View From the Legislature

Residents of the southeast know and understand well the importance of freedom of religion. Many of those who came to this area of Canada did so because they were fleeing other countries where their religious freedom was being oppressed.

Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms expressly protects freedom of conscience and religion. This and other freedoms is one of the reasons that Canada remains today one of the most desired places to live in the world. And yet, many Canadians justifiably worry that there is an erosion of freedom of religion that is occurring in Canada. High among those concerns is Bill 21, a Quebec bill that bars government employees from wearing religious symbols. This would include crosses or head scarves.

Manitoba MLA’s from all political parties unanimously passed a resolution in the Manitoba Legislature recently that condemns any law that seeks to unjustifiably limit religious freedoms of citizens, including passing a law that unjustifiably denies an individual’s right to wear religious clothing or symbols of one’s choice.

Regardless of one’s faith, or if one holds no faith position at all, this is an important debate. If a government is able to restrict the exercise of a person’s faith for no other reason than its ability to do so, it opens the door to further restrictions on freedom of expression, faith based or otherwise. And while Manitoba has been the exception, most other provincial governments and the federal government have been reluctant to express their concerns about Bill 21 for fear of political reprisal. This is a situation that calls out for leadership from the federal government regardless of political calculations.

And while Bill 21 is being challenged in court, its passage in a provincial legislature is enough to voice concern about what it means to individual religious freedom in Quebec but also across Canada. While some have used the United States doctrine of separation of church and state to justify Bill 21, it is a misunderstanding of what the concept means. In the U.S. context, separation of church and state was about ensuring that government did not advance one religion while suppressing another. In short, it was about protecting religion from the state, not the state from religion.

Manitoba has a long history of allowing religious freedom and standing up for individual liberty. The residents of southeast Manitoba in particular know the price that is paid when the right to freely practice an individual’s religion is lost. Our government continues to stand up for those rights and freedoms because they make us stronger as a country. At a time of year when the celebration of faith is seen in symbols all around us, we need to be vocal about governments that would seek to erode the freedom needed to express faith.