Mr. Chair, I appreciate the question from the member for Kitchener—Conestoga regarding the office of religious freedom. It was one of my esteemed colleagues in the House, the Hon. Stockwell Day, who once, in a conversation in a government lobby, made the point that at the pinnacle of all rights is religious freedom, because if we have the freedom of religion, we have freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and freedom of congregation. When a country has religious freedom, then all of the other freedoms that we value, the democratic freedoms that we often talk about in the House, will be present. The office of religious freedom would be an additional institution to make sure we get the message out to the international community that we believe religious freedom is important. It is an essential element of our government's foreign policy.
In the House of Commons on May 14th, 2012. See this statement in context.