minded groups to ensure Canada...

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Enriched By Difference

Andrew P.W. Bennett

October 16, 2017

The following is the testimony that Cardus Senior Fellow Andrew Bennett delivered this afternoon before the Standing Committee of the House of Commons on Canadian Heritage as it studies Motion-103 on combating Islamophobia.

Thank you Madame Chair for the opportunity to appear before this committee to offer my thoughts on the issue before the committee: systemic racism and religious discrimination.

My views are informed by my work as Senior Fellow at Cardus, Canada’s fai...

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Lawyers Won’t Bow To Law Society

Don Hutchinson

October 2, 2017

A decree on diversity from Ontario’s law society must not force lawyers to choose between practice and faith, warns Convivium contributor Don Hutchinson.

Thirty-six years ago, negotiations between Canada’s federal and provincial governments about the patriation of Canada’s constitution followed on the heels of a close referendum over the potential separation of Quebec. It was Ontario’s Bill Davis who led a g...

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Bowed

Hayley Lockrem

August 23, 2017

Photographer Hayley Lockrem captures men in prayer, a posture common to those across time, space, and tradition.

I was honoured to be invited to a large Sikh festival by a dear friend. Besides being unconditionally welcomed and over-fed, I was struck by the physical posture during their prayers and ceremonies. I was amazed to find the scene so familiar to experiences ...

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A Ban on Muslim Cemeteries is an Attack on us All

Peter Stockland

July 26, 2017

Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland reflects on the impact that the vote against the creation of a Muslim cemetery in Saint-Apollinaire, Quebec has on all Canadian citizens.

It would be easiest and most gratifying to call residents of Saint-Apollinaire, Que., nasty, anti-Islamic bigots for saying non to having a Muslim cemetery in town.

It might, for a handful of the tiny fraction of villagers who voted in last Sunday’s ...

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Simply About Freedom

Peter Stockland

June 22, 2017

In the past two weeks, Ottawa lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos has argued the case for conscience rights of doctors, and won a major freedom of information legal battle over publicizing statistics about abortion. Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland sat down with him to discuss the cases.

Convivium: You’ve just argued for Ontario doctors conscience rights, and were part of the group that forced Ontario to release statistics on abortion. How are the issues linked?

Albertos Polizogopoulos: Both have to ...

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Cardus Law: You, Me, Community

Peter Stockland and Andrew P.W. Bennett

April 25, 2017

With the release of a new research paper this week exploring relations between law, faith and government, and with planning underway for launch of a new religious freedom institute later this year, Cardus Law Program Director Andrew Bennett took time to catch up with Convivium.ca publisher Peter Stockland and discuss the critical balance between individual and institutional faith rights.

Convivium: Cardus Law has been extremely active these days, Andrew. You’ve published a paper this week from a leading U.S. legal scholar dealing with institutional religious freedom, and you just released one by Canada’s own Douglas Farrow, of McGill, on er...

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