Mr. Chair and committee members, here are our recommendations.
The members of the Canadian Council of Churches are not of one mind regarding whether or not to retain section 176 of the Criminal Code. Frankly, many of our members had not been alerted in a timely fashion to the relevance and impending actions contained in the bill before you today.
However, members of the Canadian Council of Churches are of one mind regarding both the duty of the Government of Canada to respect and protect the fundamental freedom of conscience and religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression, and also, to ensure that there is no preference in the Criminal Code for a specific religion, but instead to favour a recognition of open and robust pluralism in Canadian society.
Should the Government of Canada retain section 176 of the Criminal Code, then we recommend that the reference to “clergyman or minister” be updated to be inclusive of all religious traditions, either via an inserted definition that refers to religious and spiritual officials from all religious traditions, including indigenous spiritualities, or to replace “clergyman or minister” with the phrase “religious or spiritual officials or leaders”. We further recommend consultation with religious leaders, including indigenous spiritual leaders, on how best to define an inclusive understanding of religious and spiritual leaders or officials in the law. Second, the gender-specific masculine language should be changed to refer to men or women religious or spiritual officials or to be gender non-specific.
In addition, we would like to reiterate our long-standing encouragement to the Government of Canada to establish regular working relationships with religious leaders in Canada either through the establishment of a religious leaders round table or a working relationship with representative bodies like the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, the Canadian Council of Churches, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, and other representative bodies. Of course, in an era of reconciliation, such dialogue must certainly include indigenous elders and spiritual leaders. Faith that is focused on the good of all is an important element of public dialogue in the diverse reality of contemporary Canada.
To conclude, the key overriding concern of the Canadian Council of Churches is the right to freedom of religion and the freedom of worship of religious communities, including gatherings for a moral, social, or benevolent purpose. This is not about privileging Christianity, but ensuring peaceful coexistence in a pluralistic society.
We are not advocating for a position of privilege or dominance for religious communities or leaders, but instead we want to ensure the freedom of everyone to gather for their religious celebrations.
Thank you. Merci. Meegwetch.