My name is Greg Oliver and I'm here on behalf of the Canadian Secular Alliance. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak today.
The Canadian Secular Alliance is a non-partisan and registered not-for-profit organization whose objective is to promote the separation of religion and state in Canada. We strongly believe that to maintain equality between citizens in a pluralistic society like ours requires government neutrality in matters of religion, not favouring one religion over another, or religion over no religion, or vice versa. This is one of the core principles of all liberal democracies. Fortunately, Canada has done a much better job of this than most countries in the world, but there's still room for improvement.
In June of last year, I initiated the now-certified petition E-382, calling on the government to repeal section 296, prohibiting blasphemous libel, from the Criminal Code. There are several reasons why we feel this is necessary.
First of all, freedom of speech is a core principle of every liberal democracy and a cherished right here in Canada. All ideas should be subject to debate, criticism, or even ridicule. Exempting religious ideas substantially erodes this principle.
Also, section 296 is no longer relevant to Canadian society. Its repeal would have strong support across the Canadian political spectrum. It hasn't resulted in a successful prosecution in over 80 years, and no charges have been laid in over 35 years. Though I'm no legal expert, it is widely believed that it would be ruled unconstitutional under the charter. If a law has not been used in decades or is most likely unconstitutional, it ought to be repealed in our opinion.
Another consideration is global affairs. Blasphemy is still illegal in 71 countries and punishable by death in at Ieast six. Blasphemy laws are disproportionately used to persecute religious minorities and government critics. There have been a variety of high-profile blasphemy cases recently: Asia Bibi in Pakistan; in Indonesia, former Jakarta governor Ahok; Nahed Hattar in Jordan; Pussy Riot and others in Russia; Raif Badawi in Saudi Arabia, and countless others who have not received international press coverage.
Each of these cases constitutes grave human rights violations by liberal democratic standards. There may come a time when the elected representatives of this country wish to condemn cases like these. As long as we have blasphemy laws of our own, it significantly erodes our moral credibility when doing so. Our passive blasphemy law adds credibility to active and sometimes lethal blasphemy laws worldwide.
We also support the proposal to repeal section 176. Subsection 176(1) prohibits obstructing or violence to or arrest of clergymen. The wording here, as has been noted, appears to apply only to male Christian officiants. This privileges men over women, and Christians over those from other religions or the non-religious community. Also, harassment and assault laws already exist. To our knowledge, Canada is not burdened with a unique set of circumstances in which male or Christian officiants require additional protection from harm.
Subsections 176(2) and 176(3) are concerned with disruptions to meetings for religious worship, or for a moral, social, or benevolent purpose. Some types of meetings, such as weddings or funerals, can plausibly be interpreted in a religiously neutral manner, but we remain concerned about a chilling effect on freedom of expression at meetings for religious worship.
There have been several cases invoking these subsections since the 1980s. One of the cases that caught our eye was Skoke-Graham v. The Queen, from 1985. In this case, a Nova Scotia Catholic church changed how congregants were expected to take communion. Instead of kneeling, they would now stand to receive it. Six congregants dissented from this decision and continued to kneel when it came time to receive communion. Eventually, when presented with an ultimatum to stand, they refused to take communion and returned to their seats. They were convicted under section 176 and it was upheld twice on appeal, but the charges were overturned at the Supreme Court.
In this case, the short and passive nature of the protest exonerated the accused, albeit in the highest court in the country, but it highlights our concern that section 176 protects religious dogma or orthodoxy from criticism or civil protest. There are a myriad of religious ideas or practices that some may find objectionable. This is relevant within religious communities as well as outside of them. We remain unconvinced that these meetings are always an inappropriate venue for expressing differences that arouse controversy and therefore require more protection under the law.
Having said that, of course we acknowledge the benefit to society of protecting against certain disruptive acts at these meetings, but as the minister and several others have already articulated, the Criminal Code already criminalizes causing a disturbance, uttering threats, intimidation, and incitement of hatred toward identifiable groups. Sentencing is typically more severe when the offence is motivated by hate toward religious communities, and hate crime laws are potentially applicable as well. In our view, these protections make section 176 unnecessary.
Thank you.