We didn't hear from all faith groups. We didn't hear, for example, from Jews, who of course, have a Sabbath on Saturday. Therefore, for an observant Jew, voting at any point in time from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown is not an option. That eats very heavily into the available days. If you work at a nine-to-five job and you're an observant Jew, five days a week.... You can't vote on Friday, you can't vote on Monday, and you can't vote on Saturday. I guess you could get to the poll on Saturday evening, but I can't remember how late they run. Is it 8 p.m., perhaps? But depending on the time of year, the sun hasn't gone down yet, so effectively if you're an observant Jew in Canada, under the current law you can't vote at an advance poll.
I admit there are lots of ridings that don't have a lot of observant Jews in them, and mine would be one, but that seems like a bit of a dismissive attitude. Had I realized that this was going to be the line taken by other parties, I would have brought in somebody, say a rabbi, to explain the difficulties that are imposed by this particular law. There are other religious groups that have other holy days, of course, but the restrictions placed on an observant Jew are significantly greater if you're trying to observe the Sabbath than the restrictions placed on a Christian, including a Christian who believes you ought not to work on the Sabbath. Given the way the law is currently written, the imposition the current law as unamended places on your ability to vote at an advance poll is significantly greater.
This is a colossal oversight. Approving this amendment and the other ones that deal with stripping back other aspects of the voting on the final day before polling day would have a really significant impact on the capacity of observant Jews to vote here. I'll just leave that as it is. I think that case speaks for itself.
I don't concur with Madam Redman's recollection that all the people from whom we heard oppose Sunday voting. As I recall, there were three witnesses. One was from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, I think, one was from a Baptist federation of churches, and the third one was from the United Church. As I recall, the representative from the Evangelical Fellowship and the Baptist representative were opposed to Sunday voting. The representative from the United Church was extremely specific in saying no, we'd be happy to continue to have our churches as polling places, and to see Sunday voting occur, we would like the time polling starts at to be moved to 1 p.m. That's a very specific observation. It demonstrates the inaccuracy of the statement made by Mrs. Redman and I think by someone else on the opposition side with regard to the unanimity of the Christian community on this subject.
That is, Mr. Chairman, leaving aside the astounding change of direction in the opposition parties, who normally would be at an uproar over things like.... Do you remember the Lord's Day Act in Ontario, the law that said we can't shop on Sundays because it's the Lord's day? Well, that's an outrage. That's the imposition of the views of one faith community on the whole country in a supposedly secular society.