At last month’s New Democratic Party policy convention in Vancouver, delegates unanimously passed a resolution which calls on the government of Canada to revoke the charitable status of “ex-gay organizations,” identifying only one organization by name. As reported in stories by LifeSiteNews and Xtra! Canada’s Gay & Lesbian News, this follows on the heels of… Read More
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has been engaged on the issue of international religious persecution for a long time. For over a decade, the EFC and others have encouraged the development of an office that would deal with the persecution of religious minorities in countries around the world as an important component of Canada’s intentionality… Read More
As published in the National Post, April 8, 2011 Social conservatives “have become a spent political force in [Canadian] national politics,” according to Queen’s University political-science scholar James Farney. “We’re now just seen as eccentric,” suggested Link Byfield, a prominent Canadian “so-con” himself. On the front page of the April 5 National Post, a story… Read More
Stuff happens, but sometimes it’s handy to have a calendar. On the morning of Saturday, March 26, MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South) was being interviewed prior to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (MP, Calgary Southwest) meeting with Governor General David Johnston. The government had been defeated in the House of Commons the afternoon before and one… Read More
On Monday evening (March 7) I attended my first Requiem Mass. Hosted by Minister Jason Kenney and the Saint Thomas More Society of parliamentarians, the service began one month to the hour from my initial meeting of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s federal Minister for Minorities who was assassinated – martyred for his faith – in a… Read More
The phrase “politics makes for strange bedfellows,” originally stated as “misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows” (Shakespeare, The Tempest), crossed my mind in reflecting on some events of recent days. One part of this blog actually flows from the Valentine’s Day blog (who could resist tying Valentine’s Day to “strange bedfellows”?) about the CBC… Read More
Last Friday, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was the only national political party leader to stand up for the right of four Canadian Sikhs to wear their ceremonial kirpans into the Quebec legislature building. Many in Canada who have an interest in religious freedom, myself included, cheered this defence of religious practice that is genuinely connected… Read More
A message of thanks and encouragement by EFC Legal Counsel, Faye Sonier. … Read More
Universities across the country are facing criticism because student unions are refusing to allow discussion of “abortion” and university administrators are not insisting on the free exchange of ideas on campus. The situation has brought unity of cause to groups as diverse as The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. The… Read More
Later today or tomorrow, Members of Parliament will vote on Bill Siksay’s (MP, Burnaby–Douglas) private member’s bill Bill C-389 which proposes adding “gender identity” and “gender expression” as prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act. If passed the bill will proceed to the Senate, where hopefully Canada’s chamber of sober second thought… Read More