Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling deals with concerns raised by constituents about the Minister of National Defence's Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination in its final report, published in 2022.
The report includes a recommendation that religious clergy who come from denominations and faiths that have particular views on gender and sexuality should be excluded from being chaplains to the Canadian Armed Forces. This was a recommendation from the national defence minister's advisory panel, and petitioners are very opposed to this recommendation. The report slanders mainstream Canadian religions as discriminatory. Petitioners note that chaplains are entitled to charter-guaranteed freedom of religion, and they should be able to serve without the kind of discrimination advocated by this ironically named panel.
Petitioners call on the House to reject the recommendations on chaplaincy in the Canadian Armed Forces in the final report of the Minister of National Defence's Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination and to affirm the rights of all Canadians, including armed forces chaplains, to freedom of religion.